This Week Only: The Vagina Monologues at McCallum

This is a fundraiser for OperationOF. How did you get involved with this organization?

KJ: Andreá asked! It was a great opportunity to work again with women I love and admire and do it for a great cause. Andreá's energy and commitment to this cause were contagious -- who could resist!

AS: Seth Cochran and I both grew up in Georgetown. After graduation, we sort of lost touch, and through the miracle of social networks, we reconnected, and I found out all about OperationOF, and what they are doing to help women. It was inspiring, to say the least.

JW: Andreá told me about Seth, and some amazing work that he had done, and was continuing to do with women/families in several countries in Africa. When she approached me with the idea of producing the Vagina Monologues in collaboration with The McCallum Fine Arts Academy as a fundraiser for OperationOF, I couldn't say no. We are so very honored to be able to help in this way.

AS: Part of the reason these ladies go without treatment, (which costs just $250), is because no one likes to talk about Obstetric Fistula. No one will say the word, "vagina", so they often suffer in silence, and have no manner of recourse. They are ostracized by their communities, shunned by their families, and their children are taken from them, when they are branded as social pariahs.

OperationOF reaches out to them, and gets them the medical treatment they need, but they also go one step further...and they counsel them and teach them a marketable trade for their region. They provide them with micro finance, in order for them to re-establish themselves within their communities, and make a living for themselves. It's all about empowerment, and giving these women, who've never been given anything, a chance to help themselves.

JU: Like Julie, Karen and I got involved with the organization and project through Andreá. She told us all about the organization and the work it does and asked us if we would be interested in participating in the fundraiser for it. We were honored that she thought of us and we both enthusiastically said, "YES!!"

What is it like to work on Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.

JU: It is a beautiful piece! It hits many emotions -- funny, happy, sad, poignant and more. It also takes the taint, if that is the right word, off the word "vagina". Some of the monologues are hard places to go to, as an actress, but the ride is worth it!

KJ: My thoughts are bouncing around like a pinball machine.... At some points you get caught up in the process and forget that the subject in question is one that is banned in some cultures, mutilated in others, subjugated always to the male in most. Then sometimes you sit back in awe as we casually toss off the word and the work and realize Lenny Bruce was right when he said that if you use a forbidden word or a word charged with negativity often enough it loses its power. I imagine what my mother would think, a proper woman of her time, if she heard us talking.

AS: We've all learned a lot about ourselves through this process. Parts of these monologues live in us, and finding those, through the help of Karen's unbelievably insightful direction, has been an inspiring process all its own. I have laughed until I hurt, and I have been brought to tears during rehearsals.

JW: It is somethin' else, I'll tell you that. You cannot approach The Vagina Monologues as you would any other piece. It's work for everybody -- we actors/directors have a responsibility to broach a subject about which people have heard but with which they may not at all be comfortable as they don't know what to expect. It's an amazing challenge!!

AS: One of the the under-lying themes of The Vagina Monologues is female empowerment. The parallels between the theme of the text and the work OperationOF is doing, were undeniable, and I couldn't imagine a better pairing for a fundraiser.