by Eve Ensler
—Hillary, Michigan State University
What Moved You Most?
Everything went smoothly, people wanted to come, had to come, needed to come. Wanted more! Challenged themselves, allowed themselves to feel uncomfortable, really learned something, changed peoples lives. Watching and listening to the audience, knowing that I moved them, knowing that they got it. Seeing my actors grow into women, watching them grow and change. Watching myself grow and change.
—Laura, California State University,
Long Beach
Working with a fabulous group of women who GAVE GAVE GAVE! One of my male acting students who attended the performance mentioned afterward that he never had experienced such SHARING in the theatre before. He now knew what that word meant. What he experienced that evening is what I and the other women who worked on this project had experienced for the past half year. Working with people who believed in what they were doing, took initiative to make it happen and followed through with every commitment and more—with good nature and good humor. What more could anyone ask for!?!?!?!
—Yolanda, University of Detroit, Mercy College,
and Oakland Community College
A friend who had told me that she didn’t understand why we were doing The Vagina Monologues and didn’t see the point in always talking about “those things” came to the performance, and the next day told me it had changed her life.
—Maryann, Carleton College
I love the WORK OF ART on which V-Day is based and I am very passionate about ending sexual violence (all violence really). I must say that if I died tomorrow, after participating in such a wonderful event, I would be able to say that I lived a meaningful life. I of course hope that I don’t die tomorrow so that I can continue to be a part of this wondrous movement.
—Keri, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Overall, I loved how I felt being part of a movement that empowers women. During the months leading up to the performances, and especially during the few weeks just prior to the event, I relished the fact that I was able to use the word “vagina” in my everyday vocabulary. Every time I saw a cast member on campus, we would speak loudly and confidently about how excited we were to be part of The VAGINA Monologues. During staff meetings and in casual conversation with college deans, I would ask if they were going to attend The VAGINA Monologues. In dining halls, the campus store, in libraries, bars and restaurants, it was my favorite topic of conversation. Because of the College Initiative, I said VAGINA at least a dozen times a day for two months, and I was able to reclaim it as a word. Thank you, Eve!
—Tyler, Cornell University
I just came back from our event. It was amazing! So many people came that we were turning people away and still, people were squished on the floor and standing outside peeking in for the whole time! I worked with a cast of thirty and we put everything together in two and a half weeks (including auditions!). I was so worried it wouldn’t come together but we rocked the house. Major standing ovation!
Thank you so much for doing the amazing work you do to have made this possible. I’m a freshman here and have never directed nor performed and now my life is different, and I was able to bring an amazing piece to so many people. The audience left in a daze. Also, most of my actresses were not “theater people,” so that was an amazing element. I don’t even know what to say. So I’ll just say good night and happy V-Day!
—Cara, Wesleyan University
Hi, Karen. Well, our students did two staged readings over the weekend. The turnout was fabulous on both occasions and the audience loved it. We had lots of male students who attended who were truly moved by it and felt extremely “privileged” to be part of the audience. One guy told me he felt as if he was sitting in a women’s locker room listening to the discussion. Another guy asked me to give flowers to all the women but insisted on being anonymous. His card simply read: “To the women of The Vagina Monologues: May you always be safe, may you always be strong.” Nice, huh!
Many of our women students were blown away by it as well. Our population of students is 45% black and Hispanic. Most are the first to go to college and over 65% of our students come from families with annual incomes of less than $35,000. Generally I have found that our women students haven’t been exposed much to feminist literature, thinking, etc. For the most part, political correctness doesn’t exist here. So for these women, this was such a powerful experience. One of them said to me afterwards that Eve’s book should be a woman’s bible!
I also think that this piece is so important for college men. If there’s any hope for changing their attitudes and behaviors towards women, letting men experience this play is a good start. That’s why this college initiative is so fantastic!
—Toby, Marymount Manhattan College
[To her fellow College Initiative participants]
VAGINA WARRIORS, WOW! I have to tell you all that this has been an amazing experience for us at the University of New Mexico. This letter will be long, so if you’re busy you may want to read it later.
This whole project has really changed my life and I want to thank Karen and Eve for that. We started production six weeks ago and Sandrea and I haven’t had a day off since. Once we assembled our cast, which included women from the ages of 16 to 60 and was culturally diverse, and got our director, we thought that we were on our way. Since then we have dealt with all manner of crises related to being a woman, including pregnancies and cancer. Two weeks ago our director, an amazing woman, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to give up the project because of her surgery. (She has now had it and is doing very well.) Sandrea and I took over the direction and I ended up with the part of “Eve.” For those of you who were at the [Empowerment Workshop] in New York, I was the one who was too shy to perform in front of everyone and was the curtain for the Spring Preview of Vagina Secret. I had never been on stage before but I knew that I had to do this. I spent the last two weeks memorizing the entire piece.
