Vagina Monologues perfromed at SMC
By KERRY SMITH
News Writer
More than 150 students, faculty and community members filled the Regina Hall lobby Monday night to attend a reading of "The Vagina Monologues."
After the Saint Mary's administration refused to officially host the production on campus, 15 women from the academic community banded together to perform the Monologues.
"It's really important to understand that this was not done in response to the administration canceling the production," the group's representative said, on condition of anonymity. "It was done because one in four women are raped in the United States. It was done because 500,00 women are raped each year in this country. These are issues that affect every person in this room, this school, this community and the nation. This play embodies that and we need to talk about it."
Barefoot and clad in black, the performers read a series of monologues depicting various sexual issues facing women in the hour and 15 minute performance.
The women who performed the "Monologues" — undergraduates, graduate students and faculty from both Notre Dame and Saint Mary's — felt the reading was necessary to promote awareness of and concern for women's issues within the community.
"The play's purpose is to spread awareness about rape and violence," the representative said. "I was surprised [the College cancelled the production]. It was getting pressure from alumnae and donors who are part of the community. It's too bad that's the case. Four hundred fifty colleges and universities, a number of them Catholic, perform `The Vagina Monologues' across the country. Under normal circumstances, this play raises a lot of money for groups dealing with these issues."
Monday's performance did raise a minimal amount of money through donations made at the conclusion. The group plans to donate the money received to one of three organizations: the YMCA, Saint Margaret's House or Sex Offense Services.
Prior to performing the "Monologues," the group met three times to put the reading together.
`Some of us were in the `Monologues' last year and others had seen it performed," the representative said. "We had been organizing it for three weeks. We got together through a sort of filtering and networking process to put it together."
The group was pleased with the attendance at the reading.
"We were happy so many people came," the representative said. "We did a lot of it just by word of mouth."
The performance was scheduled to take place in Regina's dance studio, but because so many people attended, the "Monologues" were moved to the larger Regina lobby.
All News Stories for Tuesday, February 20, 2001
