A local event tied to a global initiative initially was intended as a “hopeful celebration.”
But in the months since it was booked, a performance set for Saturday at Governor’s State University has turned into a “war cry” to end violence against women, said Marie Goulet.
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Goulet, a Homewood resident, organized and is directing a group of women in a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” in one of the university’s recital halls to mark V-Day, “a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls,” according to http://www.vday.org. She said the event will raise money for Including the South Suburban Family Shelter and Planned Parenthood.
Organizers started planning the event last fall, Goulet said, but the elements that drove recent women’s marches in Chicago and around the world has changed the underlying tone of the event.
“It’s become more important to do them out of necessity than a celebration,” Goulet said.
“I think there is a legitimate fear of the ending of services that have been provided for many years, particularly women’s health care, reproductive rights, comprehensive sex-education,” Goulet said. “With ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ and the V-Day global movement in particular, the movement is focused on bringing awareness to violence against women and girls and end that violence.”
Proceeds from the performance will go to charities, including 10 percent to the V-Day organization, and 90 percent split between the South Suburban Family Shelter and Planned Parenthood, she said.
“The Vagina Monologues” was written by Eve Ensler, who first performed it in 1996, according to an event release.
“Her collage of testimonials about the culture of silence surrounding sexual violence against women is probably the most important piece of political theatre of the last decade, at least if we measure a play’s impact in quantifiable terms,” according to a 2006 New York Times article by Charles Isherwood titled “The Culture Project and Plays that Make a Difference.”
Ensler is co-founder of the V-Day organization and allows groups to hold two performances without paying royalties as a fundraiser for the organization and other local charities, Goulet said. There is only one performance at GSU, while a second performance was at University of Illinois at Chicago on Feb. 4, she said.
Saturday’s performance will be held at the Governors State University Sherman Recital Hall, 1 University Parkway, University Park, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $20 cash, or $10 with a current student ID, she said. The theatre seats about 200 people.
The university is donating the space, and items such as tickets and programs were donated to increase the amount of money raised for the charities, she said.
“My costs are coming out of pocket or through donations,” Goulet said.
V-Day organization has raised over $120 million, which has been used to educate people about ending violence against women, reopened shelters, and funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs in safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq, the event release said.
“It’s an entertaining show,” she said. “There are some very funny moments, there are some heartbreaking moments, there are some sobering moments.”
Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for Daily Southtown.