In 2012, the Vagina Monologues came back to RCN for the annual International Women’s Day celebrations.
Before carrying on, it is necessary to explain a little bit about the Vagina Monologues, and our motives behind staging the play. The Vagina Monologues is a play by Eve Ensler, and is entirely based on real interviews she conducted with women about the ‘vagina issues’ which affected them – issues of the body, mind and spirit, and often issues that are seldom discussed on a general, or public scale. We bring this play to you on International Women’s Day (as part of Gender Week) because, as well as being very entertaining, it is a wonderful way to enlighten our community about these, often taboo, vagina issues, and how they affect not just the play’s characters, but the women of RCN, too.
It all started out in January, with workshops run by 7 second year students – by females only, and for females only. These workshops were threefold, and open to all of RCN’s women regardless of viewpoint, theatre experience or anything else for that matter. The workshops started with the very basics, introducing the concept of the vagina and discussing the attitudes that our participants have to issues surrounding the vagina, which are the issues the play deals with, such as body confidence, sex and sexual abuse, childbirth, puberty and the like. We used this wonderfully enlightening opportunity to build towards the final production, and our workshops became more theatrically-based, as we moved towards the audition date.
We were delighted with the audition phase, as the vast majority of our 32 workshop participants decided to show for the auditions, even though they had never acted before. It was incredibly difficult to deliberate and decide who would get what role. We spent three hours one evening grappling over who suited what part, and as a result we ended up adjusting the format of many monologues from last year’s.
Next came the production phase. It was our responsibility to edit the script and cut it down to a suitable length, as well as divide the monologues that were to be shared. After that was done, we then each assigned ourselves to working with a group and rehearsing with them regularly. Group rehearsals followed, and by March 8th, it was showtime!
We would like to offer our sincere thanks to all of our actresses and workshop participants for their immense enthusiasm and diligence, as well as to Kåre Sandvik, Asger, and all those who helped us with logistical and technical things. Most of all, though, it is necessary to thank those of you who came to see the play, to share the message both it and International Women’s Day brought to RCN:
“To speak of them out loud, to speak of their hunger and pain and loneliness and humour, to make them visible so they cannot be ravaged in the dark without great consequence, so that our centre, our point, our motor, our dream, is no longer detached, mutilated, numb, broken, invisible, or ashamed.” – Excerpt from Interview with a lesbian, performed by Rabail and Claudia.
Thank you!
-Jana Fox
