By DONNA BRYSON
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Playwright Eve Ensler is a survivor – of rape, of ensuing depression and alcoholism, of cancer.
So the creator of “The Vagina Monologues” speaks with authority when she tells girls and young women around the world not to give up hope as they struggle through adolescence.
http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69…
Written by Romaana Naidoo
The latest work by controversial playwright Eve Ensler is on at the Market. It retells the stories of girls and women from around the world.
THE universality of womanhood will be played out on a Joburg stage, through ranting, poetry, questions and facts, giving the audiences a deeper understanding of the issues women and girls face each day.
Their resilience, wildness, pain, fears, secrets and triumphs will be exposed in Eve Ensler’s latest play, I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls, on at the Market Theatre in Newtown from 15 to 27 July.
The play comes in the run-up to Women’s Month, observed in August. In South Africa, Women’s Day is on 9 August. Ensler’s previous works include the famous, and controversial, The Vagina Monologues.
Her newer work is composed of fictional monologues and stories, inspired by the tales and musings of girls from around the world.
Among their voices is a young woman who is struggling to ask her boyfriend to wear a condom; an anorexic who is blogging as eats less and less; a Masai girl from Kenya who is unwillingly to endure female genital mutilation; a Chinese factory worker who is making Barbie Dolls; and a pregnant girl trying to make up her mind about keeping the baby.
According to the Market Theatre, Ensler moves through a world of varied emotions, with fierce voices, alive, tender, complicated, imaginative and smart.
“Girls today often find themselves in a struggle between remaining strong and true to themselves and conforming to society’s expectations in an attempt to please. They are taught not to be too intense, too passionate, too smart, too caring, too open. They are encouraged to shut down their instincts, their outrage, their desires and their dreams, to be polite, to obey the rules,” notes the theatre.
“I Am An Emotional Creature is a celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were always meant to be.”
Tumi Rametsi, the show’s public relations officer, it gives full expression to girls’ innermost thoughts and secret voices, and highlights the diversity and commonality of the issues with which they grapple.
Ensler was recognised in the Tony Awards, Broadway’s highest honours, on 12 June. She received the Isabelle Stevenson Award, which pays tribute to members of the theatre community for their humanitarian efforts.
She is the founder of V-Day, is a global activist movement bent on shattering taboos and transforming communities to end violence against women and girls. It has raised more than R500-million for this cause.
V-Girls is based on V-Day’s model of art and activism. It is a global network of girl activists who empower themselves and one another to create the change they imagine for the world. Inspired by I Am An Emotional Creature, V-Girls is a way for girls to amplify their voices and ignite their activism.
South African playwright and director Athol Fugard also won a special Tony Award this year, receiving a lifetime achievement award.
I Am An Emotional Creature is on at the Market Theatre in Newtown, on Tuesdays to Fridays at 8pm, on Saturdays at 3pm and 8pm, and on Sundays at 3pm. Tickets cost from R66 to R140, and are available at Computicket.
http://www.globalgirlmedia.org/archives/kick-it-up/the-emotional-creatur…
By Keana Cupido
On the 9th of July, GlobalGirl Media went to visit the famous author and world renowned playwright Eve Ensler at the Bus Factory in Newtown, Johannesburg, where she and her cast are rehearsing her new play Emotional Creature. When we went into the rehearsal studio, I got a chance to meet with Ensler and personally interview her and the cast of the play. The cast explained how exiting and inspiring it was doing the play. They told me how they really appreciated Ensler and how she helped them gain confidence and self-esteem. The girls added that V-Girls has taught them how to stand up as women and feel that they could to do anything they put their minds to.
It was a great honor to be given an opportunity to meet Eve Ensler, an inspiring woman of integrity and intelligence who experienced the tragedy of abuse at a very young age. This experience has led her to become the amazing and strong woman that she is today! She is now helping other young women with similar problems and challenges to face them with no fear and stand up for what they deserve and what is rightfully theirs.
Ensler is also well know for her play she wrote in 1996 called The Vagina Monologues, which has been staged in more than 130 countries. This play is based on interviews with women about their bodies and it became a catalyst for women to open up on their personal experiences.
An overwhelming number of women who experienced violence and have survived the tragedy. This inspired Ensler to start the movement of V-Day (Vagina Day) which has raised over $70 million dollars for anti-violence-against women programs around the world. Ensler hopes that the impact of her new book “I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE: THE SECRET LIFE OF GIRLS” and the production of the play will be just as far-reaching.
Ensler has started the V-Girls movement, “to create a girl revolution.” She says that V-Girls stands for the girl in everybody; the muted, the censored, shut down, diminished, undermined. V-Girls is described as a call to girls, for girls, about girls, around the world to be their authentic selves and to overcome the pressures that rob them of their originality and power!
