It’s been 14 years since Eve Ensler’s play “The Vagina Monologues” first hit the stage and created a whole new awareness of domestic violence against women.
Awareness was a key factor in Ensler’s impetus to interview more than 200 women about their views on sex, relationships and violence against women. Ensler was frustrated by what she saw as ignorance and myth surrounding the subject of women’s’ sexuality, and was game to dispel much of it.
As one woman said of the monologues, “We were worried about our own vaginas. They needed a context of other vaginas — a community, a culture of vaginas. There’s so much darkness and secrecy surrounding them — like the Bermuda Triangle. Nobody ever reports back from there.”
Whidbey Island women have been reporting back in their own way by producing “The Vagina Monologues” for three years. The fourth annual production of the play will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 7 at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley.
Through heartfelt, funny, sad and sometimes poignant monologues, women talk about what they have experienced as women in love, women who are physically and sexually abused, through bouts of fear or the glories of childbirth, in isolation or in tandem with both sensitive and insensitive partners.
The women interviewed by Ensler, just as the community members who will perform the play here, are a variety of ages, backgrounds and nationalities, and the play reflects both the intimacy of the subject matter and the broad scope of its reach.
This year’s production is co-directed by Elisa Stone and Ann Johnson.
Stone said she is confident the audience will both laugh and cry.
“It has been my experience that the monologues are a transformative experience both for the actresses and the audience,” she said.
“Eve Ensler’s work turns pain into empowerment. She uses humor to heal.”
Not only did Ensler’s work give women the power to heal themselves through words, it also sparked an active movement toward change.
“V-Day” is a global movement to end violence against women and girls everywhere.
Each year, Ensler licenses the production to community groups to perform as fundraisers for local organizations, as well as a global focus.
This year’s local beneficiary is South Whidbey Soroptimist Island Girls Live Their Dreams, a free week-long summer day camp for girls in middle school. The camp focuses on activities that raise self-esteem in the hope that girls will become women who will not allow themselves to be abused.
The global spotlight shines on women of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where rape is common and used as a weapon of war. V-Day efforts fund safe houses and hospitals and increase awareness of the women of the Congo who are resisting violence with courage and vision.
Allan Ament is the only man involved with the show. He’s co-producing with longtime TVM producer Beverly Rose.
Ament said that after having lived most of his life in the pursuit of relationships with women from a young age (which, much to his dismay, more often ended up being platonic) he’s learned a lot from and about women over the years.
“I have always been attracted to strong, talented, intelligent women — women who make me laugh, challenge me to think, help me become a better person,” Ament said.
Most people who get involved with “The Vagina Monologues” will be asked certain questions, and Ament was no exception.
“So, if I had a vagina, what would it say? I think it would say, ‘I’m glad you were able to learn something from me, and the other parts of my being.’”
That was a comment Ament made last year in an essay he wrote for a pre-play event called “Read My Lips.”
Anastasia Brencick is organizing this year’s “Read My Lips” fundraising event.
It’s an evening of local women sharing their own stories through music, poetry or monologues answering the same question Ament was asked: “If my vagina could talk, what would it say?”
“I think it’s quite courageous for someone to tell their own story out loud,” Brencick said. “And we have a mix of people performing, with a mix of experiences.”
“Read My Lips” will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 6 at the Rob Schouten Gallery at Greenbank Farm, admission by donation.
An original work of art by Kathy Hornsby created expressly for “The Vagina Monologues” will be auctioned off during the show at WICA.
The cast of “The Vagina Monologues” includes Deloris Ament, Kathy Gianni, Judy Kaplan, Ann Johnson, Casey Lanigan, Darlene Milne, Heidi Morford, Marian Myszkowski, Laura Persaud, Kathleen Schofield, Julia Tewksbury, Cynthia Trowbridge, Sarah Walston, Nicole Ledgerwood and Theo Wells. Susan Gilles is the musical director, and Walker Landel is the lighting technician.
The producers wish to thank Kathy Hornsby, Steve Shapiro, Debora Valis, Lynn and Blake Willeford and Pam and Paul Schell for their generous support.
Tickets for “The Vagina Monologues” cost $25, or $5 for high school students. Call the WICA box office at 221-8268. For more information, call Beverly Rose at 331-1110.
