'Vagina' Welcoming to Actors

“Common Casting can be daunting,” says Lei’La’ R. Bryant ’11, one of the directors of “The Vagina Monologues.” “In the fall of my freshman year, my roommates and I auditioned, and no one got callbacks. It was very stressful.” According to Bryant, “The Vagina Monologues,” which aims to celebrate female sexuality and promote female empowerment, also provides a welcoming atmosphere for women who are new to the theater scene at Harvard. The final showing of the production is at 8 pm tonight in the Agassiz Theater.

The show was created by Eve Ensler and grew from an off-Broadway production to international fame. Ensler developed the piece in order to celebrate the vagina and to help stop violence against women. The proceeds from this year’s performance benefit groups dedicated to preventing sexual assault, including the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and Rosie’s Place, a shelter for homeless women and those fleeing abusive relationships. In addition, Ensler’s V-Day movement, which aims to end violence against women and girls, has chosen the rape and abuse of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo as its 2009 spotlight campaign. During the current conflict the use of rape as a weapon of war has become prevalent and “Vagina Monologue” performances around the country will take part in raising awareness of the issue.

The production—co-sponsored by the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (OSAPR) and the Harvard College Women’s Center—is showing for the eighth time at Harvard. Since the show operates outside of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) umbrella, it holds its own auditions outside of Common Casting. Everyone who auditioned was cast in the production. Bryant says the auditions do not have strict guidelines so that as many people can be involved as possible.

“Because of the content, because of the way we do ‘The Vagina Monologues’ anyone who is passionate about this and wants to be involved can be, which I think is wonderful because you get a lot of the non-actresses, the non-theater people,” OSAPR director Sarah Rankin says. “I think it’s really empowering to get up on stage and perform your piece in front of hundreds of people.”

For some, the show has served as a launching pad into theater at Harvard. Shannon E. Cleary ’12 decided to audition for the “The Vagina Monologues” and found it to be a welcoming introduction.

“I did theater in high school, but I was kind of intimidated by Harvard,” Cleary says. “There are a lot of people here, and I was a freshman. I didn’t go to Common Casting in the fall. I was much too intimidated.”

After directing the show for the first time last year, Bryant became involved in productions such as “The Goat” and “Lysistrata” based on relationships she made through “The Vagina Monologues.” Candice C. Smith ’11 participated in common casting for the first time as a result of the positive experience she had acting in this year’s production.

“My experience with ‘The Vagina Monologues’ has really been inspiring and uplifting. So I just thought, ‘You know what? I should try out for Common Casting too,’” Smith says. “It reignited my love for theater. I’ve been working with a great group of people, a great group of girls. And it’s really made me want to do more.”

The show provides opportunities for people of all levels of acting experience as it includes parts with fewer lines to memorize in addition to longer monologues. In addition, Cleary feels that the empowering message of the show makes it particularly meaningful.

“OSAPR sponsors it every year, because it is a very effective way of raising issues such as sexual assault. It reaches a wide variety of folks,” Rankin says. “They want to be involved in the show, because there are few shows with only women in the cast.”

Bryant’s favorite monologue is called “Reclaiming Cunt.” It involves the actress leading the audience in a chant of the word “cunt,” a term that is often used as an obscenity, in order to reclaim the beauty of the word. Some believe the word was derived from the goddess Cunina who guarded infants in their cradles. The new perspective given to the word is indicative of the goal of the play as a whole: to transform the way the female body and female sexuality is viewed.

While preparing for her audition, Smith was struck not only by the opportunity to become involved in theater, but by the significance of the show’s message.

“I should be speaking this,” Smith says. “I need to speak this, because I feel so strongly about it. And I really feel that it’s important for women to get in touch with who they are and to be proud of who they are.”

—Staff writer Melanie E. Long can be reached at long2@fas.harvard.edu.