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By Elizabeth Walker
 The
off-Broadway play, The Vagina Monologues, by playwright/activist
Eve Ensler, is intended to raise public consciousness about
violence against women, while also raising funds to help
the victims of such crimes. The play's provocative
name, no-holds-barred dialogue and intimate subject matter
also raise blood pressures, hackles and passionate opinions
wherever it is performed. Two readings of the play on the
Holy Cross campus, where it was presented in February as
a fund-raiser, proved no exception. Letters and e-mails in
protest and support of the performances soon followed.
"I can understand people objecting to The Vagina Monologues," says
Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of Holy Cross. "We
considered very carefully the decision to stage the readings
here. One of our student groups, the Women's Forum,
wanted to put it on as part of a national effort to raise
consciousness about violence against women. Their concerns
deserve our attention. The play isn't the vehicle I
would have chosen, but it is a legitimate piece."
Along with more than $6,000 in ticket sales from two sold-out
performances, the controversial play raised more than a few
eyebrows among Holy Cross students, faculty, alumni and parents,
who either vigorously supported or vehemently protested its
staging on campus. Some who felt the play had no place at
the College were particularly concerned that one of the readings
coincided with Ash Wednesday. The discussion that the performances
sparked within the Holy Cross community—including strong
opinions from some who have never attended a performance—mirrors
the ongoing discussion that has engaged proponents and protesters
alike at colleges and communities across the nation since
Ensler began making her play available free to schools several
years ago.
Each February, The Vagina Monologues moves way off-Broadway
and onto hundreds of college campuses across the country
as part of Ensler's V-Day movement to end violence
against women. Between Feb. 8 and March 8 (International
Women's Day), the playwright allows schools that have
joined the V-Day College Campaign to stage up to two performances
of her play free of charge. Holy Cross, a V-Day College Campaign
member through the student-run Women's Forum on campus,
is one of nearly 500 of the nation's colleges and universities,
including Boston College, Fordham, Georgetown, Regis and
St. Mary's (Ind.), among other Catholic colleges, that
performed the play free of charge this year. Proceeds from
the performance were donated to Abby's House ($5,400)—a
shelter in Worcester for battered women and their children
where many Holy Cross students volunteer—and to the
Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan ($600)
to benefit that country's widows and orphans.
For those unfamiliar with the play, The Vagina Monologues
is a collection of nearly two dozen set pieces of varying
lengths culled from more than 200 interviews Ensler conducted
with women from across a broad spectrum of ages, ethnicities
and geographies. In questioning them about their sexuality,
she elicited their most intimate thoughts and experiences.
The candidness with which the women recounted their feelings
and stories resulted in several monologues and calls for
audience participation that might make some audience members
uncomfortable while offending others.
The reaction of a Holy Cross mother who attended a reading
of the play with her daughter was fairly typical. She found
herself moved by the power of the women's stories,
despite the crudeness of some of their words and the rawness
of the images they evoked.
"The production used humor, raw and sometimes vulgar
language, poignant testimonials and sheer tales of horror
to bring forth the essence of being a woman," she says. "The
young women who presented the play were remarkable and very
talented. The evening ended with the opportunity for my daughter,
her friends and me to have a candid discussion about many
of the issues that the play brought forth."
Scheduling and staging two readings of the play took more
than talent, though there was plenty available, according
to Kristen Cortiglia '02, co-director, with classmate
Susanne Calabrese '02, of the student-run Holy Cross
Women's Forum, which sponsored the production.
"Originally, we wanted to do the play on March 8,
International Women's Day, but the ballroom was not
available then," Cortiglia says. "Last November,
we chose Feb. 12 and 13 because we thought that everyone
would be busy on Valentine's Day. No one involved noticed
that Ash Wednesday was so early this year. When it became
an issue a week before the performance, I saw no reason to
cancel. We still go to class and play sports on Ash Wednesday,
and the play was sponsored by the Women's Forum, a
sanctioned student organization."
Cortiglia saw another reason to go forward with the play. "As
a Catholic, Ash Wednesday has always been a day to beg forgiveness
and to be cleansed," she says. "It's also
a day to reflect on who you are and how you live your life.
