10 pounds well spent

Last night, I went to see the Vagina Monologues. I asked around to see if anyone else that I knew was interested, but they all had some excuse or another for not going, so I went anyway, and I am so glad that I did.

For those of you who don't know, I actually acted in my school's performance last year. In last night's show, they performed the same monologues that we had in our show, so it was very interesting to see the contrast - I DID hear not only Edinburgh but Loch Lomond mixed into the script! Besides, it was fun to hear everything in Scottish accents.

Some of the main differences (aside from the above speech-related ones) were the set and the staging: the entire cast was made up of about 8 women only, and they stayed onstage the whole time but just rearranged themselves, with the speaker always in front, in a pink chair as opposed to other black ones. A neat thing that I liked about the backdrop was that, as center was a corner of black curtains, they had draped pink cloth over the bars and to the floor to form a V.

Also, afterward, we were treated to a drum and dance number by performers representing Orishas, 3 important goddesses of Haiti, because this year's V-Day Spotlight was on the women of Haiti and the increased sexual violence after last year's earthquake. It was a very cool dance number that simply reinforced my desire to learn African dance. (Yes, I realize that Haiti is not in Africa, but the dances were influenced by their ancestry.) Some of the proceeds went toward relief efforts there, while the rest of the money raised went to the Edinburgh Women's Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre.

Then, I had a dream that I was nominated to win a cool trip with Eve Ensler.