Mar 25th, 2018, 11:00 PM

The Vagina Monologues at AUP

By Teresa Segovia
The Vagina Monologues AUP
Clarke Rose reciting Because He Liked To Look At It. Image credit: Teresa Segovia
It transcended vaginas and Women's Week

On Friday, March 23,  to conclude AUP's 2018 Women's Week, the GenSex Club and White Mask presented a staged reading of Eve Ensler's seminal work, The Vagina Monologues. Never in my life have I heard the word vagina so much; never in my life did I think I'd hear the word vagina so much. Well, I did, in twelve different readings, and in different contexts, ranging from all types of subjects. Some made me laugh and other's that made me want to cry. All twelve readings led me to ask myself: why on earth should having one define your life in such a limiting way?  

As the AMEX filled up, at first there was a predominately female audience, as I had expected would be the case. However, as the night continued and the audience began to grow, it evened out somewhat. The first one, Hair, was read by Marielle Dalvet (called Goose). The room filled with laughter. It made fun of how trivial and small something like hair may seem, yet how much of an impact it can have on someone's life. Whether or not it should is an entirely different question. It was a strange experience, sitting in a room listening to things we all think about but seldom speak of in a public setting. It was surprisingly refreshing, and the laughter in the audience made the experience all the more collective. 

Students were engaging with Clarke Rose's Reading of Because He Liked To Look At It. Image credit: Teresa Segovia

The idea for the project came from Sarah Thomas, the leader of the GenSex Club and organizer of this year's Women's Week at AUP, with her passion and drive put it together. Eleanor Dickinson directed the show with the help from professors Cary-Hollinstead and Sneharika Roy. "As a professor who just helped out with a rehearsal, it was extraordinary for me to see the level of maturity in these young women. The fact that they could give such depth, layers, texture and poignancy to these texts, that sometimes are so different from whatever their experiences have been so far. And that they were able to recreate that and bring it alive on stage, it makes me so proud of them," said Sneharika Roy, a Comparative Literature Professor at AUP.

Bria Bradly was interpreting The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could. Image credit: Teresa Segovia

The variety of the twelve different readings ranged from straight, lesbian, and trans experiences to sexual assault. Transitioning on to one of the more intense monologues, Bria Bradly interpreted The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could, which dealt with rape. "Some parts of the material make me anxious, like the rape they talk about in the monologue, so when it got to that, I was shaking. But before that part I wasn't, I'm very open with it (talking about vaginas). Some of my peers aren't open to it. Some people are more comfortable than others, so it was nice seeing the mix," said Bria Bradly, a student at AUP.

The sequence of the readings was very well thought out. "When we were planning which is gonna come after the next one, we wanted a balance, so people weren't depressed all the time, so we could have some moments where we get to laugh. And it's a good text for that, it's a very malleable text as well, so we managed to play around with it," Sarah Thomas said. 

Ending on a much more comical monologue, Eleanor Dickinson, a student at AUP, interpreted the different moans of pleasure different types of women make in The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy. When asked about what it felt like to imitate moans in front of an audience, she said, "I'm a ham so nothing, it's all fine to me. It's a very fun monologue to do, it's, and I loved the audience's reaction, hearing people laugh with it. I was very engaged for a while (with eye contact), but once I went into the moaning I sort of kept my face up, I couldn't moan and make eye contact, that would be hard."

Show finale, audience clapping with director and actors. Image credit: Teresa Segovia

Overall the show gave fantastic performances with too many memorable moments to recount them all. Apart from being an excellent performance, there was a significant aspect to all of the monologues; they made the audience reflect on how different women can be, how our experiences can be very particular but connect us at the same time, and how this can be a beautiful thing. Audre Lorde, a feminist writer and civil rights activist, said, "It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences". 

When asked about to how to keep AUP engaged with these issues throughout the year and not just during Women's Week, Sarah Tomas said, "The GenSex Club provides resources. We are constantly here for people and LGBTQ+ students. I think this play was particularly great for that, and for the way we got to include the trans segment, and there was a lot of lesbianism so I was happy we were making ourselves visible, knowing that we are a resource, we are a community."