Western Front Review

Vagina Monologues

Women talk about, act like and sing about their vaginas in nationally-renowned play

by Angela D. Smith
February 9, 2001

Vagina: a woman's body part.
Vagina: a word rarely used on a regular basis, except in medical texts.
Vagina: the subject of poet and playwright Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues."

Western will host a performance of the monologues Saturday in a sold-out show to benefit WomenCare Shelter, the Brigid Collins House and Whatcom Crisis Center.

Wednesday night's dress rehearsal was complete with all the hustle and bustle of an opening night.

The cast of more than a dozen women - students, faculty and community members - donned dresses and makeup and walked around with fat, green curlers in their hair.

This group of women, however, seemed different from most casts. Their backgrounds ranged from theatre arts graduate students to some who had no previous acting experience.

"We wanted to get a variety of women as we did this, so we advertised for it on campus in and the community," co-director Karee Wardrop said. "We had a really huge group of people come, and we had to make it bigger to get in a lot of people."

They are a cohesive group who have been sharing the sometimes painful, sometimes humorous experiences told in "The Vagina Monologues."

"The cast bonded pretty quickly," said Western sophomore Jessa Forsythe-Cane.

As she said that one woman broke out into "We are Family." Another woman and Forsythe-Crane joined her.

"I got all my sisters with me," Forstythe-Crane sang, waving her mascara in the air.

During the production, the cast had to delve into issues of sexual abuse that either they or friends had experienced.

"We tap into emotions I think most of us as human beings carry," co-director Suzy McGlasson said. "But we've gone pretty deep into past dramas."

The Vagina Monologues is based on hundreds of interviews Ensler conducted with women nationwide. It deals with a wide range of topics from women's first periods to the rape of a Bosnian woman, with the vagina as the unifying theme.

The story of the Bosnian woman is "My Vagina is a Village." Graduate student Dawn Stoyanoff performs on part of the two-person piece.

With sweeping motions of her arms, she signed, "My vagina, a live, wet water village."

She proclaims the virtues of her vagina while another actress recounts her rape and torture. The piece ends with Stoyanoff stepping forward.

"My vagina, a live, wet village. They invaded it, they butchered it, they burned it down. I do not touch there now, do not visit. I live somewhere else now. I do not know where that is."

Stoyanoff said the part was trying.

"The village has been hard because it's so emotional," she said. "It's about a woman being raped during the war."

Not all pieces in the play are as heavy. Many incorporate humor.

In one of the more shocking peices [sic] called, "My Angry Vagina," a woman speaks of the idiosyncrasies women's vaginas have to endure.

"Don't try to decorate. Don't let him tell you it's supposed to smell like rose petals when it's supposed to smell like pussy," she said.

The piece also proclaims the horrors of the vaginal exam.

"Why the light up there like Nancy Drew?

"Vaginal exam? It's more like a vaginal execution."

The monologues are interspersed with facts about sexual abuse and assault and with choruses of women saying what their vaginas would wear if they wore clothes.

The play was intended to create dialogue, not merely for shock value.

In the published version of "The Vagina Monologues," Ensler said, "I was worried about what we think about our vaginas, and even more worried that we don't think about them."

Stoyanoff echoed a similar sentiment.

"The word 'vagina' isn't used that often," she said. "It's been interesting in the play. You think of our culture, you hear penis and dick, but you never hear vagina. They have all these words for men, but so few for women."

More than 225 colleges worldwide will perform the play on or around Valentine's Day to create awareness about sexual violence. A performance Saturday will take place in Madison Square Garden starring famous actresses like Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close and Rosie Perez.

"When all women live in safety, no longer fearing violence or the threat of violence, then V-Day (Valentine's Day) will be known as Victory Over Violence Day," Ensler said in a press release.

Western took on the program as part of a sexual violence education effort, funded by a $499,500 U.S. Department of Justice's Violence Against Women grant.

Prevention and Wellness Services Director Pat Fabiano said she saw parts from the play in a workshop she attended as part of accepting the grant.

She came back to Western and enlisted the help of the theater arts department to put it together.

Graduate students Wardrop and McGlasson agreed to direct the play and began casting last quarter.

"We've cried harder and laughed harder in the course of a day than most people have in a year," McGlasson said.