New twists to
‘Monologues’

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By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

OK, so you were one of the lucky enough to see "The Vagina Monologues" at the UH-Manoa two years ago when Ann Brandman and Bridget Kelly presented Eve Ensler's controversial hit show to overflow crowds at Kuykendall Auditorium. You also saw the larger version that was staged on the Kennedy Theatre mainstage last year - oh, and both versions of the official road show production with Mackenzie Philips and Loretta Swit at the Hawaii Theatre last January.

Benefit performances of "The Vagina Monologues" Where: Leeward Community College Theatre When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday Tickets: $10 (cash or check only), available at the theater box office Call: 440-4664

But this is 2003 and Valentine's Day - or "Vagina's Day," dubbed V-Day - is barely a week away.

So what's new this year's batch of monologues?

"That's part of the challenge," veteran actress/director Eden-Lee Murray said. She's one of several professionals from outside the university system who is helping the students present this year's local production at the Leeward Community College Theatre.

"Because this is the college (V-Day) campaign, everyone in the main circle of performers and directors all have to be students ... but in order to take this piece to a place that we haven't gone yet, I thought it might be neat to have professional mentoring. So while it's still their stuff, it's helping them take it beyond where they've gone before."

Other professional input in tweaking the show includes the participation of kumu hula Victoria Holt Takamine. She has written a mele ma'i (a chant honoring the genitals) that incorporates themes from the individual monologues. Holt is also sharing her knowledge of hula to give this year's production a stronger cultural connection to Hawaii.

There will also be at least one pidgin monologue (playwright Tammy Haili'opua Baker's pidgin piece was the highlight of the 2002 UH-Manoa production).

And, for the first time, there will be a monologue written and performed by two men, local playwright Yokanaan Kearns and actor Jeremy Pippin. The piece is about a man dreaming that he's a woman being groped by salivating men while running naked down a street.

"To leave 50 percent of the world's population out on this issue doesn't make sense because, while the spirit of the monologues is so inclusive and so embracing and so empowering, to open it up to the other half I think is fantastic," Murray says.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STAR-BULLETIN.COM The cast of the Leeward Community Theatre production of "The Vagina Monologues" rehearses a hula based on a mele ma'i composed by Victoria Holt Takamine.

The segment will also be directed by Reb Beau Allen (currently in Honolulu Theatre for Youth's "War"), who was one of three people - two of them male, including Pippin - who answered the first call for student directors.

Three additional female student directors were eventually found to work with the other female cast members.

"There was some discussion, when I thought we might be short of female student directors, of having either of the two guys also handle (the direction of) the women's monologues. It was then decided that that wouldn't be cool, because women who come out to do this piece sometimes have issues that they're trying to work through, and to sit there with a guy - a young strapping male - and talk about vaginas might not be sensitive," Murray said, adding that the cast has "just totally embraced the participation of our two guys."

ANOTHER change in this year's "Vagina Monologues" is that the cast has had an entire week to rehearse.

"We hope that the show that we'll be able to offer the public will be really polished and more ambitious theatrically than the pieces up to now have been," Murray said.

"The ensemble of 20 women are on stage for the entire production. The idea is to have them be the backdrop - in other words, the world out of which each of the monologues comes."

Not surprisingly, playwright Eve Ensler's landmark and provocative show has been attacked - usually most vociferously by those who have never seen it - as being either pro-lesbian or as a strident exercise in male-bashing. The truth is, yes, there's a monologue about a lesbian sexual predator who seduces an underage girl and there's another where an sensitive heterosexual man helps a woman recognize the natural beauty of her body.

But there are also monologues that address many of the other experiences women have in relating to their bodies and to the social expectations and limitations that can be part of being female. One monologue even seeks to reclaim the notorious C-word.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STAR-BULLETIN.COM LCC's production of "The Vagina Monologues" includes a new section titled "Male Monologue," written by Yokanaan Kearns and performed by Jeremy Pippin.

This year's production is the focal point of the V-Day programs to rally public opinion against gender-related violence that is directed against women and girls, including genital mutilation ("female circumcision") and the so-called "honor killing" of women in places where men are expected to kill female family members who flout traditional family values.

While the national V-Day organization (located at www.vday.org) acknowledges that men and boys are also victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse, it still defines its mission as aiding females only.

This year's ambitious production is officially a University of Hawaii benefit that's being presented as part of the national 2003 V-Day College Campaign. Local beneficiaries will include The Sex Abuse Treatment Center and Sisters Offering Support. (The Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence is the fiscal sponsor and also a beneficiary.)

The national V-Day organization has vowed to continue the annual campaign until violence against women and girls is eliminated and a new V-World is finally born. Until that happens, it states that Feb. 14 will remain "Vagina Day" as well Valentine's Day.

Murray hopes that the production will help speed the process, or at least help reduce, the pervasiveness of violence against females in Hawaii.

"George Bernard Shaw said at one point, "If you do theater to educate people, you will send them from the theater in masses, but if you use theater to entertain, you can teach people anything you want."

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