"The Vagina Monologues" performance  

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Hood College Theatre, along with Hood's Women's Studies Program and the student chapter of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, will sponsor a staged reading of playwright Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues," Friday, Feb. 9 as part of the V-Day college campaign.

Hood College Theatre's performance, which will be directed by D.C.-based actress, director, playwright and MacDowell fellow Callie Kimball, will take place in Hood's Rosenstock Hall Auditorium at 8 p.m. The cost of the performance is $10 for general admission, $7 for non-Hood students and seniors and $5 for Hood students. There are no advanced tickets for the event. Tickets will be available beginning at 6:30 p.m. on the day of the performance and only cash or checks will be accepted. A sellout is expected for the event. Proceeds from the performance will go to Heartly House, Inc., of Frederick.

Ensler's Obie Award-winning play is based on her book of the same name. It is a compilation of real stories of intimacy, vulnerability and sexual self-discovery from both hilarious and heartbreaking interviews she conducted with more than 200 women about their memories and experiences of sexuality and their bodies.

The performance is part of the global V-Day college campaign, which strives to empower women to find their collective voices and demand an end to the epidemic levels of violence and abuse on their campuses, in their communities and around the world. Awareness about this issue is raised through benefit productions of "The Vagina Monologues," while proceeds from these events are donated directly to local community organizations that are working to stop this violence.

V-Day, a nonprofit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. Since 1998, the V-Day movement has raised more than $30 million and in 2001, the corporation was named one of Worth Magazine's "100 Best Charities."

For more information about Hood's performance, please contact Jennifer Plants, assistant professor of theater and Hood College Theatre program director, by phone at (301) 696-3720 or by e-mail at plants@hood.edu.

 - http://www.hood.edu/adminservices/news.cfm?featureID=1847