Free The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler

exists, the V-Day Benefit Committee decided that the goal for 1999 would be to get our message out at the local level. We came up with the idea for the V-Day College Initiative.
    We would invite colleges and universities to mount productions of The Vagina Monologues on
    Valentine’s Day, the proceeds from which would go back into their communities through organizations working to stop violence against women. I volunteered to direct the project. I had high hopes for the College Initiative, although I had no idea what to expect, how it would be received, or what it could realistically achieve. I began by going on-line to research colleges and universities in the United States. I spent countless hours each day for weeks sending letters to women’s studies and theater departments, professors, student activities organizations, health educators, campus theater groups—to any person I thought would be likely to read my letters and respond—at every school on my various lists until the pictures and words on my computer screen started to blur. If people did respond, they were sometimes curious, sometimes suspicious, sometimes hostile, and sometimes enthusiastic. Some had heard of The Vagina Monologues, although it wasn’t as well known then as it is now. Many were interested in the idea of the College Initiative but couldn’t believe that it could be so accessible and straightforward, that there was no cost to participate and no hidden agenda. As things started taking shape, my contacts kept me posted on their progress. Sometimes they expressed concern about the small number of people showing up for auditions, the difficulty in getting people to attend their productions, and the criticism and backlash from those who didn’t see the merit in what they were doing or were outright opposed to it. Occasionally, they would ask to withdraw from the Initiative—because resistance at their schools became too strong, because they didn’t believe they had the support or resources to mount the kind of event they envisioned, or because they found they were neglecting their personal responsibilities. In these instances I was back to square one, but with much less time to find replacements. Sometimes I was able to convince people to persevere. This was the case with the folks at my own alma mater, Cornell University: They stuck it out, ended up participating for two years in a row, and have had successful events and tremendously rewarding experiences. Like the Cornell team, those who made it all the way through wrote excitedly of sponsors coming out of the woodwork, favorable local press, the sheer joy and power they felt from being part of the V-Day community, and their astonishment at their own ability to pull off their events. In the end, my targeted letters, the V-Day website, www.vday.org, and word-of-mouth worked to bring more than sixty-five schools in the United States and Canada to the V-Day 1999 College Initiative. I was initially disappointed in the final total, but then I realized how significant it was to have gotten any schools at all to participate. More important, I thought of the devotion of those who took part, and came to consider the College Initiative no less than a monumental achievement for V-Day. Our activities were covered extensively in the media, and they introduced more than 20,000 people in North America to V-Day and The Vagina Monologues. During the week following Valentine’s Day, I received an
    extraordinary number of inquiries from my contacts asking when they could start to work on the following year’s program: We found out about V-Day just about four weeks ago but were able to pull together a performance in that short time. Our drama department wasn’t interested in participating, so we recruited anyone who wanted to read: We had professors, a few women from the surrounding community,
    sculpture majors, women’s studies majors, law students. I have to say I am truly in awe of these women.
    They all did