VAGINA MONOLOGUES BENEFIT FOR BACKBONE tOMORROW

It is 20 years since American Playwright Eve Ensler gave permission to artists around the world to perform annually, her award-winning play The Vagina Monologues.

Tomorrow on International Women's Day, a group of actors in Auckland is performing the play with introductions from guest speakers MP Jan Logie and Dr Pani Farvid. 

Chocolatier Baron Hasselhoff's will donate some special-edition 'vagazelled' chocolates for the guests. Organiser The Lady Corp. is donating the proceeds to The Backbone Collective.

Benefit Organiser The Lady Corp. says the one-off event on International Women's Day tomorrow brings together a cast of women committed to the cause of ending violence against women and children: 

"A talented cast of women comprising Kiwi Actors Alison Quigan, Katlyn Wong, Ana Corbett, Shweta Tomar, and Phoebe Borwick is coming together to mark this occasion and to honour and celebrate all those who identify as women, from our past, present and glorious future.

"It is set to be a very special evening, this International Woman’s Day, with esteemed and notable guests MP Jan Logie and Dr Pani Farvid speaking briefly on this year’s VDay spotlight theme, RIse Resist Unite.

"Now, in V-Day's 20th year, and in the era of #timesup, the reading of real women's stories, encounters and experiences in The Vagina Monologues, is still powerful and empowering."

The play is a one-night-only benefit to raise awareness and funds for the overall VDAY.org and The Backbone Collective.

The Lady Corp. says the play is for everyone and hopes it will provoke much-needed discussion around violence against women in New Zealand:

"Through sharing these monologues again, perhaps yet more needed dialogues will be stimulated.  Come one, come all. Those with and without vaginas are more than welcome!"

Backbone Cofounder Deborah Mackenzie thanks The Lady Corp., the actors and Baron Hasselhoff's for their generous donations:

"This is an amazingly generous and much-needed donation, as Backbone has no funding other than than one-off donations from members of the public via our Givealittle page."

The Vagina Monologues - 20th Anniversary Benefit Performance
$25

Thursday 8 March 2018
7:30pm – 9:30pm
AUT Studio Theatre
Auckland

About V-Day and V20

V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, set up by American Playwright Eve Ensler, who wrote The Vagina Monologues. V-Day happens annually, and is a time when artists are encouraged to put on events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalise the spirit of existing anti-violence organisations. 

V20 celebrates V-Day's 20th Anniversary of its set up by Ensler in 1998. Since then  The Vagina Monologues and other works have been performed across the world by local V-Day activists, raising over $100 million dollars for grassroots anti-violence groups, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, and safe houses.

What began as one event in New York City in 1998 today includes over 5,800 V-Day events annually.

about the backbone collective

New Zealand has the highest rate of women experiencing violence and abuse in the developed world, which is due in part to our broken response system.

The Backbone Collective is an independent body taking action to change New Zealand's dire statistics by examining the response system through the eyes of its users - women who have experienced violence and abuse.

Please join us as either a woman who has experienced violence or abuse, or as a volunteer who wants to help by volunteering your time, services or expertise.

Many reports have been written about where the system is broken but they have fallen on deaf ears. We think that Government and others in a position of power will start listening when hundreds, and potentially thousands, of women speak up about what needs to change.

COMMENTS

Comments are closed on our website. If you'd like to talk about this story please go to the post on our Facebook page. Thank you.