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The University of Maine Student Women’s Association sponsored the scool’s 11th annual performance of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” which premiered Friday night in the Donald P. Corbett Business Building. Beginning with “Hair,” performed by SWA co-chair Mary Callaway, climaxing with Sally Brown’s orgasmic yips during “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy” and ending in tribute to the organ’s most primary function, the production was dedicated to former SWA member and UMaine student Jordyn Bakley.
“Let’s just start with the word: vagina,” said cast members Keira Monahan, Kimble Rawcliffe and Karin Baard in the introduction.
“It sounds like an infection at best, maybe a medical instrument: ‘Hurry, nurse, bring me the vagina.’ … Doesn’t matter how many times you say it, it never sounds like a word you want to say,” Monahan said.
Directed by Aya Mares and Razhell Sutton and organized by SWA co-chair Emily Fortin, the UMaine “Vagina Monologues” is a V-Day Event, a global event to raise funds and awareness of violence against women and girls through benefit productions of Ensler’s works.
“It’s a great community of women … working for women,” Fortin said of SWA.
This year’s production benefits the City of Hope, a community program in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, designed to re-establish abused women in society through education and skills training. In addition to the City of Hope, proceeds from UMaine’s “Monologues” will benefit the Spruce Run Association, the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, and Rape Response Services.
Fortin described the production as being “daunting” to some reluctant viewers, but stressed the importance of the show’s message.
“Men laugh the hardest,” she said matter-of-factly, explaining that much of the show’s subject matter does not reach men’s ears.
Co-director Sutton agreed there are people who refuse to attend the “Monologues” due to subject matter. She uses cause as persuasion rather than content, and focuses on beneficiaries when convincing the hesitant to enter. Rape (date, object and systemic), mutilation, menstruation, masturbation, sexuality and plain female genital candor may push the envelope for some.
“I haven’t been down there since 1953,” said cast member Brianna Monahan in a 72-year-old New York woman’s monologue. She has trouble getting “down there” due to arthritis and is reluctant to do so after an accidental, one-time “flood” in the front seat of her admirer’s brand new Chevrolet Bel-Air.
Viewers alternated between reverence, hysterics and uncomfortable silence as they focused on the stage, backdropped by a black tapestry and centralized by flesh-colored cloth strips- an unfurling fabric vaginal collage made by cast member Emma Thieme and co-director Mares.
“It’s a really good experience, all of these women getting together and creating [the Vagina Monologues],” said Sutton.
The audience, made up of all ages and both genders, eagerly crowded the auditorium as soon as seating opened. Ushers, “Bobs,” directed audience members to seats and handed out programs.
Monologue ushers are called “Bobs” as tribute to the Bob character of “Because He Liked to Look At It.” An average man, Bob just happens to be a “vagina connoisseur,” both surprising and empowering his lover, performed by Britney Carle.
“We’re just friendly faces,” said two-year Bob veteran Tyler Keniston.
Floor-bound auxiliary lighting added an intimate glow to those on stage, as the auditorium’s lighting did not meet the production’s demand. Puffy chairs and pillows in red, black and pink lined the stage, and cast members sat when not addressing the audience.
“I’m feeling very nostalgic,” said former SWA member and four-year “Monologues” cast member Melanie Rockefeller.
Rockefeller and former SWA co-chair Abbie Strout assisted the Bobs in greeting and directing audience members.
“It makes me proud. It’s nice to see generations of SWA women,” said Strout of this year’s performance.
“I think it’s really nice that they dedicated this to Jordyn,” said Strout, admiring cast members’ ability to deal with the loss of a friend and member while still being able to pull off the production.
As Johanne McKay reminded the audience in the monologue “I Was There in the Room,” “[the] vagina suddenly became a wide red pulsing heart,” capable of forgiveness, sacrifice and regeneration in its purest purpose — giving birth.