That's what the V-Day movement is about."
Casting the play from among the 45 students who came to
the open auditions was the next challenge for Cortiglia and
Calabrese.
"Casting was the most integral part of putting together
the performance," Cortiglia says. "We assembled
a cast of 15 actors, plus three narrators and three additional
actors, who presented original pieces submitted anonymously
by Holy Cross students. We really found a strong person for
each monologue."
The reactions of the 600 audience members who attended the
readings each evening, as well as those of the students,
alumni and parents who weighed in on the issue by letter
and e-mail, were just as strong and not preordained exclusively
by age or gender. A first-year student who attended a reading
of the play on campus suggested that, "The reasons
for this play to be stopped could go on longer than the play
itself … By and large, this production is about sex." A
classmate added that she "felt humiliated as a woman" by
the performance she attended. But those students were in
the minority.
Most Holy Cross students who expressed an opinion supported
putting on the play. They cited the issues the play raised,
as well as concerns about academic freedom as reasons to
go forward with the production. Even among those who found
the play objectionable, many thought that the students should
have the freedom to see it and judge for themselves.
"That The Vagina Monologues has a grander purpose
than simply to shock its audience is only part of the controversy
surrounding the performances," Crusader editor John
Curley '03 wrote in the student newspaper following
the readings. "… As a school with a Catholic
tradition, Holy Cross does well to ensure that this environment
exists. But the school's religious heritage cannot
be allowed to bar students from being exposed to other ideas
and viewpoints … those who argue that The Vagina Monologues should not be performed at Holy Cross fail to
understand that students learn the most important lessons
by discussing diverse points of view."
While some alumni wrote pointedly that allowing the play
on campus has made their relationship with the College tenuous,
others say that the decision to stage it has strengthened
their connection to Holy Cross. A class of 1989 alumna, now
a professor herself, writes,
"I offer my strong support for the administration's
decision to produce this play. It made me proud of my alma
mater… next time I'm asked, I'll be
more inclined to support the College or to help with admissions
recruitment."
Others were just as passionate in their disdain for the
play's frank sexuality and language intended to shock.
The wife of an alumnus called the readings "pornography." Just
as appalled, a member of the class of 1946 made clear his
concerns in a letter that reads,
"… my first reaction was disbelief, then outrage
and finally very deep disappointment … In sponsoring,
publicizing and endorsing this presentation, Holy Cross has
abandoned its reputation for high standards, decency and
values and instead sought to justify its surrender to the
unprincipled ‘new culture.'"
That perspective was not shared by a member of the Class
of 2000, now a Catholic school educator. He applauded the
College leadership for going forward with the production
and for trusting the students to come to their own decisions
regarding the performances. He writes,
"Allowing The Vagina Monologues to be performed at
Holy Cross took a great courage and commitment to the values
of academic freedom and intellectual discovery. Whether we
agree or disagree with this play, whether we are impassioned
or offended by this play, we must remember that, if we are
truly educators and searchers for truth and wisdom, we must
welcome and study different perspectives … We are,
after all, women and men who are educated to be mature enough
to make our own decisions regarding what we see, hear, and
by what we are entertained …"
There appear to be no fence-sitters on the subject of Ensler's
Monologues. and its reading on the Holy Cross campus. Those
who champion the play for what they see as its "raw
honesty and legitimate cause" and those who pillory
it for what they view as its "offensiveness and ultra-feminist
agenda," would agree on at least two points—it
has raised important issues and sparked debate within the
Holy Cross community.
"Clearly, the play intentionally breaks a lot of taboos," Fr.
McFarland says. "As Ensler sees it, those taboos stifle
women's voices. Most people who actually saw the play
got past the ‘body parts' to its substance where
it seems to resonate with women at deeper levels. While parts
of the play may be objectionable to me, as well as to others,
the play raises serious moral issues about violence against
women and the power relationships that engender it. One needn't
accept Ensler's views to believe that these are issues
about which our students should be thinking. Becoming conscious
of and exploring issues of social justice are fundamental
to what we are about as a Catholic, Jesuit institution."
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