Maggie Keenan-Bolger and Rachel Sullivan's THE BIRDS & THE BEES: UNABRIDGED Opens Tonight

Honest Accomplice Theatre's THE BIRDS & THE BEES: UNABRIDGED is returning to Lower East Side's University Settlement to build on last year's debut success to explore new themes in female and trans sexuality. THE BIRDS & THE BEES: UNABRIDGED explores the unique -- yet interwoven -- life circumstances of eight women & trans people forced to confront their own sexuality, realizing that sexuality itself is not simple or clear-cut. Through dialogue, movement, song, humor, and multimedia, the performance examines such themes as partner communication, sexual identity, the de-sexualization of aging women, today's "hook-up" culture, and sexual health.

"We want people to know that others out there recognize the complexity of modern female and trans sexuality, and to feel comfortable in challenging the conceptions society often defines for them," shares Honest Accomplice Theater co-founders Maggie Keenan-Bolger and Rachel Sullivan.

After debuting in Spring 2013 and receiving such positive response from the audience and community, "It made me glad to think one show could stand up for individuality in the midst of a discussion that, when conducted in the back of Cosmopolitan or not at all, reduces everyone to the same boring person" (Alan Charnock - Stage Door Dish), the show's creators decided to incorporate feedback in a second iteration of the show. Keenan-Bolger and Sullivan attribute the audience's strong connection to the show's content to their unique approach in developing the performance. The creators drew from audience feedback, ideas from actors, and even the results of a 2,000-person survey to represent the real opinions of women and trans people.

Performance Dates: TONIGHT, October 8 and october 9, 10, 11 @ 8pm, October 12 @ 2pm

Performance Venue: Speyer Hall, University Settlement 184 Eldridge Street, New York NY

For more information: www.honestaccomplice.org

Honest Accomplice Theatre is a non-profit with a mission to generate dialogue and stimulate change by focusing on topics that are often silenced, seen as shameful, or portrayed as one-dimensional. To deliver on this mission, Honest Accomplice Theatre produces work by the community, with the community, and for the community. The result is a group-created performance piece that embodies truthful characters, scenarios, and ideas. This creation of new art is vital to counteract mainstream work, which often ignores, or misrepresents the voices and interests of real people. Honest Accomplice Theatre's previous projects have centered on the themes of sex and sexuality, women's experiences in public spaces, self-injury, aging, and LGBTQPPIA youth homelessness. Such projects have been developed in partnership with organizations such as Green Chimneys, SAGE, Florence E. Smith Senior Center and University Settlement. For more information visit HonestAccomplice.org.

University Settlement's Performance Project is a public performance project that finds concrete ways to reestablish and articulate the importance of the arts within the education system and the community at large. Performances include established, new and emerging artists. We are committed to creatively incorporating artists into programming at University Settlement, including our after-school programs, The Door, the Houston Street Center and the Beacon. Artists can work with specific programs or age groups and propose participant workshops, professional development trainings, community events or interactive art making experiences. http://www.universitysettlement.org/us/news/PerformanceProject/

Photo Credit: Madeleine Kate