Look out, Seward: The controversial and beloved off-off Broadway hit "The Vagina Monologues" is coming soon. A local production by the Port City Players opens July 30 and extends through the weekend of Aug. 14 at the Resurrection Arts Coffee shop.
The play was based on interviews of 200 women of all ages, classes and cultural backgrounds. The interviews were compiled and turned into performance monologues by Eve Ensler, a playwright and feminist activist. The 1996 production has been translated into 45 languages and performed in over 130 countries, and has become the focal point of Valentine's Day events across the US by people working to end violence against women.
The 12 Seward actresses perform at locations around the perimeter of the coffee shop, speaking to the audience in the middle. They read, rather than memorize, their lines, but make their voices count.
The monologues are about women's attitudes toward their own vaginas, and so the actresses say "vagina" or various other terms for the word, and describe them in detail, either in realistic ways, or what they would say, wear, or what they look like.
The stories illustrate sometimes subtle, sometimes less subtle messages about violence against women, said actress Elizabeth Grace.
"It really pushed the boundaries of my comfort zone," Grace said. She plays an elderly New York Jewish woman who likens her vagina to a moldy, damp basement that shut its doors for good in her younger days following a humiliating experience with a man. Speaking with a thick Jewish accent, so different from her own voice, helps shield and separate her from the character she portrays, Grace said. Still, she's amazed by how forceful all the performances are.
"Every single woman in this production blows the barn doors off," Grace said. Grace is a clinician at SeaView Community Services and has worked with victims of domestic violence and rape for almost 20 years. She is one of three actresses from SeaView participating in the production. In addition to raising general awareness, a portion of the proceeds received from ticket shares also will be shared with SeaView's Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault program.
"I don't expect my dad to be there," said black-leather-and-lace-clad actress Bekah Banse, laughing thankfully during a recent rehearsal. But a close male friend and perhaps a couple of her male co-workers may turn out for the show. Banse plays a sex worker who helps other women get in touch with their innate sexuality. Her dramatic demonstration of all the different moans women make during sex is hilarious. Men talk freely about their penises and scratch their balls -- so why shouldn't women be able to name, and talk openly about their vaginas, Banse asks?
"It's not a play about sex. A vagina is just a body part," says director Cindy Ecklund, who believes the play will open people's minds to the many ways in which women are impacted by violence. Ecklund comes from a family of seven girls, and though she was never herself violated, she says many of the production's messages resonate with her own experience.
The Angry Vagina monologue, for example, features a vagina commenting on the insensitive, uncomfortable way it is treated: from the "Nazi steel stirrups" and rubber gloves used in the medical examination room to the multi-scented douche sprays, dry uncomfortable cotton tampons, and impractical thong underwear produced for women.
This is her first ever play, but her "fabulous 50s" have given her the guts to try anything, said Paula Moseley, one of several narrators. Moseley moved to the Moose Pass area just a year ago and decided to audition for the production as a way to meet other women who live here. She found the rehearsal process very empowering and enjoyable and the play's message important, Moseley said.
It will be very interesting to see how Seward accepts "The Vagina Monologues," said Jill Simpson, who also works at SeaView. Simpson's particular monologue concerns one woman's mind-blowing experience attending a vagina workshop -- where women examine themselves and locate their clitoris. Simpson, who grew up in England, attended a repressed private girls' school where the girls weren't even allowed to talk to the boys from the school across the street, and they all spelled out the word S-E-X. Simpson hopes that audiences will come away from the experience more aware that vagina is not really such a fearful word or concept.
Brittany Dalberg, who plays a Bosnian woman who was repeatedly raped by soldiers during the recent war with Kosovo, found it difficult to play her wrenching part, especially knowing that such rapes actually happened to 20,000 to 70,000 women during those years. Prior to the play, Dalberg didn't realize that rape was so prevalent here in the U.S. (over 500,000 per year) either. She feels that this play is one small way to do something about it.
Advance order tickets are now available at Resurrection Arts. The audience size for each performance will be limited to 50, but there are five performances to choose from, beginning July 30. It is for mature audiences only.
Heidi Zemach is a writer for SewardCityNews.com, where this article originally appeared.