By Danielle Capalbo
She has spoken in the voices of many vaginas.
In past performances of the Vagina Monologues, Angelica Sirabella has relished in breaking the paradigm of dainty femininity, she said. She has been rowdy and raunchy, acting out scenes called “The Woman Who Loves to Make Vaginas Happy” or “Because He Liked to Look At It.”
But in next month’s performance of the play at Northeastern, the junior theatre major will duck behind the scenes. This time around, she’s the co-director.
For Sirabella and her colleague, Elisabeth Stenger, also a junior theatre major, this performance carries a special weight. It’s part of a worldwide celebration called V to the Tenth, the 10th anniversary of V-Day, an international non-profit charity and holiday to raise awareness and money in the fight against violence toward women.
Eve Ensler, who wrote the Vagina Monologues based on interviews with about 200 women, launched V-Day in 1998, using her play as a vehicle to promote women’s rights. Every year since, artists and activists have performed the play on and around Valentine’s Day. Performances are sometimes accompanied by summits, film festivals and protests.
The first V-Day performance, which was at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, raised $250,000 for anti-violence groups throughout the city, according to the group’s website, vday.org. On stage, Ensler was joined by guests like comedian Margaret Cho, actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg and actress Susan Sarandon.
For V to the Tenth, dedicated to women of New Orleans and the Gulf South, more than 150 countries will hold V-Day events, according to the site, with about 10 throughout Massachusetts. In Boston, Northeastern is one of five schools holding events, along with Simmons, Suffolk and Boston University.
Sirabella said she hopes to celebrate the event by making the play more accessible than before.
“I think that people have the wrong impression of the Vagina Monologues,” she said. “We’re afraid that people just think it’s a lot of angry women – crazy, left-feminists, or people who are pissed off about their periods.”
Instead, Sirabella said it’s a universal discussion about women’s bodies, minds, sexuality and safety. And for the first time in Northeastern’s production history, men will join the conversation. When actresses take the stage at Blackman Auditorium in February, an all-male a cappella group will, too.
The Bassix will provide a nuanced soundtrack, Sirabella said, with songs like “I’m Too Sexy,” by Right Said Fred; and “No Women, No Cry,” by Bob Marley. “We feel that there’s a bigger spotlight on [the performance] this year,” Sirabella said.
It will be Northeastern’s ninth performance of the play, she said.
“We’re thinking, how can we make this different?” she said.
An important obstacle to overcome, Sirabella said, is the notion that women portrayed in the monologues are of a “crazy, different species.” By including men in this performance, she hopes to debunk the notion of the “angry vagina,” she said, and show students the play is an open-window into women, rather than the closed door of an all-girls club.
“We want to get rid of the attitude that this is just something for [us],” she said. “It’s about educating people. There are monologues about … rape as a war tactic, domestic violence, violence against children. The main goal is to raise funds and awareness.”
Last year, Sirabella said, performances at Northeastern raised about $7,000 for local anti-violence charities. This year, the theatre department hopes to raise at least as much, she said. Some charities being considered to benefit from proceeds include Rosie’s Place, which provides shelter and social services for homeless women in Boston; and Easton Hugs, a non-profit that educates communities about domestic violence.
“We have high hopes,” said Andrew Kessel, a junior chemical engineering major. As a member of the Bassix, Kessel will be one of the first men to perform during a Northeastern production of the play.
“We’re really stepping out of our shell to do this,” he said. “We’ll be the first testosterone, and we’re pretty psyched about that – breaking the mold.”
For about a month before rehearsal began, Kessel said he and his 13 choir mates discussed collaboration with their female theatre friends.
“They had this brilliant idea,” he said. “They’re trying to make the performance more accessible. Some of the monologues are funny, some of them are sad – some are a combination of both. From the Bassix point of view, what we’ve seen so far is pretty neat.”
Kessel said part of Sirabella’s initiative is to get some unexpected laughs out of the crowd.
“We’re trying to inject some humor wherever we can,” he said.
By laughing together, Sirabella said, the mysticism of vaginas, and the preconceived notions that might prevent students from helping raise funds for V-Day, can be dispelled.
“We can joke about our vaginas,” she said. “We can talk about it. Do you wanna know what our vaginas would say if they could talk?”
Performances of the Vagina Monologues will be held at Blackman Auditorium, Feb. 8 and 9, starting at 8 p.m. For ticket prices, visit centerforthearts.neu.edu.
