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As part of the national V-Day 2004 College Campaign, students will present a benefit production of Eve Ensler’s Obie Award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues, 7 p.m. March 5-7 in the Marlo Room of Farinon College Center.
Tickets cost $5 for students and $10 for others. They may be purchased in the Farinon Center at lunchtime today or beginning two hours prior to show-time outside the Marlo Room. For more information, contact producer Amanda Roth ’04, a double major in philosophy and women’s studies, at x4033. Proceeds will go to Women’s Crisis Services of Flemington, N.J.
“Personally, I think that the play is a wonderful combination of entertainment, activism, and education,” says Roth. “The entire V-Day campaign is, of course, at root concerned with ending violence against women; to that end all of the proceeds from performances are donated to charities which work against domestic and sexual violence, and the play is full of factual information and monologue-style stories of violence. At the same time, however, the play also celebrates female sexuality and attempts to undermine the societal norm of refusing to talk about sex and violence.”
The production team is comprised of Roth, who also is co-director with history and government & law major Kamaka Martin ’04; psychology major Omoniyi Adekanmbi ’04(New Carrollton, Md.), assistant producer; English major Danielle Pollaci ’06 (Trenton, N.J.) and Veronica Slaght ’07 (Pittstown, N.J.), advertising; psychology major Nangula Shejavali ’06 (Windhoek, Nambia) and civil engineering major Brad Knote ’06 (Garden City, N.Y.), staging; and East Stroudsburg University student Shannon Wallace, lighting and sound. Others who have assisted include Gregory Blevins ’07 (Fredericksburg, Va.), biology major Nick Katchen ’04 (New York, N.Y.), and economics and business major Kris Nixon ’04 (Perrineville, N.J.).Thirty-two students are in the cast.
Martin and Roth also teamed up last semester to present We Were Pioneers, an original play telling the story of Lafayette’s transition to coeducation.
This second production of The Vagina Monologues at Lafayette is sponsored by Association for Lafayette Women, Questioning Established Sexual Taboos, Students for Social Justice, Association for Black Collegians, Lafayette Intercultural Networking Council, the English department, and the Ethics Project.
Hailed by The New York Times as “funny” and “poignant” and by the Daily News as “intelligent” and “courageous,” The Vagina Monologues, which was first performed off-Broadway by Ensler, “dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage, and excitement buried in women’s experiences.” Ensler has performed the play to acclaim throughout the world, from Zagreb to Santa Barbara, from London to Seattle, from Jerusalem to Oklahoma City. Villard Books/Random House published The Vagina Monologues, which includes a foreword by Gloria Steinem, in February 1998. A special V‑Day edition of the play, including two new sections about the College Campaign, was released in February 2001.
V-Day features annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues by local volunteers and college students to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize anti-violence organizations. It generates broader attention for the fight to stop worldwide violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sexual slavery. In 2003, nearly 1,000 V-Day benefit events took place. In its first six years, the V-Day movement has raised over $20 million. In 2001, its first year of incorporation, V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine’s “100 Best Charities.”
Roth is lead author of “Femininity, Sport, and Feminism: Developing a Theory of Physical Liberation,” an article written with Susan Basow, Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology, which has been accepted for publication in Journal of Sport & Social Issues. She is conducting a yearlong research project within the realm of egalitarianism in pursuit of honors in philosophy. Roth is a member and former co-president of Association for Lafayette Women, a member and former co-chair of Questioning Established Sexual Taboos, and an assistant in the admissions office. She is a member of the McKelvy Scholars program, in which 16-20 students live in a historic off-campus house and share in intellectual and social activities. In previous EXCEL Scholars work, she conducted research on orphans in British fiction and nonfiction writing with Deborah Byrd, associate professor of English. She is a recipient of the Eugene P. Chase Government Prize, awarded annually to the student author of the best paper in political science.
Cast
Omoniyi Adekanmbi ’04
Jennifer Aranda ’07
Sarah Bassin ’04
Jenna Beatrice ’07
Fayola Bostic ’05
Stacy Carey
Simmone Chaddan ’04
Stephanie Cote
Elena Dones ’07
Stephanie Dorsey ’04
Maly Fung ’07
Frances Mahoney ’04
Kamaka Martin ’04
Stephanie Mishik ’07
Michelle Nelson ’04
Meghan Oakley ’04
Yvonne Osmun
Katherine Plater ’07
Danielle Pollaci ’06
Pamela Predmore ’04
Amanda Roth ’04
Raisa Sheynberg ’04
Manon Skrzypecki ’04
Veronica Slaght ’07
Jaclyn Smith ’07
Stephanie Smith ’06
Samara Spielberg ’07
Melissa Spitz ’06
Kirby Waldinger ’07
Sandra Welch ’06
Emily Williams ’07
Carey Wilson ’07