‘Monologues’ has a message

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Courtesy photo Performers from last year's "Vagina Monologues."

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IF YOU GO

V-Day Wilton 2010, a benefit production of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues”

WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Church, 20 Elm St., Milford

WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday, March 13.

COST: $10.

MORE INFORMATION: Call Nicole Colvin-Griffin, 654-6201.

Nicole Colvin-Griffin wants to take back “the V word.”

“I feel it’s important work that needs to be done,” says Colvin-Griffin, 33, of Wilton. “We’re building awareness of violence against women. The show is incredibly colorful and something everyone should see.”

“Wild Women of the Monadnock Region” will present “The Vagina Monologues” on Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Milford. The show will benefit Bridges Domestic and Sexual Violence Support.

“(This show) profoundly affected me and my journey. Last year, so many people came up and said they were so powerfully moved by it.” Even men. Although “(the audience) tends to be a very high ratio of women – there aren’t a lot a lot of men are brave enough (to attend) – it’s very important for men to come. All the men I know that have seen it have really appreciated it. They say ‘I really had no idea’ about the female experience, and all the things we go through and are faced with.”

Translated into over 45 languages and performed in over 130 countries, “The Vagina Monologues” is based on playwright and activist Eve Ensler’s interviews with more than 200 women. Originally presented as a one-woman show, Ensler found herself overwhelmed with other women coming forward and sharing their stories of violence, sexual assaults and mutilations. She decided to offer the show out as a way to raise awareness of women’s issues, and “V-Day” was born. In the past 10 years, the V-Day movement has raised over $70 million for organizations fighting violence against women worldwide.

Nicole Colvin-Griffin met the author at a “Vagina Warrior Workshop” in New York City. “After incredibly intense sharing, we blasted this loud music and we moved and shook it out of our bodies,” she says. “It was very helpful and cathartic, and we’ve decided to also include it after our show, as well as hosting a talk-in afterwards. People are hungry to share their voices and experiences.”

Now it its 11th year, V-Day has always been striving “to give voice to the voiceless, speaking out for those who can’t,” Colvin-Griffin says. Happening worldwide in thousands of venues, 90 percent of the proceeds go to a local community organization that is working for the rights and protection of women. These two local shows will benefit Nashua/Milford-based Bridges.

Additionally, 10 percent of proceeds go to a spotlight campaign. This year Ensler chose the Democratic Republic of Congo and the “Village of Hope” project, which is creating a safe village for women and girls there. Colvin-Griffin will be doing a Congo teach-in to build awareness of what’s happening over there, on Sunday, March 21, at 4 p.m. at the Riverview Mill Artist Studios in Wilton.

As a mother of four, Colvin-Griffin is painfully aware of how “very difficult it is to be a girl in this society. Incredible pressures are coming from many different angles. There’s a very narrow range of what’s an ‘acceptable’ way to be.” Of course, the media has saturated us with visions of violence against women, stereotypes and female sexuality, sometimes subliminal, sometimes not.

“The media is ghastly,” Colvin-Griffin shudders. “I had a friend who went to purchase a bathing suit for a 8-year-old girl, and could not find one that didn’t have a padded bra! But we can’t put the word ‘vagina’ on a billboard advertising our show.”

Her oldest daughter may do a reading from Ensler’s new book “I’m an Emotional Creature.” Colvin-Griffin, an in-home childcare provider who also does some homeschooling, knows her role is to empower her children. “When I feel despair about raising girls in this society, all I can do is help them be as strong as they can be.”

“The amazing thing about the show, you go through the entire range of emotions,” Colvin-Griffin notes. “There are some hilarious moments, and then there are parts that are just devastating, like how rape is being used as a war tactic right now in the world. That’s the beauty of it … it takes you through so many layers of the woman’s experience (with) incredibly diverse stories.”

And the show will be performed by a diverse group of New England women. “We have a potter, silversmith, accountant, stained glass artist, daycare provider … a whole spectrum of women doing the monologues.”None of them particularly categorize themselves as actors. That’s fine with Colvin-Griffin.

“It’s not about acting. It’s about activism. It’s about the message.”