As a young girl of South Africa, I will fight for my pride and I will not allow anything to come in my way, for I am a woman of power and talent beyond compare! Eve Ensler is living her life to prove a woman’s power and capabilities and I have yet to do the same. I felt so strong to have been sitting next to them on that stage. I could sit there with attitude and understand what they were talking about, because I’ve been through hell in my life. If it were not for God, my mom and GlobalGirl Media, I would not have the self-esteem and view of myself I have now.
By Lesogo Tlhabi
Eve Ensler, award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, which has been translated into 48 languages, has penned a daring and insightful new work inspired by girls around the globe
In your latest work, I am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World, there are monologues relating to girls’ issues from countries around the world. How did these stories come about?
I’ve been travelling around the world for 14 years and have been inspired by everything I’ve seen, touched, heard and imagined. I didn’t interview anyone, but I was exposed to their situations and went from there.
This production highlights teenage girls as the future women, mothers, wives and leaders. What’s the main message you’re hoping to convey to audiences?
I believe girls are too often told “to please” and to be something other than what they are. It’s very important for them to be inspired by other verbs like “create”, “learn” and “defy”. Girls are very powerful, but are often told to behave themselves. I don’t want girls to behave themselves.
Like your award-winning Vagina Monologues, I am an Emotional Creature includes both stories and monologues. Why is the monologue form so captivating?
A monologue can tap deeply into someone’s psyche. So many people live untold stories and lives. I love seeing the effects my work has on some of these people. It’s an effective way to get a powerful message across. Many times people use either their minds or their hearts to make choices, and the outcomes are often much differentiated. It’s important to fuse them and use them together, as if they were one.
You’re an author, poet, playwright, activist and mother. Which role has been your most fulfilling one?
I can’t choose one. They all fulfill parts of the same story which is my life. Sometimes I feel as though it’s hard to be an activist and an artist at the same time, because there’s usually a conflict of interests, but it’s been amazing in my growth and journey. Being a mother is a wonderful thing and I’m very happy that I adopted someone special in my life – we’ve learnt so much about love in our lives together.
http://www.citizen.co.za/citizen/content/en/citizen/lifestyle-features?o…
By Natalie Bosman
EVE ENSLER ON THE REPRESSED GIRLS WITHIN US ALL AND THE ‘HUGE VAGINA MIRACLE’
Fifteen years ago, playwright and activist Eve Ensler liberated women through her renowned play The Vagina Monologues.
Her cheeky, provocative and in-spirational script taught women to love and laugh at themselves again, and to embrace everything that being a woman entails.
Now Ensler is doing it again, only this time she’s turning her attention to a younger age group with her play I Am An Emotional Creature.
“My intention was to kind of say ‘Okay, what if we got girls before they were muted and undone; before they were done in and went underground and became someone else?'” she says, in between munching ferociously on a chicken salad.
“What if we got them at the point in their life when they could actually be their fully voiced, powered and authentic selves?
“Most of us are climbing out of the chains or unbinding the chains or finding our voice after years of being muted; loving our bodies after years of hating our bodies, or getting ourselves out of horrible relationships or marriages where we have been abused or shut down,” Ensler says.
“But I think if girls were free, maybe they wouldn’t have to go down that path, and they could be way ahead of us.”
Having recently undergone chemo and survived cancer, Ensler finds herself wanting to reach out and help women even more.
Part of her drive as an activist she says comes from being close to death and feeling “connected on a deeper level with the suffering of the world”, and part of it stems from the abuse she herself suffered as a young child.
“I was very badly abused, and because of that I had two alternatives: go crazy and die, or become an activist and transform suffering,” Ensler explains.
“Every time I do something that makes the world better for someone else, particularly a woman, I heal my own trauma and I feel like we heal the world.”
Just as the Vagina Monologues sparked the “V-Day” global movement to end violence against women and girls – “one huge vagina miracle”, as Ensler fondly calls it – I Am An Emotional Creature has given rise to the targeted “V-Girls” pilot programme, using an empowerment philanthropy model to provide young girls with a platform to get their voices heard.
The play is composed of fictional monologues told by girls in various countries and contexts – from the Chinese factory worker making Barbies to the 15-year- old Bulgarian sex slave. It’s a powerful platform of voices demanding to be heard, that resonates as strongly with women as it does with young girls.
“We are all repressed girls. We all began as these wildly imaginative, powerful, emotional, devotional, intense and brilliant creatures, and then the world came and said, ‘Don’t be so intense, don’t be so emotional, don’t be this or that’,” says Ensler.
“I think where we overlap is that girls can free us. We shouldn’t be scared of our teenage daughters, we should be begging them to help us become liberated and to take us where we need to go,” she says.
