Reflections on V-Day

On Super Bowl Sunday afternoon, I auditioned for a local production of "The Vagina Monologues." Sort of getting back to my theatrical roots these days.

It's being produced by the Walter Anderson Players and would show at the Mary O'Keefe Cultural Center, a public building. I've seen this production twice while at Northwestern University. In addition to being fantastic, "Monologues" has a much bigger social agenda. It benefits our local domestic violence shelter, and ten percent of the show's proceeds go towards V-Day, an organization founded by the playwright, Eve Ensler, whose aim is to end violence against women. The 2009 V-Day program is campaigning to raise awareness and end the horrific violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I just heard Eve on NPR two weeks ago; it's the stuff nightmares are made of:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99838343. Or http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2007/08/rape-in-the-congo

The 2008 V-Day campaign honored and spotlighted Katrina Women Warriors--- doesn't get any closer to Home.

But during the audition, we were informed that there might be issues with censorship, which is not allowed as part of the royalty-free production contract, and one of the local Aldermen takes issue with the title. Is it "the"...? How about "monologues"...?

... Can't really do much if you can't get past the "V" part.

And that's when all of a sudden, I just felt dizzy. Where am I? Did I fall in a worm hole? I wanted to go back in time, to when I first saw "The Vagina Monologues." It was exciting, it was sad, it was moving, it was hilarious! There were faculty members in the cast for God's sake. I could picture the production in my mind becoming fainter and fainter, like Marty McFly's family photo in "Back to the Future." Noooooooo!

No matter what happens, I met some really cool women at the audition. And all of them were firm believers in education and awareness. One of them is a teacher. At her school, 33 students out of 1200, are pregnant--- one of them, with her second child. That's even higher than the state percentage, which is the highest [number of teenage mothers] in the nation.

Two of the women auditioning, one of them in her 70s, grew up in South Mississippi. And when THEY were growing up, no one, especially not their mothers, talked about such things. When they had their periods for the first time, they had no idea what was happening to them. They thought they were sick or dying. How TERRIFYING!

I guess we've come a long way, Baby... maybe? But the whole experience made me feel incredibly grateful for my college education and for my mom who had no problem telling me what was going on. And for both my parents, who put the fear of God in me should that little egg become fertilized prematurely.

Then, I remember the V-Day campaign for women in the Congo.

And I humbly give thanks. Every day as a woman in America is a blessing.