VAGINA MONOLOGUES PERFORMANCES THIS WEEKEND

This weekend, a Bryn Mawr Valentine's Day tradition continues with two benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues in Thomas Great Hall on Friday, Feb. 11, and Saturday, Feb. 12, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore students and $8 for others. Proceeds will be donated to Laurel House, a Montgomery County domestic-violence shelter for women and children, and to an organization that advocates women's rights in Iraq. Doors open at 7 p.m. with Vulvapalooza, an information fair focusing on women's health.

Eve Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues in 1998, after she interviewed women around the world about their vaginas. It includes 17 monologues in different women's voices about their experiences. Called "funny and poignant" by The New York Times and "intelligent and courageous" by The Daily News, the play looks at the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement in women's experiences. Since Ensler's first performances of the piece, it has become a global phenomenon: translated and staged in more than 40 languages, its messages of positive sexuality and nonviolence against women have touched audiences around the world.

The performance of The Vagina Monologues at Bryn Mawr is part of V-Day, a worldwide movement instituted by Ensler to raise awareness of and combat violence against women and girls. Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. The Bryn Mawr production, presented by Bryn Mawr's Body Image Council, is entirely student-run. Molly Ahrens '03, founder of the Body Image Council, launched the College's first performance of the play in 2001, and it has been performed here each year since then.

Led by directors Jessie Payson '06 and Maja Hadziomerovic '05, the cast includes (in order of appearance) Elle Endre-Stacy '07, Chelsea Phillips '05, Holly Katz '05, Lavanya Jayakar '08 , Misa Fujimara-Fanselow '05, Sarah Caldwell '08, Lauren Dubowski '08, Rosemary Malfi '07, Sarah Mackin '07, Yasmin Mashhoon '05, Carly Frintner '06, Deborah Sosower '05, Zoe Karl '05, Amanda Dougherty '07, Anna Mazzariello '08 and Crista Fuentes '07.

Tickets will be sold on campus on Thursday during dinner hours at Haffner Dining Hall, on Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m in the Campus Center Foyer, and at the door. For additional information and to reserve tickets e-mail ledwards@brynmawr.edu.

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