Vagina. The essence, symbol and definition of women across the universe. Playwright Eve Ensler celebrates the vagina in The Vagina Monologues, which was recreated by a collaboration of several female UT students and faculty members.
I was truly amazed with these women’s performances. While I have left several UT productions unsatisfied, the actresses of The Vagina Monologues executed a fearless and remarkable performance.
The majority of Ensler’s play is based from interviews conducted with women from all around the world regarding their individual experiences. The skits touch on every subject imaginable, from birth, maintenance and rape.
Some skits left the audience in utter silence and sorrow; Kathryn Pielli’s, “My Vagina Was My Village,” for example, discussed the mass rape of Bosnian women as an instrument of war.
Amanda Mitchell, however, lightened the mood and stole the spotlight with “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy.” She told the tale of sex worker who dealt exclusively with women to help them find their unique moan. Mitchell demonstrated the various moans, some of which were the college moan, the WASP moan and the surprise triple orgasm moan. The crowd went wild.
Katrina Vidal and Molly Murphy, members of the Vagina Monologue Committee, served as the backbone for the play.
Prep work included casting, sending out the scripts, a meet and greet and open dress rehearsal.
I was surprised to learn that everyone who auditioned was not only given a role but one that suited their personality.
“Getting to know the girls,” was her favorite part of The Vagina Monologues.
“Bring attention to [the] issues relating to women,” Lindsay Simon said. “To be a women means being proud of who you are,” Vidal says. “And expressing yourself, loving your body and others, and allowing other women to see who they truly are.”
All of the proceeds from the show’s ticket, merchandise sales, and donations go to three different beneficiaries: sixty percent will be donated to the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay. Twenty percent will be given to the World Wide V-Day Spotlight. Another twenty percent will be used for Operation Nehemiah, the agency that volunteers from the P.E.A.C.E. Volunteer Center’s Alternative Spring Break. Seventeen members will be volunteering with an organization called Rebuilding Together New Orleans to assist in the renovation of New Orleans. Both Vidal and Murphy anticipate the experience to be heart wrenching and emotional. However, for women like Murphy, it is experiences like the Vagina Monologues and Rebuilding Together New Orleans that must be embraced.
“I will be an advocate my entire life,” Murphy says in regards to raising awareness about women.. “It is a life long cause