'Vagina Monologues' raises money, awareness

By Arielle Gomberg, Staff Writer, The Daily Targum, March 7, 2005

"Turn off your cell-phones, turn on your vibrators and let's all have a good time," one actress said, introducing "The Vagina Monologues."

The audience laughed its approval.

Up to 400 people filled Trayes Hall in the Douglass College Center, as a University production of the Eve Ensler-penned show ran from Thursday through Saturday.

All of the proceeds from the production were donated to charities to stop violence against women and girls.

Organizers hoped to raise $12,000, but were still counting as of press-time. The production raised $10,000 last year.

The show -- which Ensler wrote based on interviews with 200 women -- alternately addresses comical and tragic elements of female gender and sexuality.

But whether irreverently imitating orgasms or informing an audience that 500,000 women are raped yearly, the play aims to empower women.

The cast, dressed in shades of black and pink, first strutted down the aisles to techno music, which set the tone as sexy, feminine and empowered performances.

Although the show has become an international phenomenon since it was first performed in a New York café nine years ago, the University production added its own twists.

In one monologue, "The Woman Who Likes to Make Vaginas Happy," Prysm Freedman, voiced the "RU Screw orgasm": "Oh, oh, I'm going to be late for class. ... Oh, f**k yeah, I don't need to go to class."

Similarly, another performer insisted there should be French ticklers inside women's underwear, so that women would be "coming on the EE bus."

Pieces like these were received with loud and appreciative laughter.

In contrast, other monologues solemnly addressed different types of violence against women, such as genital mutilation, rape and abuse.

In honor of the 20,000 to 70,000 Bosnian women who were systematically raped as a tactic of war, one woman likened her vagina to a village that was picturesque before the soldiers "invaded it, butchered it and burned it down."

Since she was violated for six days by soldiers, broken bottles, rifles and broomsticks, the woman -- performed by Alma Sarau -- couldn't relate to her former self.

"I live someplace else now," she concluded. "I don't know where that is."

The audience received Sarau's poignant performance with horrified silence.

Director Matt Ferguson is another unique University twist to the show.

In his director's note, Fergusson writes: "Yes. I will admit it. For the past three years, I have served as the director of this show, and for the past 22, I have been male."

"Feminism isn't just for women," he said more seriously. "We should all be concerned with the fact that gender inequality is still running rampant around the world. Gender violence is everyone's problem."

Ferguson is also involved in an organization called Men Can Stop Rape, just one of the beneficiaries of the show's proceeds. The others were the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey and Manavi, which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on "the empowerment of South Asian women," according to the program.

"The Vagina Monologues" was able to donate all of its proceeds to charity, since all of the participants were volunteers.

The show was sponsored by the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, University College Governing Association, Women's Center Defense Coalition, Now NJ, Caellian, American Civil Liberties Union, Sexual Assault Services, Institute for Women's Leadership, Latin American Women's Organization and Alpha Phi Omega, according to the show's program.