Vagina Monologues: Day 2 & Discussion
After viewing Eve Ensler's performance of her play, let's discuss some of the following:
Portfolio work: Many theatrical pieces tend to examine or push topics that we, as a culture, are unwilling or unable to discuss. Monologues help establish character (particularly character backstory or exposition) and can be powerfully performed. Consider writing about "that which must not be talked about" in an honest and powerful way. This is not the time for parody, so much as an exploration about what it means to be fully human in our contemporary culture. Humor, of course, is welcome (and often necessary) when writing about topics that no one writes/talks about...
Choose a premise for a play where you will ask at least 3 other people about a single specific topic. This can be modeled on "The Vagina Monologues" or any other idea. For example, examine the issue of bullying, sexual orientation, poverty, religion, body image, the arts, technology (internet/cell-phone use, etc.) and use your interview to write a collection (or even one) monologue. Remember that monologues are meant to be performed on stage in front of a live audience.
Portfolio work: (Fun Home): Create a graphic story (see templates here) and draw and tell your own "comic book" memoir like Bechdel did in Fun Home. Consider taking a single important moment in your life and illustrating it, as one might do with a graphic novel.
Alternatively, you can write a comic book/graphic novel script and have a visual arts friend help you draw some scenes if you cannot draw or illustrate your own work. Templates can be helpful. Here's a template for Microsoft Word. See the handout if you'd like to work on something like this for your portfolio.
HOMEWORK: Read Hedwig & the Angry Inch for next class. Please bring your copies of the play to our next class. Continue to work on your portfolio pieces. These are due in about 4 1/2 weeks.
1. Examine gender in The Vagina Monologues. What ideas or themes in the play connect the women represented? Are these themes/ideas universal for all women? Or is The Vagina Monologues unnecessary for us today, and/or too "shocking" or inappropriate to view?Other discussion points?
2. What do the monologues teach/show us about how gender is socially constructed?
3. How do The Vagina Monologues treat women’s lived experiences? That is, has Eve Ensler helped break a longstanding silence about vaginas? Why or why not? What do we learn about our bodies, our selves by viewing/reading this work? What might viewing/reading this work help us understand as true or important to learn as a society or as an individual? How might the play change us or our attitudes toward this subject?
4. How effectively does The Vagina Monologues represent differences among women as their identities intersect with race, sexuality, class, religion, nation? In what ways do The Vagina Monologues show us differences within a woman’s identity--disruptions, contradictions, fragmentations, or change in a woman’s sense of who she is?
Portfolio work: Many theatrical pieces tend to examine or push topics that we, as a culture, are unwilling or unable to discuss. Monologues help establish character (particularly character backstory or exposition) and can be powerfully performed. Consider writing about "that which must not be talked about" in an honest and powerful way. This is not the time for parody, so much as an exploration about what it means to be fully human in our contemporary culture. Humor, of course, is welcome (and often necessary) when writing about topics that no one writes/talks about...
Choose a premise for a play where you will ask at least 3 other people about a single specific topic. This can be modeled on "The Vagina Monologues" or any other idea. For example, examine the issue of bullying, sexual orientation, poverty, religion, body image, the arts, technology (internet/cell-phone use, etc.) and use your interview to write a collection (or even one) monologue. Remember that monologues are meant to be performed on stage in front of a live audience.
Portfolio work: (Fun Home): Create a graphic story (see templates here) and draw and tell your own "comic book" memoir like Bechdel did in Fun Home. Consider taking a single important moment in your life and illustrating it, as one might do with a graphic novel.
Alternatively, you can write a comic book/graphic novel script and have a visual arts friend help you draw some scenes if you cannot draw or illustrate your own work. Templates can be helpful. Here's a template for Microsoft Word. See the handout if you'd like to work on something like this for your portfolio.
HOMEWORK: Read Hedwig & the Angry Inch for next class. Please bring your copies of the play to our next class. Continue to work on your portfolio pieces. These are due in about 4 1/2 weeks.
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