Then, last Wednesday, a young woman came to the women’s center; she had just been raped by two male students. It was 30 minutes before rehearsal but Sandrea and I knew that we had to help her. The story hit the news on Friday and the way in which it was treated by the press infuriated everyone who knew her. Saturday, after rehearsing from 9 to 5, we spent 2 1/2 hours with her and her friends helping them process what had happened. They were all very angry and scared, but the love and support that they showed for one another was amazing! And many women decided to share their own experiences so the young woman would know that she was not alone. It was an incredible experience. The young woman came to our performance last night—she is so brave!
We sold the show out on Friday and turned lots of people away last night; in retrospect we felt that we should have done more than one performance, but who knew? It was a fabulous show! The audience was into it from the introduction. They were so supportive and loving—and they laughed when they were supposed to! Having never done ANY theatre or performance of any kind, I was terrified. Right before the show I sent out a prayer to Eve to be with me and to help me and she did! People told me afterward that they thought I WAS Eve, until I said 21 years ago I adopted a son (and yes, it was very clear in the program that I was playing “Eve”). I was so flattered! We also had six sign language interpreters that were wonderful! They donated their time! Each woman had an interpreter on stage right beside her—it was incredible! People just came out of the woodwork to help us with this project. Oh yeah, we got a standing ovation and three curtain calls!
Thank you so much for all the love and support each of you has shown throughout this project. Good luck to everyone putting up shows this week. Oh, we’ve made at least $2,200 for the Women’s Resource Center and the Albuquerque Rape Crisis Center. VAGINA!
—Summer, University of New Mexico
[To her fellow College Initiative participants]
Congrats to all! It seems we all had a highly successful V-Day! Arizona State University had an overwhelming
last-minute response and had to sell standing-room-only tickets at the 4 and 6:30 shows. We did a total of 3 shows on Sunday—a 1:30 free matinee for shelter residents/staff and our sponsors, a 4 P.M. show which raised $1,108, and a 6:30 show which raised $1,209, plus $140 standing-room-only and $75 donation box! The music gala raised $300 and the art show raised I think $500. Our grand total is $3,332!!!!!!! This will be divided in thirds and distributed to AZ Coalition Against Domestic Violence, AZ Sexual Assault Network, and Decolores—the only bilingual domestic violence shelter in AZ!
We had a standing “O” at the 4 P.M. show! It was exhilarating! We did the visual statistic at the beginning of the last opening announcement before the show. 1/3 of the audience stood (every 3rd person given a sticker as they came in the door) to represent that 1 out of every 3 women is raped by the age of 18. It was so in their face and hit them hard! A great way to start the show. People cried!
We also had the Silent Witnesses in the lobby and Project Clothesline. We had T-shirt-making sessions for the Project Clothesline after each show. One woman in her 40’s ran to the T-shirt room crying, made a T-shirt that exhibited the fact that she was a survivor of childhood abuse by a family member, passionately sobbing and painting this T-shirt in rage. It took her 10 minutes. When she left, she said, “Thanks!” This is what makes the show worth it. We—all of us—have encouraged women to come share their voices, to not keep them closeted!
I am suffering from great depression right now because I have put so much into this (6 hours a day since September) in addition to being a graduate and post-bac student! I don’t want to be JUST a student! I want to do benefit performances for the rest of my life! Is anybody else suffering from this depression of it all being over?
Thank all of you for your inspirational letters and comforting replies. Thank you, Eve and Karen, for giving us this opportunity! It has been incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love and continual vaginal bliss!
—Amy, Arizona State University
Hello, everyone! I just wanted to wish all of you good luck. If you all have an ounce of the support that V-Day received here at Colorado College, your shows will be HUGE!!! We ended up extending the show to Sunday night. We filled the entire house for the third time (over 200 seats).
A Vagina Story: Saturday night, Megan’s mother, grandmother and sisters came to the show. The grandmother is 80 years old. After the show they all went out to dinner. During their meal Megan’s grandmother leans over to Megan and says, “Honey, next time I get together with my lady friends, we are going to talk about our vaginas. And if they say WHAT are you talking about? I’m going to say CUNT, CUNT!”
So many stories, so many good memories. We have an enormous, exciting, beautiful and challenging future ahead of us. Good luck to all of you and HAPPY V-DAY!
—Jennifer, Colorado College
WOW. Reading Karen’s e-mails was thrilling, I must admit, but being in the Monologues themselves was the absolute ideal way to really feel V-Day and what it stands for.
In Blanchard Student Center, we were packed to the hilt—people were sitting on the floor, in the aisles, spewing out from the top of the balcony, cheering and whooping as each monologue was finished.
Everyone was on fire last night. “My Vagina Was My Village” evoked tears and I’m not being facetious. Although all the performers were crying, looking out into the audience, I saw not only women with moist eyes, but men were whipping out the Kleenex and dabbing away.
