By Leanne Milech

I remember being shocked when Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues first swept through North America: a whole play devoted to women and their vaginas?  Not only was the subject matter unique, but the stories were based on Ensler’s interviews with real women, interviews that had people divulging deep, dark secrets about their sexual memories and experiences.

It has been gloriously refreshing to have The Vagina Monologues around, and since its award-winning beginning, it has spawned V-Day, the global movement to stop violence against women and girls.  Through V-Day campaigns, clusters of volunteers and college students around the world perform annual benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, which features writings about violence against women and girls from famous figures like Michael Cunningham, Maya Angelou and Kathy Najimy.  Toronto’s very own group of V-Day warriors is taking both shows to the stage in the next two weeks.

This weekend, The Vagina Monologues hits the Capitol Event Theatre on March 13 at 7:30 p.m. and on March 14 at 5:00 p.m.  A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer will be performed at Buddies in Bad Times on March 20 at 7:30 p.m. and on March 21 at 2:00 p.m.

Tickets for both shows are only $23 ($18 for students), and they’re available online at ticketbreak.com.  All proceeds from the shows are donated to charities whose mandates are stopping violence against women and girls, such as Toronto’s YWCA and the Metropolitan Action Committee Against Violence on Women and Children.

For more information about V-Day Toronto, click here.  To read the full press release, click here.