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"The Vagina Monologues" takes the blush
out of a hush-hush subject.
A poignant docudrama about the life of
unsung WWII hero Alan Turing.
For mature audiences.
February 11 - April 8
Tickets $11-$18, Group Discounts
BORDERS
BOOKS, MUSIC, VIDEO, AND A CAFE.
www.borders.com
30995 Orchard Lake Rd.
Farmington Hills
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(248) 737-0110-
LINDA BACHRACK
Special to the Jewish News
lilir hat are a bunch of nice
Jewish ladies doing talk-
ing about vaginas?"
Arlene Frank, of the
Oakland Community College
Womencenter, ponders this question as
she explains the upcoming V-Day 2000
College Initiative featuring a performance
of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.
Ensler is an award-winning Jewish
playwright; Yolanda Fleischer, also
Jewish, is an associate professor of the-
ater at the University of Detroit Mercy
who will direct the local production;
and noted Detroit-area actress Shirley
Benyas will impersonate an elderly
Jewish woman from Queens in a
monologue titled "The Flood."
But women of all ethnicities, races
Linda Bachrack is a Birmingham-
based freelance writer.
and religions are talking about the off-
private to the point of embarrassment.
Broadway hit, and they're beginning to
Then I realized if you have sex, you
feel comfortable with a word that has
have power."
been taboo for generations.
Ensler has continued to perform her
V-Day is a campaign to end sexual
monologues across the world to sold-out
and other types of violence against
audiences; there have been productions
women, as well as to proclaim
of The Vagina Monologues in Israel,
Valentine's Day as an opportunity to
Spain, France, Belgium, Mexico,
celebrate the female gender. The first V-
Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Holland,
Day was held in 1998 with a perfor-
Italy and South Africa.
mance of The Vagina
The playwright just
Monologues by some of the
ended her one-woman,
Ladies in red: The local
biggest stars in show busi-
limited-run performance
cast of "The Vagina
ness.
Monologues" will perform of the monologues at
Whoopi Goldberg deliv- Feb. 14 at Oakland
Manhattan's Westside
ered a monologue written
Community College's
Theatre — the New York
especially for her, titled
Orchard Ridge Campus.
Times called the show
"My Angry Vagina." Susan
the hottest ticket in town
Sarandon performed a piece about wit-
— where, beginning on Feb. 8 a trio of
nessing a birth, and Glenn Close reha-
actresses will share the stage in a series
bilitated a common obscenity for the
of two-week engagements.
word "vagina."
The V-Day College Initiative 2000
Said comedienne Kathy Najimy of
brings the issue of violence against
her participation in the play: "I was
women to some 300 campuses across
taught that my vagina was something
the country. OCC and U-D Mercy are
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