Alpha Psi Omega, the theater honorary fraternity, and the Women’s Issues Organization will host the Vagina Monologues on March 4.
Every Valentine’s Day since Loyola’s first Vagina Monologues performance in 2005, an all-female cast has put on the show, which features monologues of real-life women.
As part of the national V-Day campaign, all the funds raised will go to the New Orleans Metropolitan Battered Women’s Association. In 2007, organizers donated about $3,000 to aid women and children, said Erin Slimak, theater senior and producing agent for the play.
The monologues have overcome challenges over the years. According to Maroon archives, conflict arose over whether the play contradicted Loyola’s Catholic traditions. In 2004, the Rev. William Byron, S.J., interim president, cancelled the production. After a year of protesting, V-day returned to campus in 2005 and raised funds for Crescent House – a battered women and children’s shelter in New Orleans – with support from the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., university president.
Gabriela Rivera, mass communication sophomore and co-president of the Women’s Issues Organization, is directing this year’s production. Rivera said the organization was founded on the idea of improving the status of women at Loyola and on a global scale.
“We have committed ourselves to the Jesuit ideal of social justice and work for the equality of women in every sphere of life,” she said. “We create a comfortable environment for discussing important issues affecting the lives of women.”
The organization also actively participates in the planning of Take Back the Night and publishes Loyola’s feminist zine “The Wandering Womb.”
Rivera said she hopes the show will be a sell-out, since all profits are meant to help women around the world. She said she has a fabulous cast and an amazing faculty adviser and assistant director.
“I urge everyone to come and see it. It will be a fierce show,” she said. “You laugh, you cry – you go through an array of emotions. Because whether you love it or hate it, whether you praise it or talk badly about it, it made you think. It will make you think and feel. Just give it a chance.”
V TO THE TENTH
• V-Day comes to New Orleans with V to the Tenth – a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the “The Vagina Monologues” – which will feature an all star-cast including Salma Hayek, Oprah Winfrey, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Joss Stone, Eve and others. Ticket costs range from $25 to $1,000.
• On April 11 and 12, the Louisiana Superdome will host Superlove, an event with art, music and special wellness programs meant for women of the Gulf region to “reclaim the dome, making it a place of empowerment and action,” according to vday.org. Superlove is open to the public, free of charge, and features local
speakers.
Rosie Dao can be reached at [email protected].