“But I think what happens to most people is that we see our teenage daughters and we get panicked, because they remind us of our losses.”
Experience an evening with Eve Ensler at Grace Cathedral
Tuesday, September 27th
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/01/dominique-strauss-ka…
The Strauss-Kahn case is not about winning or losing, but opening a dialogue on rape, violence and gender
By EVE ENSLER
The events unfolding in the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF accused of sexually assaulting a hotel chambermaid, are both surprising and surprisingly not surprising. The New York Times first reported claims that there were serious problems with the prosecution relating to the credibility of Strauss-Kahn’s accuser, who is originally from Guinea.
On Friday allies of the one-time French presidential hopeful welcomed this speculation, expressing hope for his swift return to the political scene. But the collapse of this case is not the worst thing that could happen: that would be for us all to retreat into our corners, to retrench our polarised positions. What is important is what we learn from this global episode, and what dialogue it leads us to.
This is a stream of the questions running in my head all morning.
How do you fight a rape case if you have lied in your past? How do you fight a rape case if you have been sexually active? How do you fight a rape case as a woman who wants a future in journalism, politics, banking, international affairs? How do you fight a rape case and ever hope to be taken seriously again or be perceived as anything other than a raped victim?
How do you fight a rape case as a woman in places like Congo where there are no real courts and no one is held accountable? How do you fight a rape case as an illegal immigrant with no rights in that country?
How do you fight a rape case if you still believe rape is your fault, if you don’t even know what rape is, if you are afraid of upsetting your boyfriend/husband, or afraid of getting him in trouble because he will be more violent to you?
How do we get men to stop raping lesbians or independent or highly sexual women as a “corrective act” rather than addressing the forces and powers they are truly angry at? How do we get men to understand the impact of rape: how the external bruises are internalised and remain for ever?
How do you speak out against rape and not be called a man hater, a gold digger, a slut? How do you convince women to speak out when their character is called into public question?
How do you speak out against incest or childhood sexual abuse if your mother is sleeping with the man who is abusing you, and you know she loves that man or will not believe you?
How do you speak out against the adored, handsome, powerful, charming company president/caring psychotherapist/honoured history professor/visionary film director when you risk being despised by those around him? How do you speak out against the charismatic leader of the party or country when to do so jeopardises the standing of the party, the country itself, and could let the opposition take power?
How do you press charges for sexual harassment and not worry about losing your job, or being seen as weak or unable to protect yourself or hang with the guys and “take a joke”.
When do we stop separating how we treat women from our vision of a free, equal, just world – ie how do you call yourself a socialist, an intellectual, a leader, a freedom fighter, an anti-apartheid, anti-racism, pro-earth champion, and not make honouring women a central part of that equation?
How do we create a real dialogue between men and woman about violence: what it does, how it hurts? How do we stop saying that women who are opposed to violence hate sex? When do we stop seeing them as the same thing?
The DSK scandal has rocked the world: it has brought into question issues of sex, power, race, class and gender. It is not simply a matter of winning or losing this particular case. The stakes are much higher. This case is a defining moment, a signifier of the direction we move in – towards transformation or more abuse and loss.
http://www.chaifm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=635&I…
Join V-Man and Director of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu DRC, Dr. Denis Mukwege, along with H.E. Mrs. Rosemary A. DiCarlo, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, H.E. Ms. Edita Hrdá Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations, and Ms. Margot Wallström, U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, for a special screening of Marika Griehsel’s new documentary Resolution, followed by a discussion and reception.
WHEN: Monday, June 27, 2011, 6:15 p.m.
WHERE: Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, NYC
R.S.V.P.: Admission is FREE, however you must RSVP at http://resdoc.eventbrite.com
ABOUT:
In 2010 Margot Wallström, the first UN special representative on sexual violence in war and conflict, together with her team used their mandate to develop and lobby for UN resolution 1960. A strategic tool that gives the international community the capacity to effectively prosecute those responsible for committing or planning sexual violence in war and conflict.
The film, Resolution, follows Wallström and her colleagues as they visit rape survivors and frontline activists in conflict areas across the globe. During 10 short months they shine the spotlight on instances where rape is used as a strategic weapon of war and raise the issue to the top of the UN Security Council’s agenda.
A movie by Marika Griehsel, Giant Film Production in association with SVT Dokumentär.
http://www.urbanzen.org/news/a-conversation-with-eve-ensler/
Being a part of the Urban Zen team is a gift, it really is. We work on initiatives that ignite passion, we collaborate with organizations that motivate, and we meet extraordinary people who fuel the soul. Just recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Eve Ensler – an individual for whom my normally verbacious self has no words. Eve was preparing for Viva Vevolution, happening tonight at the Urban Zen Center, when I was able to able to steal a few minutes of her time for a beautiful conversation.
