V-Season 2019 UPDATE: Testimonies of RISING Announced

For 20 years Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues has shattered taboos by telling the untold stories of women, giving birth to V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender based violence). With creativity and determination, V-Day activists around the world have worked tirelessly to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery. Today, the stakes could not be higher for this urgent work.

Testimonies of RISING
This year, in place of a traditional V-Day Spotlight monologue, we invite activists to amplify and lift up the often unheard and excluded voices of survivors, activists and groups in your communities by creating three community-written testimonies, to be performed at the end of the play. These monologues should center the voices of the most marginalized women on your stage, harnessing the power of The Vagina Monologues to create a space for critical conversations and voices.

The first of these new monologues will showcase a formerly incarcerated or detained woman in your community, inviting them to speak to the audience about their experiences and how they connect to the issue of violence against women and girls. This monologue will be part of V-Day's 2019 global Spotlight campaign on Women in Prisons and Jails, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women, which was created in collaboration with formerly incarcerated women and activists.

Choose two additional local leaders or activists who are doing the crucial, daily work of ending violence in your community to present a “What and Why My Vagina is Rising” monologue. Invite them to share with the audience what they are working to change and how the local community can support them. We suggest each performer is given 2 minutes each on stage, and that you work out staging and lighting for this portion, so that it is integrated as part of the whole experience for the audience.

Throughout V-Day's history, activists have used this platform to shed light on the connection between gender based violence and political instability, armed conflict, xenophobia, unsafe working conditions, transphobia, homophobia, and racism. Rising Testimonies can cover a range of topics—gender and sexuality, identity, the changing socio-political climate, any issue specific to the community at hand.

With this in mind, if you/your cast is willing to share, we would love to receive the written version and/or video of these testimonies, and any photos you may have. Photos and videos should be the highest quality possible. If recording videos on a smartphone, please record them in horizontal / widescreen format.

Please send them to us at spotlight(at)vday.org. With multiple and larger files, you can easily send them using free services like WeTransfer. You can also use Google Drive and Dropbox by "sharing" the files with us or sending us the shareable link to download.

We thank you for your dedication to this work and are with you every step of the way.

P.S. If you have any questions, please contact campaigns(at)vday.org

Guidelines
Choose up to three performers to deliver these Rising Testimonies. Each testimony should be between 2-3 minutes. These three additional pieces must be performed at the end of The Vagina Monologues. No original pieces from TVM may be moved, substituted, or omitted. We encourage organizers to showcase a range of voices through these monologues, by elevating the voices of writers and performers who hold different identities and experiences.
DONATION: Donate 90% of your proceeds to a group or groups in your community who are doing anti-violence work. For example, a local rape crisis center or domestic violence shelter.
SPOTLIGHT DONATION: Send 10% of your proceed to the V-Day 2019 Spotlight on Women in Prison, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women.

When women take the stage, incredible things happen, as their issues are voiced and confronted for all to see and hear.

Register to produce a 2019 V-Day benefit production of The Vagina Monologues and/or A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer from 1 February – 8 March. For out of season options to produce The Vagina Monologues, visit http://www.eveensler.org/plays/the-vagina-monologues/

V-Day: Say It, Stage It – Produce a V-Day Benefit as an Artistic Uprising at your college/university, in your community

One Billion RISING: Rise In Solidarity – RISE in your community, for your community

City of Joy: Turn Pain to Power – Screen the Documentary, Support the Women in DR Congo

Amplifying New Voices: Since V-Day first began in 1998, many new and long term activists have begun to stage their own works reflecting the voices in their communities. If you would like to foreground new voices in the conversation around ending violence against women, we encourage you to do so by curating stories from your community and creating a new artistic evening that you present separately. Many organizers have done this, both instead of “The Vagina Monologues” and in addition to it. It's a wonderful way to invite local writers, activists and artists to participate.