I don’t think I have ever felt the internal pride that I felt last night when I stepped up to the solitary chair in the middle of the stage as the last performer, of “I Was There In the Room.” Birth was so beautiful to me, an act that had always been associated with pure pain and torture, that I wanted to give birth on my very own. Though, don’t worry, I’m only 18—I have quite a while ’til that happens!! There was a woman in the first row directly in front who cried throughout my piece and during the talk-back asked me if I had ever witnessed a birth and when I answered that I hadn’t, she came up to me and hugged me, because she said, “The way you told it to us, that’s exactly the way it is.” She told me she was an obstetrician, that she had always looked at birth as purely a clinical event, and that now that she thinks about it, each birth is entirely different and beautiful in its own sense.
I am so glad that I had the chance to participate in The Vagina Monologues this year and I hope I can carry on the tradition for generations to come.
Thank you, Eve, for this amazing opportunity and to every one of you who worked yourself to the bone to make this day across the world happen. Have a Happy V-Day.
—Pia, Mount Holyoke College
Karen! Oh my goddess! Our shows went wonderfully! As you know, the frat boy thing worried me. BUT, we did have one ally in the house. He was the one that was relaying all of my messages to the boys, and he was the one that helped get them to the show. And they came! We reserved the front row for them. Even though only three were responsible for the rude fliers, eight guys showed up! I was stunned! I asked them to wait for me after the show, and they stood in front of me in stunned silence. They apologized with tears in their eyes. They said they had no idea the magnitude and severity of the violence-against-women problem. One of them said (and I quote), “You know I wouldn’t have come to this, but I’m very glad I did. This has moved and changed me.” Okay, so maybe he wasn’t sincere, but I’d like to think that he was. They shook my hand and asked me to apologize to the cast for them. THEN I saw one of them drop a $20 bill in the donation box! It was unreal. There was no protest, no violence, and no heckling. I asked my boyfriend and my three guy friends that were ushering to keep an eye on them. They said that the guys didn’t take their eyes off the stage, that they didn’t talk during the show, and that they didn’t laugh at inappropriate times. Wow! That was only one of the magical stories from last night, but I wanted you to know that it all worked out. Thank you for your words of wisdom (AGAIN!) and all of your advice.
Every woman in the cast has made comments like “This is the most important thing I’ve ever been a part of” and “I am a different woman because of this.” Our director was one of the most talented, inspiring women I’ve ever worked with, and our cast (19 beautiful, passionate women) was outstanding.
This HAS been the most important thing I’ve ever done. I am a changed woman. We are wise, VAGINA-talking women and men! What we’ve done will be remembered. It is important and you have to know that people are going to be more conscious of these issues because of what we’ve done. I’m proud to BE MY VAGINA.
—Jenn, Washington University, St. Louis
[To her fellow College Initiative participants]
A new term is flying around the UT Knoxville campus—“vagina envy”—everyone wants one! The response was AWESOME to our Monday night show! The audience beat us to our feet to take our bows—the standing ovation was that intense! What I thought was most incredible was the number of men in the house—they must have been more than 1/3 of the almost 500 people that came. I expected a gigantic gathering of women and to my absolute delight, the guys came out to support vaginas with great respect and gusto! I’ve been weeping for two days over the e-mail and my knees are weak from the healing power that was spread across the world because of V-Day! Buckets of thanks to everyone! What hit me like a ton of bricks in the afterglow of our awesome evening was—what do I do TODAY to end the violence? I think it’s essential that we ride the momentum we have begun. I’m looking into volunteering for our local rape crisis hotline. Any other ideas from you all? Let’s keep the movement rollin! VIVE VAGINAS!
—Linda, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The Vagina Monologues “played Peoria” with a crowd of almost two hundred (which for conservative Bradley University was impressive). It was amazing and awe-inspiring and we almost keeled over when they stood clapping for five minutes.
Today we are all exhausted and proud. How inspiring to spend Valentine’s Day on a smal
l quest to save the world. :)
—Vanessa, Bradley University
I don’t think my life, or the lives of any of the women who worked on this show, will ever be the same again. I also really enjoyed being connected to the other people around the country/world who were going through many of the same processes as we were. It was very encouraging and helpful to know that there was always a network of very passionate, knowledgeable women and men out there who were willing to listen (see) and respond when there were problems and when there was cause for celebration. I feel as though I have been a part of a truly amazing and powerful force. We are on our way to ending the violence that we have endured for far too long! That feels damn good!
—Keri, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
This was a great example of working as a community, not just here in the campus, but within the initiative around the world. The amount of support and acceptance at a “Lutheran” school has been unreal. Nothing has been censored. My favorite part has been teaching. This message that I have been scrambling to tell the world has reached at least 450 people in a very short amount of time!! A lot of work? Yes. But one man came up to me after the show and said, “Alex, I have learned so much in the past two hours.” If that is all I hear about this show forever in my whole life it is enough. Because he will talk, and tell his friends, and they will think . . . and just maybe some change will be made. I do not plan to change the world in a day, but perhaps in a lifetime, day by day.