“My vagina’s furious, and it needs to talk,” said Weinberg freshman Candace Mittel, an actress in Northwestern’s annual performance of “The Vagina Monologues” at the McCormick Tribune Center this weekend.
The play, which was performed Friday and Saturday, was the culmination of a week-long campaign to raise awareness about violence against women. As part of the national V-Day movement, the events raised money for the Chicago Women’s Health Center and a national beneficiary, Stop Raping our Greatest Resource: Power to Women and Girls of Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Emily Marso said she was initially skeptical about auditioning for the play.
“Vaginas are not something you normally talk about in polite society,” the Communication sophomore said. “I feel like there’s so much stigma surrounding female sexuality.”
During the performance, seven actresses presented 12 monologues on topics including female genital mutilation, sexual assault, victims of war crimes, transgender women and childbirth.
Marso performed three monologues in the play: one as a middle-aged woman who has never consciously had an orgasm, one as a Bosnian woman who was repeatedly raped and one as a 6-year-old girl being interviewed about her vagina.
“I’m not going to lie: It’s not always the most comfortable thing to sit through,” Marso said. “You walk out of the theater and think, ‘I want to talk about this with someone.’ It provokes discussion.”
Large colored frames hung from the ceiling. The right and left sides of the auditorium were covered with small posters, inscribed with sayings like “It’s the great vagina, Charlie Brown!” and “e=mc vagina.”
The show’s director, Alyssa Vera Ramos, said the inspiration for these sketches came directly from the cast.
“During rehearsals, they were drawing vaginas on the chalkboard in Kresge (Hall),” the Communication junior said. “I said, ‘Wait, this has to be part of our set!'”
Ramos, who was a member of the cast last year, said it is important to her to discuss something that is normally taboo.
“This show needs to be done to give voice to these different experiences and say, ‘Hey, it’s OK to talk about (vaginas),'” she said.
Ferdinand Gonzales, a freshman at University of Illinois at Chicago, attended the event with his girlfriend.
“I’d never seen it before,” he said. “I thought it was hilarious. A lot of the serious (monologues) were eye-opening.”
Jordan Puckett said she came to support her friends in the show. Although she had watched versions of “The Vagina Monologues” before, Puckett said she had never seen it live.
“In this intimate space, it feels like they’re actually talking to you,” the Communication junior said. “You can’t help but feel emotional.”
The show concluded with each actress pointing out things that were not vaginas, including “Twilight” character Edward Cullen and University President Morton O. Schapiro. Each cast member then pointed at her crotch and said, “This is a vagina.”[email protected]
