[media-credit name="Erica Sasche" align="alignleft" width="199"][/media-credit]
After several weeks of seeing girls walking around dressed up as giant vaginas, it is easy to forget that they are promoting a piece of art. Last night's dress rehearsal of "The Vagina Monologues" was full of movement, singing, poetry and most importantly acting. The "play" was written by performer and activist Eve Ensler in 1996. Since then, monologues have been added and subtracted, while some crowd favorites have stayed in the canon.
How does a cast of women keep this cannon relevant and engaging? Strong actresses and stage presence are extremely important, but this year it is obvious that the director’s vision plays a role as well. The director, Rayne Harris, pushes the monologues to be less reader’s theater and more full pieces. In almost every monologue, actresses interact with the space of the stage and have certain choreography to their actions. One almost forgets about the stands holding scripts on the stage because so few women seem to need them or want to use them.
The casting choices this year are also refreshing. There are more women of color in the production, but more importantly, Harris has made the decision to include these women in multiple kinds of monologues and not just historically “black” narratives. This reads very well on stage to create a vision of unity amongst a large scope of women and female identities.
This year’s monologues will set a new standard at Penn for artistic staging in the long history of the play.The Vagina Monlogues are from 8-10 pm, February 14th and 15th.
