Welcome to our 30 Day Spring Fundraising Campaign!

With the goal of raising $5K, we’re asking for help supporting the minutiae of production costs as we continue working towards getting this scrappy collective on its feet. Funds donated will be put straight to work, going towards the purchase of important necessities such as sound equipment, venue fees, and of course - fairly paying all of our artists and collaborators.

Scroll to the bottom for campaign donation tiers to help sweeten the deal!

WHAT'S THE PROJECT?

Songs for the End of the World is a post-apocalyptic concert play that asks, “how does an individual grieve an entire world?”

Follow the last person alive after the end of the world as they spiral through the stages of grief, employing the sounds of post-rock, metal, and shoegaze to fight back the looming silence of the end through powerful live performances of original songs.

Songs for the End of the World is a show that was developed and first performed as a part of Portland Experimental Theater Ensemble's Institute for Contemporary Performance. The three original collaborators (Portland, OR locals Kora Link, Ken Yoshikawa, and myself) wanted to create a show that grappled with the feelings of impending doom, isolation, absurdity, and hope against all odds. Though first performed in 2023, the intervening years have only crystallized the poignancy of this piece in my mind, and it feels increasingly relevant as time goes on. Apocalypses big and small continue to multiply around us, in the form of genocides, climate change, fascism, ever-impending world wars...
To me, Songs is an invitation to sit in the most difficult feelings even as we might instinctively try to push past them. Just for a little while, let the overwhelm hit. Scream, cry, blast your music too loud to handle, blame yourself, blame your boss, and curse every billionaire who ever lived. Then find the Quiet. Remember that, unlike this character who is alive onstage for 45 minutes, we are not the last one left. We still have each other. Isn't that something?

Your donations here go directly to the cost of this show's venue, the purchase of technical equipment and gear (including a PA system, cables, and a new tuning pedal for our live-looping musician), and they allow us to ensure pay for our artists. Basement Stair Collective is a young company, born out of our passion for creating and sharing work like this, and we rely on the generosity of our community to keep us chugging along. Any amount counts. Thank you for reading this, checking us out, and for supporting our mission and our art!

The grief is never ending and our world is ever ending, again and again and again. As I see echoed in so many posts online lately: "The horrors persist, but so do I." And frankly, if you ask me, the horrors are thriving, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for any one person to persist at all.
But someone has to.

The only way out is through.

R.L. Routh
Director, Songs for the End of the World
Co-Artistic Director and Founding Member, Basement Stair Collective

photo by Owen Carey

"...Songs for the End of the World is a post-apocalyptic concert-play that fuses manic drag-show grotesque with the transcendent beauty of a funeral lamentation."
-Jacob Coleman, PETE

"...the fiercest, smartest, designed, performed, conceived work...the saddest subject can fill me unabashed joy, not for the delight in the ending of everything, but in the acknowledgement.”
–Anonymous Audience Member

Donor Incentives? Don't mind if we do!

- If you donate $10 as a Wet Earth Sponsor, you’ll receive:
  - Early ticket access to our upcoming programs
  - A BSC postcard - written for you
  - Program/website shout out
- If you donate $25 as a Blooming Decay Sponsor, you’ll receive:
  - Early ticket access to our upcoming programs
  - A BSC-branded lighter (they are cool)
  - A BSC postcard - written for you
  - Program/website shout out
- If you donate $50 as a Worm Moon Sponsor, you’ll receive:
  - Early ticket access to our upcoming programs
  - A BSC-branded lighter (they are still cool)
  - A BSC postcard - written for you
  - Invitation to a pre-show donor night for Songs for the End of the World on May 18
  - Program/website shout out
- If you donate $250 as a Shadowy Rebirth Sponsor, you’ll receive:
  - Everything above + potentially even more ghoulish surprises
  - Invitation to a pre-show donor night for Songs for the End of the World on May 18
  - A bag of salt
  - Our undying love

Songs For The End Of The World

By Basement Stair Collective

Songs For The End Of The World

Become a BSC Donor and support our upcoming new work!