Victory, Valentine, Vagina?the V in V-Day has more than one meaning.
In 1998, Eve Ensler, an actor, playwright, and activist, started V-Day, a global organization to stop sexual violence against women and girls. V-Day arose out of Ensler's award-winning play "The Vagina Monologues." This year marks the fifth annual Bowdoin performance of the show.
"The Vagina Monlogues" is a compilation of personal stories that Ensler heard from women all over the world about rape, incest, domestic battery, and other acts of sexual violence. This year, the directors of Bowdoin's production are Whitney Hogan '07, Ashley Fischer '09, Anne Cathcart '08, Alex Lamb '07, and Linzee Troubh '09. Fischer said that Bowdoin is "one of the few colleges to do the show annually."
This year's cast includes 40 Bowdoin women. Although the monologues do not change from year to year, Troubh said that the directors "switch up the cast so it's a new show."
Fischer said, "Each woman has the creativity to make her monologue unique and different."
Maxime Billick '10, a member of the cast, said that the cast has come together for "different reasons but a common goal.
"As much as 'The Vagina Monologues' is a play, it also has social significance because it provides a forum for women to talk about their sexual experiences, good and bad," she said.
"The range of topics is what makes the show so wonderful," said Hogan, and added that the monologues address "everything from puberty and orgasms to rape and sexual violence."
"The Vagina Monologues," according to Lamb, is "poignant, powerful, and means something to everyone who sees it?old, young, Bowdoin, non-Bowdoin."
Hogan said that the show is also "really funny" and a "great way to talk about issues that we don't normally discuss" on college campuses, as well as "raise awareness about healthy relationships" around Valentine's Day.
Excerpts of Bowdoin women's stories will precede this year's production. These stories are being compiled for SPEAK, a magazine that will appear on campus in April with personal accounts from Bowdoin women regarding, as Fischer said, "sex?the good, the bad, and the ugly."
Every year, local volunteers and college students around the world perform "The Vagina Monologues" on or around Valentine's Day to raise money for V-Day and to raise awareness about sexual violence against women and girls.
During its eight-year history, the play has been translated into more than 45 languages, and V-Day has raised more than $35 million. In 2006, more than 2,700 V-Day events took place around the world.
The Bowdoin directors emphasize that 100 percent of the show's proceeds go to charity. V-Day requires that 90 percent of the ticket sales go to a local organization that works to stop violence against women and girls.
Bowdoin's "Vagina Monologues" is the largest fundraiser for the non-profit organization Sexual Aussault Support Services of Micoast Maine (SASSMM). The other 10 percent of the proceeds go to a V-Day Global Spotlight organization that focuses on a group of women who are experiencing violence. This year, the organization is raising money for women in conflict zones such as the Darfur region of Sudan and Afghanistan.
"The Vagina Monologues" will run today and Saturday at 7 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. Tickets are $5 for Bowdoin students, $7 for community members, and are available at the Smith Union Info Desk. Immediately following tonight's show, there will be a benefit cocktail party open to the public at the Schwartz Outdoor Leadership Center.