Tonight, Eve Ensler’s play “The Vagina Monologues” returns to campus for Dartmouth’s 16th celebration of “V-Week.” The yearly campaign was established in concert with V-Day, a movement launched by Ensler to end violence against women and girls.
This year’s “voices” theme for V-February makes the production especially relevant, Center for Gwender and Student Engagement assistant director Michelle Hector said.
“‘The Vagina Monologues’ holds a very important place in feminist dialogues,” Hector said. “It represents a certain [set of voices] within this greater themes of voices and story-sharing of V-February.”
Written in 1996, “The Vagina Monologues” is based off Ensler’s conversations with over 200 women about sex, relationships and violence against women.
In the past few years, “The Vagina Monologues” has drawn some criticism, including from within the Dartmouth community, for being outdated and promoting heteronormativity. Because the broader V-Day organization prohibits groups from making changes to the play’s script, Hector and director Sandi Caalim ’13 have sought to clarify the work’s message and intentions.
“Though I myself have qualms with certain pieces and ‘The Vagina Monologues’ as a whole, I respect that these are people’s stories,” Caalim said. “It is by no means representative of all self-identifying women, but it represents some voices and has inspired many people.”
In each of this year’s 18 pieces, performers will hold large note cards to further underscore that they are presenting the particular circumstances of specific people, Caalim said.
As preparations began for the show, Caalim worked to make rehearsals open and engaging, drawing special attention to self-care, self-reflection and conversations among the 23 cast members.
“We spent time talking about pertinent and intersecting issues and discussed the pieces that are being performed with regard to some of their problematic and controversial aspects,” Caalim said.
Though the “Voices” monologues performed on Feb. 12 helped compensate for some perspectives missing in “The Vagina Monologues,” Hector said that there was no sense of competition between the productions.
About a third of the women involved with “The Vagina Monologues” also participated in “Voices.”
Ultimately, what makes “The Vagina Monologues” such a compelling production, Caalim said, are the discussions that it starts.
Julia Dressel ’17, who is participating in three monologues, said that the production raises topics that people do not like to address.
“It makes people uncomfortable when they watch it, and that’s what it’s supposed to do,” Dressel said. “It’s supposed to get people thinking about why they feel so uncomfortable and to talk about the issues presented in the play. The production shares stories that Dartmouth students, and a lot of people in general, normally don’t hear.”
Since V-Day’s founding in 1998, colleges and organizations have performed “The Vagina Monologues” annually around the world. Serving in most cases as a fundraiser, the play’s profits are typically donated to women’s advocacy groups, Hector said. The CGSE will give the sum of its profits to WISE, an Upper Valley center for survivors of domestic and sexual violence and stalking.
The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium.
