The Wesleyan production of "The Vagina Monologues" was the brainchild of Cara Herbitter ’03, who directed the show.

"I went to see it in New York and it was amazing. I wanted to know all about it so I went to the website on the playbill. I saw that Wesleyan was not on the list of colleges in the V-Day 2000 College Initiative, so I sent an e-mail and received a performance kit in the mail," said Herbitter.

"The Vagina Monologues" was originally a solo-act performed by Eve Ensler. It opened at HERE in New York City in 1996 and portrayed the fruits of Ensler’s interviews with over 200 women about their vaginas. She traveled all over the world, through all social classes, and across all ages to conduct her interviews. The numerous monologues in the production reflect the viewpoints of women young and old , of every kind and nationality. The play won an Obie Award in 1997 and since then has been performed all over the world. In conjunction with V-Day, it has been performed by various celebrities including Winona Ryder, Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Lily Tomlin, Calista Flockhart and Whoopi Goldberg.

V-Day is an organized campaign that proclaims Valentine’s Day as the day to end violence against women and to change the way that women see their bodies. The movement is engaged in promoting consciousness-raising events such as "The Vagina Monologues." In fact, it was inaugurated with a benefit production of "The Vagina Monologues" in 1998, and plans for V-Day 2001 at Madison Square Garden in New York City are underway already. 

The V-Day 2000 College Initiative, of which the Wesleyan performance takes part, is sponsored by "Self" Magazine and Planned Parenthood. It celebrates women by coordinating productions of the monologues at over 150 colleges in the United States and Canada.

As Herbitter had no previous directing experience, she looked to experienced stage manager Roberta Pereira ’03 and " Vagina Priestess" Joanne Alcantara ’03, both of whom had previous college theater experience. Yet, the majority of the 30 actresses in the play had done little or no acting .

"I took everyone who came by a certain day. It was first come, first serve, regardless of acting experience. In fact, most of us had little or no theater experience. I wanted it to be more of a living piece and less of a staged piece. I wanted it to be more of an experience than a play," said Herbitter. She went along an untraditional path to find actresses, relying not on the theater call board but rather upon advertisements in the campus center and word of mouth.

"I loved the fact that I could take everyone. I thought it was so special. I wanted the cast to be a lot of people who friends would recognize. If I had chosen to have only six actresses, that would have been less women making a stand. It would have been less powerful," said Herbitter. Leila Forman ’03, who acted in three monologues, spoke of her experience.

"It was a lot of fun to do. My favorite monologue to do was "what your vagina would say if it could talk." It is an interesting thing to think about. I never would have thought of it, I don’t think anyone does. It was interesting to see how different people feel about vaginas and how different their responses were," said Forman.

When Ensler performed the show as a solo-act, she wore all black, sat on a stool, and read the play off cards. The staging at Eclectic was just as simple and powerful. The staging captured the essence of "vagina" and created a dialogue between the actresses, all dressed in black, and the audience. The only props were Eclectic’s famous large red chair and a nightstand with a small, delicate lamp, both placed in the northeast corner of the room.

"I think the staging ended up looking really beautiful. When we found out it was to be at Eclectic, we were like ‘we’ll use the red chair. It’s a vagina chair,’" said Herbitter. The staging lent an intimate feeling to the production.

"We wanted the scene to be simple and reflect a casual dialogue setting.," said Herbitter. Yet, at the same time the large shadows of the actresses that loomed upon the walls signified the importance and gravity of the message they were trying to get across.

"Cara and I talked about possible staging ideas. We thought the scene we settled on was the best way. We wanted the actresses to be with the audience. The audience is actually part of the piece and not detached," said Pereira. Not surprisingly, the audience was mainly women, though there were some men in attendance.

"There were more women here than men, but if they were having the ‘Penis Dialogues,’ I probably wouldn’t go to it," said Lily Oglesby ’00. Regardless of gender, the performance was a powerful experience for all.

"The audience responded so well. There was a real intensity in the room. People were crying in the audience. It was powerful and I felt that it really moved people. I didn’t know they would clap after every act. The audience laughed a lot and when there were painful moments, you could hear a collective sigh, and that was really beautiful. I have received calls and e-mails thanking me and that’s meaningful to me," said Herbitter.

Especially powerful were "The Vagina was My Village" and "The Woman who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy." In the former, a Croatian woman told of the horrible atrocities done to her, her vagina and her homeland. In the latter monologue, Kate Barton ’03 portrayed a lesbian who loved to make women moan and she gave confident imitations of various kinds of moans. The performance was sponsored by Alpha Delta Phi, Eclectic Society, Womanist House, SECS, SACS, the Women’s Resource Center, and Delta Kappa Epsilon. Though it was non-profit, the audience was encouraged to make donations to Planned Parenthood. According to Herbitter, the show raised over $150.

The play ended with a monologue entitled "I Was There in the Room." Leora Wilson ’00 evocatively portrayed the awe of a woman watching the miracle of birth. The vagina was compared, in a perfect Valentine’s Day analogy, to a "red, pulsing heart" in that both sacrifice, ache, and bleed.

  This final monologue also captured the message of the entire performance with its illuminating point about the roles vaginas play in all of our lives, regardless of gender. They are the    very place we come from, so isn’t it time we all learn to get comfortable saying the word? Herbitter, Pereira and Alcantara are adamant that "The Vagina Monologues" will be reborn bigger and better next year, and perhaps for years to come. By Jenny Saranow

"I appreciated the candidness of the speakers. How can you go wrong if you are introduced by Moby, especially track 15 appropriately titled ‘Inside.’"