Friday — February 20, 2004

Controversial
play mounted in
Ketchum as benefit

‘The Vagina Monologues’
features 20 valley actresses

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Playwright Eve Ensler began performing something called "The Vagina Monologues" in 1996 at an intimate Off Off Broadway theater. At the time she was working in progressive small-theater settings creating topical dramas about refugees from Bosnia, women in the American prison system and nuclear disarmament.

Playwright Eve Ensler and Jane Fonda perform in "The Vagina Monologues." Courtesy photo V-Day Organization

Despite her already admirable career, it was the loose series of open-minded and quirky short monologues about how various women view their vaginas that raised Ensler’s visibility and stature. She became not merely a respected playwright but an important activist in the fight against violence against women.

That play, "The Vagina Monologues" which eventually won an Obie Award, has now been performed in many spots around the globe from Lubumbashi in the Congo, Islamabad and Bosnia, to a star studded event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

And now the monologues finally will be staged in Ketchum. Produced by Figgleaf Productions, ‘The Vagina Monologues" is being performed by 20 local actresses at the nexStage Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. for one night only.

The worldwide schedule for productions is between Feb. 1 and March 7, 2004, and can only be performed once as deemed by V-Day, a nonprofit corporation that distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations.

All rights to perform "The Vagina Monologues" are also handled by V-Day, of which Ensler is the artistic director and founder. Each Worldwide Campaign organization must have an appropriate beneficiary in order to secure the rights.

To that end, V-Day Ketchum 2004 is donating 90 percent of its proceeds to The Advocates of Survivors of Domestic Violence in Hailey. All campaigns this year are also donating 10 percent of proceeds to Spotlight Missing and Murdered Women of Juaréz Mexico.

For more information on ticket sales, call Tricia Swartling at The Advocates at 726-4191.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.