Jack McNamara
‘The Vagina Monologues,’ a series of monologues performed by an all-female cast, was performed by Theatre Fairfield this past weekend, with ticket sale profits benefitting VDay, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. The ‘V’ in VDay is meant to symbolize the words Valentine, Vagina and Victory, and encourages respect toward women.
The funds from Fairfield’s performance of the show were donated to the Helena Ptochia Foundation, with the money going toward helping to build a hospital in Ghana in order to rehabilitate women victimized by violence.
The bold monologues portray the views and experiences of different women from around the world. By creating a casual environment through accessible language and realistic female experiences, ‘The Vagina Monologues’ allows viewers to connect to the various stories and better understand the play’s message.
As a Jesuit university, Fairfield has been opposed to the performance of ‘The Vagina Monologues.” For the past two years, the performance of the show was cancelled by the administration of’ the University only days before its performance. Therefore, the cast was excited to finally be allowed to perform this year, following the disappointment that resulted after the past year’s attempt.. This year’s performance, however, was received with excited audiences; each of the three performances sold out and lines of students waited in the lobby of the PepsiCo Theatre, hoping to get a last-minute ticket from the wait-list.
Jocelyn Boryczka, a professor and the director of the Peace and Justice Studies department at Fairfield, performed the introductions for the individual monologues throughout the show. ‘At Fairfield University, there was no administrative resistance to the production,’ said she said.
‘Indeed, it speaks volumes about our campus commitment to gender diversity and social justice that we, unlike the University of Notre Dame or Marquette University, among other religious institutions of higher education, embraced and supported this production of critical feminist work,’ Boryczka added.
Each of the actresses involved in the show did a brilliant job in representing the individual monologues, and the cast and crew worked hard to produce an entertaining and enlightening final production. Anne Krane ’09, a member of the cast, said that the show allowed the cast members to ‘learn a lot more about each other.’
Having a male director, Gary Lee Pelletier ’09, allowed Krane and fellow cast members to ‘hear questions that men have about women, and for a man to hear questions women have about men. It created an open dialogue,’ she said.’
‘I really enjoyed being part of this production which, for me, involved navigating the living-learning boundary,’ said Boryczka. ‘As a professor, I usually participate more in the ‘learning’ aspect of campus life, but this production allowed me into a powerful lived student space of the theater and the audience which attended.’
The play has been a topic of discussion ever since its first performance by playwright Eva Ensler in New York City in 1998.
The news surrounding the play only adds to its impact ‘- while many people are uncomfortable discussing the content of the show or even mentioning its title, the performance of the play helps to break the silence under which many women must suffer in a violent world.
Because of the worldwide media coverage of the play, ‘The Vagina Monologues’ has managed to initiate an international discussion of the violence facing females around the world.
Since its debut, the play has been performed in 45 languages in one 120 different countries across the globe.
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