Keene State College presented their annual Valentine’s Day performances of “The Vagina Monologues” this past Valentine’s Day weekend. The performances took place Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015 in the Mabel Brown Room of the L.P. Young Student Center.
This year’s performances were directed by Senior Abby Darin and Junior Dana Angellis.
“Abby directed it last year with a senior and every year a junior gets picked,” explained Angellis. Darin and Angellis met through a class they had together in which Darin expressed interest in having Angellis co-direct “The Vagina Monologues” with her, according to Angellis.
Sophomore and Women’s and Gender Studies Major, Sophia Olsen, who performed the piece “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy,” explained the motivation and direction of this year’s production.
“This production, specifically, we didn’t try and make it gimmicks, we didn’t cop out with joking,” Olsen continued, “We tried making it seem very honest and legitimate.”
Acting major Danielle Roberts also participated in the production.
“For me, the most fun part is rehearsals and kind of going through that process and seeing how you change from day one to opening night and also the relationships you build with your castmates,” Roberts stated.
“With a show like this it’s really important to be comfortable with one another,” Roberts reiterated.
According to keene.edu, “The Vagina Monologues” were first performed at KSC in 2001. The play was created by playwright and activist, Eve Ensler, according to vday.org. Vday.org defines VDay as a “global activist movement to end violence against women and girls.”
“I feel very strongly towards these issues and what we’re trying to raise the money for and I feel like this is such an unconventional way of trying to get that message across,” Roberts explained.
Roberts continued, “A lot of people see a table with a donation jar or they go to a lecture, but seeing this performance of real stories from real women, it makes it more real — I mean for me and I believe for the audience — that these are things that happen everyday and this isn’t something that we can ignore anymore.”
This year, “The Vagina Monologues” presented by KSC committed to donating 100% of their proceeds to The Monadnock Center for Violence Prevention [MCVP]. According to Angellis, the final amount raised was $457.
Caroline Alm can be contacted at calm@keene-equinox.com