ALLISON RAPSON: I am so, so happy to speak with you – thank you so much for creating time for this. On a personal note, speaking with you really does mean a lot to me. I am a big, big believer in the power of women and I believe in seeking out those mentors who are setting examples of how to be fearless and how to make a difference. You have always done this – for me and so many others. So, thank you, thank you, thank you.
EVE ENSLER: Oh, well, I am very happy to talk to you.
AR: So, the whole Urban Zen team is very excited that you are having your event with us and we wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate you and your work. I thought we could begin by talking about why you chose Urban Zen as the space to hold Viva Vevolution.
EE: Well, I’ve known Donna for a long time and, as you know, she’s on our board. I feel like we’ve been working together in various capacities over the years and we have had the opportunity to do many events at Urban Zen, so it feels like home. Viva Vevolution feels like a wild, necessary moment in our history and Urban Zen felt like the perfect place hold it.
AR: I would love to talk a little bit about women’s empowerment and what that means to you. How were you able to cultivate such a ferocious passion within yourself, so much so that you’ve been able to let that passion bleed into so many other lives? Is there a way for you to encapsulate this?
EE: What I want to say is that I think we are past women’s empowerment. What we need now is for women to take back the world. I think we just need to escalate where we are. Women need to rise up to what they know to be true in their bodies, their beings, their intuitions, their instincts. For fourteen years, through V-Day, we’ve been working to end the violence and I think what we’ve done is gotten people to take violence against women seriously, get it into the mainstream, into the discourse – but we haven’t ended it.
The next stage is for women to really step up what they are willing to do, how far they are willing to go, which sacrifices they’re willing to make, what they are willing to give up for peace. Women’s bodies are still dominated, still commodified, still objectified. So, this occasion – Viva Vevolution – is, yes, a celebration of our victories, but also — and more importantly–an event to call forth the next years that have to be more bold, more daring.
AR: When you say “more bold,” “more daring,” when you put out that challenge to women to step up and rise up, what does that look like to you?
EE: You know, immediately I think of the chambermaid in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn attack as an example. She came forward, she risked her job, she risked her standing, she risked her life to tell the truth. To me, she is a model of what all women have to be doing in their personal lives. We can’t be going along with things to protect our status, our money, our jobs, our comfort. We have to be willing to give up something, to sacrifice something. The only way things can change is when people are bold enough to tell the truth. And, usually telling the truth involves loss in some way because the culture is often founded on lies.
If you look at France now -after this woman came forward to tell her story, many women came forward to tell their stories. This is a metaphor of what needs to happen.
AR: How would encourage an individual like myself – I am in my mid twenties, I’m an impassioned person, I envision for myself a life of giving back, of making a difference, of having a voice, of doing my part to champion a cause. But I’m at the inception point with many of these things. What can someone like me do now?
EE: There are so many things to do now. I feel like all we should be doing now are these things. It doesn’t matter if it’s fighting to protect the earth, for population control, or for women. Just look at any area of the earth right now – there is so much suffering. Basically, we have to transform that paradigm so that 95% percent of the people on this globe aren’t starving while 5% have everything. If it speaks to you, you need to go and transform whatever “that” is for you.
AR: So, I know that Viva Vevolution is also a celebration of your birthday. I wondered if we could take a moment and just celebrate this last year of your life? Is there one important lesson that you’ve learned over the year that you could share with us?
EE: Well, I think there are many. I mean, I faced really horrible cancer and lived- which is the most beautiful gift in the whole word. You know, I just think that everything that happens to us has the potential to be our transformation. I think in this culture we are taught to seek out opportunities to win, instead of seeking out acts of transformation and difficult opportunities that bring you to your deepest self. What happened with me with cancer is that I realized that it was really hard and really scary, but it opened the door in my being to suffering in general. So, there isn’t a person who is sick now that I don’t feel connected to, there isn’t a person who is weak that I don’t feel connected to, there isn’t a person who is poor that I don’t feel connected to. I feel so grateful to cancer for doing this for me, you know? As hard as the struggle was, I can see that the whole process stripped away so much of me that didn’t belong anymore. It liberated me from so many demands that were imprisoning me. I feel so much lighter now, so much more alive. I am happier now and I know it is because all of this suffering has brought me to what really matters.
AR: As you look out on this next year life, what is your vision?
EE: There are so many things! We are starting a theatrical production of I Am An Emotional Creature in South Africa in July and I am really excited about that. We have another play opening in October in California and I’m also really excited about that. V-day is thriving and growing. I’m working on another book, which I am completely jazzed about – I love it. I just feel like there are all of these really, really exciting projects that I am in the midst of. I am just so incredibly blessed to have this life, to continue the work that I get to do, to be alive!
AR: Amen.