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Big cast highlights seventh year of 'Vagina Monologues'

It's been 10 years since playwright Eve Ensler decided to celebrate feminism with

2008-02-18
By Robb Murray, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 2/14/2008]

It's been 10 years since playwright Eve Ensler took the reins of feminism with "The Vagina Monologues."

In honor of the milestone, she’s throwing a big party in New Orleans with plenty of A- list celebs.

This year's Minnesota State University annual pro­duction of "The Vagina Monologues" is also historic.

"We have a huge cast this year," Women’s Center grad­uate assistant Erica Carnes said. "We have 30-plus women in the cast."

To the uninitiated, "The Vagina Monologues" is a play that pieces together many individual stories — some tragic, some hilarious, some moving — that in some way incorporate the vagina. Ensler performed the play solo for several years until, in 1998, she launched V-Day, a national movement that sponsors "Vagina Monologues" pro­ductions and raises money to combat violence against women.

Since then the play has been performed all over the world in playhouses and on college campuses.

Some years there are new monologues added, and local productions are free to make some additions. But Ensler's major requirement for anyone producing the play this year was this: Anyone who wants to be in the play must be allowed.

That's why MSU has the big cast, and the big cast, organizers say, is in itself bringing a new element to the play.

"They play off each other, and that's definitely new. I’ve never seen it done that way before," said Lauren Pilnick, Sexual Violence Education Coordinator at MSU's Women’s Center.

Pilnick is new to MSU, having moved to Mankato from Florida in December.

But she's not new to "The Vagina Monologues." She said the first time she saw a performance was when Eve Ensler herself, along with a celebrity cast, performed.

She called the play "empowering," and said the messages it contains are important not just for girls and women but for men as well.

To naysayers and people who wonder why the play is necessary year after year, Pilnick said there are always people out there who haven't seen the play or heard its messages.

"It's such a powerful night and people really get a lot out of it," she said. "It's all about awareness raising."

The big event in New Orleans takes place tonight.

Ensler chose New Orleans because of how the city is still battling to recover from Hurricane Katrina, and for how she perceives the city was treated.

Pilnick says Ensler has called New Orleans "the vagina of the world" — when it's needed for its cul­tural treasures, it is respect­ed, but when it needs the world's help, it is forgotten.

Ensler recently told a reporter, "We’re coming here to say that we should celebrate New Orleans, cher­ish it, protect it, just as we do our vaginas, and make sure it goes on and on."

Tickets or MSU's "Vagina Monologues" are $10 for students and $15 for all others. They are on sale in the Centennial Student Union's main floor lobby and in the Women's Center. For more information contact Pilnick at 389- 5127.

For more Free Press news go to www.mankatofreepress.com.

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