Some changes
This week I got an email telling everyone involved with V-day that there was a very important meeting scheduled for this Sunday. There was little information put across in the email other than this was very, very important.
I then received another email for a select group of people (myself included) to attend an important meeting Thursday afternoon at the WIN (Women's Issues Network) office. I wasn't very worried about the first email, but this one made me pause. What the hell was going on?
I recently injured my foot and had spent all of Wednesday night and Thursday morning sitting on the couch with my foot up. So I managed to hobble my way to a bus and limp my way around campus just so I could find out what all the fuss was about.
So it turns out that the Forces that Be with V-day and Vagina Monologues (VM) had decided to change VM a bit this year. It is the 10th year of VM and there is worry about it becoming stale. We were informed that the amount of extra/alternative monologues had been changed and therefore we were unable to perform the alternatives UWO V-day had chosen. The transgender monologue "They Beat the Girl out of my Boy...or so They Tried" that I had been cast in, was no longer there, along with several others.
We were all a little shocked and worried. Does this mean we are getting the axe? Thankfully, no it did not mean that.
A few years ago Eve Ensler put out a call for writers, both male and female, to write their own monologues and complied them into another book called A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer (MMRP). This is a new set of monologues that is available for performance. One of the really excellent things about MMRP is that it will include male performances, adding a much needed male-feminist voice and getting more men involved in V-day activism.
So, now we are putting on performances of VM and MMRP and I am now on the MMRP monologues. I should find out about my script this Sunday once everyone else involved with V-day is told about the change.
I just have to say that it was really amazing of the V-Day wimmin to get those of us affected together and let us know outside of the larger group. It just might of been a bit much to take. This way we had any worries quieted and I think everyone is really excited for this change. Because as much as it was startling and threw the V-day exclusives for a bit of a loop, this is a very good thing. Our group was going for a V-day is bigger than Vagina Monologues event and by adding MMRP it is helping to reinforce that. We are also working on getting more men involved and by adding MMRP we can now have 3 men doing monologues on stage, which I think is amazing!