Vagina Monologues 2008

Vagina.

Vagina. Say it with me: va-gi-na.

(If you were brought to this page via a search for the word "vagina", sorry. This probably isn't what you were looking for.)

I saw the Vagina Monolgues for the first time my first year here. They were incredible. I was so awed by the women standing on that stage. I thought that I could never do that.

I saw the Vagina Monologues again last year. They were still incredible. A bit different; I didn't like some of the monologues as much when performed by different people. But even so - wow.

This year, one of my friends mentioned that she was thinking of auditioning. Do it with me, she said. I'll audition if you audition, I said. We auditioned. We both got roles as boa girls - very minor roles; boa girls do the introductions and the one-liners (but honestly? I have pretty much the best one-liner ever - and my intro is pretty damn good too).

Vagina Monologue rehearsals are unconventional. For the first week or so, we didn't talk about the monologues. We talked about vaginas, about sex, about abuse, funny stories, painful stories, sweet stories, anything. We talked a lot. We laughed a lot. We laughed even more the next week, when roles were revealed to the cast at large and we ran through them for the first time.

We laughed tonight, a lot, when we were sitting on the stage watching as one "unique, beautiful, fabulous" performer read her monologue. Sometimes people cried. Sometimes the entire audience cringed.

The best part? They listened. We listened to each other in rehearsals, when we shared stories, when we practiced the script. They listened there in that small, packed auditorium - they listened. I don't know how much they took in, but that that many people came - that that much money is going to the local Rape Crisis Center - if it hadn't been worth it already, this would have made it so.