“Does anyone small have an extra bra?” asked fifth-year world arts and cultures student Christina Leyva to her fellow cast members of “The Vagina Monologues” before a dress rehearsal. Without the slightest hesitation, codirector and UCLA Class of 2005 alumna Kei Alegria nonchalantly took off her red lace bra from under her black tank top and handed it to Leyva.
This brief interaction reflects the camaraderie among the cast and crew of women producing “The Vagina Monologues,” which opens this Saturday in Northwest Campus Auditorium.
“It’s kind of like a safety network, but at the same time it’s a theater cast. It’s a women’s circle where we give each other support,” said Cassondra Lopez, UCLA Class of 2007 alumna and codirector of the show. Written in 1996 by playwright and feminist Eve Ensler, “The Vagina Monologues” is a series of monologues giving detailed accounts of the female experience.
After conducting interviews with women of all races, ages, sizes and sexual orientations, Ensler had enough evidence to write a play portraying the realities of physical and domestic violence, rape and positive and negative sexual experiences.
Seven years ago, UCLA feminists began performing the play on campus, as it provides women with hope and is part of the ongoing global movement to discontinue violence against women. All proceeds from the show will be donated to battered-women shelters, clinics and feminist groups.
“We hope that by giving (organizations) these donations, they will help to also promote the message,” said Emily Wang, third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student and show coordinator. At the show, group members will be selling T-shirts reading “I (heart) My Vagina” and chocolates molded in the shape of a vagina.
Every year, Ensler writes a new spotlight piece to be in the show, highlighting a regional injustice while comparing it to gender inequality. This year she wrote about women of New Orleans and the Gulf South.
“She is making a parallel between (Hurricane) Katrina and the woman’s body and how we are abusing both of them by promising things to each one and not following through. It is a very moving and poetically written piece addressing the political issues of Katrina, how all the things that were promised in the beginning ““ the money, the resources, the food, the new houses ““ have not been delivered yet,” Alegria said.
Also different this year is the Spanish-spoken version, to be performed Sunday at 2 p.m., which Alegria and Lopez implemented for a new population.
“There is always a difference in relationships due to culture. Latinos have this sense of machismo, which causes a different dynamic in relationships and the role women are supposed to take,” Lopez said. “(The Spanish show) brings … more open-mindedness and may bring an enlightenment to people in that all these things that are being tolerated are not right.”
Among the cast members is Kristine Thompson, fourth-year microbiology student at California State University, Los Angeles, who will perform in both the Spanish and English version of the show. She believes that the stigma associated with “vagina talks” among the Latino community leaves these women at a higher risk for STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
“The Latino flavor completely changes the whole dynamic of the show. The Spanish version looks very different from the English version just because of the dynamic of the Latino women. It’s really important that we understand this is what other women go through; this can happen to you,” Thompson said.
Raised in a traditional Peruvian family, Alegria said she also feels a personal connection with the audience the show hopes to draw.
“I feel like I have been very lucky, and I want to be able to give back in some way to the women who have made it possible. I feel like many women who come as immigrants suffer a lot from these issues and they are not really aware of what choices they have,” she said.
Among these women is Alegria’s grandmother, whose story inspired Alegria to take a proactive approach in combating violence against women.
After she heard at age 13 that her grandmother, although happily married, had never experienced an orgasm, Algeria was introduced to gender inequality.
“It was the first time I actually opened my eyes to the differences in treatments toward women. I was angry at the system and the lack of opportunity that exists in Peru,” Alegria said. “(Being involved in the show) is a way of making my anger efficient. I feel like the show has let me take back everything that has been taken away from me as a woman.”
The show has also enabled growth among cast members through developing a relationship with their respective characters and using it as fuel to overcome their own stories.
“There is a story behind each woman; some of them are atrocious. They are survivors, and they are here because they want to share that with the rest of their community. This is a process for them to clean up, to work through issues that they have inside,” Alegria said.
Lopez hopes that this tight-knit theater community will serve as an open forum to relate personal experiences to the global fight.
“These pieces have touched us personally, and you can try to block it out, but if it is your piece and you are hearing these things over and over again, it makes you face whatever you are feeling. We have had girls take it paragraph by paragraph because it’s so painful to say because it’s just so real to them. It is like a form of therapy,” Lopez said.
A common misconception is that the show is degrading toward men. However, Lopez and Alegria have stressed this is not true. A piece titled, “Because He Likes to Look At It” describes a woman’s relationship with a man named Bob.
“I call every guy who is vagina-friendly “˜Bob,'” Alegria said. “There are men who respect and appreciate women who are empowered.”