'Not Your Mother's Monologues' aims to expand feminist narrative

After a few on-and-off years of hosting “The Vagina Monologues” (1998), the Tufts producers of Eve Ensler’s iconic feminist series are giving the show a makeover, revamping it as an all-inclusive, entirely student-written performance. In an effort to expand upon Ensler’s concept and to amplify the voices of any and all female-identifying individuals, “Not Your Mother’s Monologues” will signal a modern departure from the monumental but nevertheless outdated script written almost 20 years ago.

At the helm of the project are sophomores Aishvarya Arora and Julia Doyle, both of whom performed in “The Vagina Monologues” last spring. After taking on directorial roles and beginning the collaborative process this year, the girls agreed it was time for meaningful change.

“Before, we were both cast members using the original script, and it was so rewarding to get the word out that we care about these issues, to create a dialogue,” Arora said. “But when it comes down to it, Eve Ensler’s writing is just insufficiently inclusive.”

To demonstrate, she explained that “The Vagina Monologues,” despite its expressed desire to be as comprehensive as possible, only incorporated one act by a woman of color and one by a queer-identifying woman. According to Arora, the problem here lies in the show’s inability to reach out to all walks of life, only appealing to a very particular subset of females.

“It’s pretty unfair to women on this campus who perceive the show as being something that might pertain to them,” she said. “Part of the reason it’s iconic is its effort to break down barriers and speak for all women. But it must be very frustrating for women of color, trans women or women of different socioeconomic classes, just going to this play and expecting to have their voice heard and then not ... we want to change that this year.”

In the overhaul of Ensler’s original production, the directors made it clear that they had no intention of mitigating its core values and cultural relevance. Instead, the goal here is to create something of a snowball effect, continuing the boundary-pushing trend and adapting it to meet the urgent need for inclusiveness in 2014.

Those behind "The Vagina Monologues" at Tufts are certainly not the first student organization to begin veering away from the show’s initial message. Amherst has already changed its performance to the campus-specific “Women of Amherst,” and Duke puts on its annual “Me Too Monologues,” which focuses on diversity in identity and steers clear of all gender-based restrictions.

“Not Your Mother's Monologues,” then, will insert itself as a progressive middle ground between the two ideas: There will be no limit to the type of subject matter allowed; the only parameter being that of a female-centric space, meaning only those who identify as a woman will be featured.

Still, dropping the word “vagina” from the production’s title was a very conscious decision made by the directors in an attempt to stretch the concept of inclusiveness as far as possible.

“We’re intentionally disengaging from the ‘vagina’ aspect because that was excluding to people who identify as female but don’t have vaginas and/or people who have them but don’t identify as female,” Arora said. “The similarity is that, in terms of subject matter and topic, we stray far away from saying we’re a new version of 'The Vagina Monologues’ because it’s not just feminist issues you can talk about, but all sorts of life experiences. It doesn’t have to be something related to the previous version of the play.”

“What Eve [Ensler] did was groundbreaking,” Doyle continued. “It was an important thing to do that started a dialogue about women and created this movement that we’re now just trying to move forward and follow on that legacy, saying ‘how many more people can we include, how much wider can we push this dialogue?’”

For Doyle and Arora, this has meant shifting the monologues from a national standard to a private, Tufts-specific environment where women on campus can share stories that remain untouched and untold in any other space. It’s a movement towards intimacy, closeness and most importantly understanding, as certain experiences are shared with others who might be able to reach out and relate. As Arora and Doyle described it, "Not Your Mother's Monologues" is less of a production, and more of a community effort.

“We want to make it applicable to the people who hear it,” Doyle said. “This year, we want students to go to the monologues and think, ‘these are my peers speaking, these are the women on my campus and these are their problems, joys, their embarrassment ... all of it.' We’re hoping people interact and engage with the play on a more personal level.”

To this end, it was imperative that “Not Your Mother’s Monologues” include performances not only of sexual, female and gender-specific issues, but ideas of all kinds, and that’s no exaggeration.

“Write to us about your race, your culture, your ethnicity, your socioeconomic class, or you can tell us about your family, your friends, your boyfriend and the crush you had in fifth grade,” Doyle mused. “You can talk about your style of clothing -- why you always wear black. Why you like to work out on the elliptical and not the treadmill. Do you do crunches every night before bed and what does that mean to you? What was your favorite book, your favorite name you came up with for a pet or a story … we’ve been brainstorming, and I could go on forever.”

Submissions for "Not Your Mother's Monologues" can be sent to notyourmothersmonologues2015@gmail.com and will be accepted until Nov. 15.

This will coincide with an appeal to get more students involved in the production process as well. Before the Nov. 15 submission deadline, the students running “Not Your Mother’s Monologues” will be hosting workshops to run through everyone’s writing and discuss ideas of their own. Arora and Doyle are also crossing their fingers for co-editor contributions once more submissions begin piling in.

“If we want to put together a truly representative show, we need people with varying identities on the submissions committee who can work together as a team,” they said.

The duo is already laying out a timeline for the actual show, with high hopes for a polished and put-together play materializing by winter break. Once spring rolls around, the team will be shifting their focus towards auditioning actors and working on the production aspects onstage. The final show will take place in late March or early April of 2015.

Arora wrapped everything up by reinforcing the mission statement of the reboot: to provide a safe space for writers.

"If you want to submit anonymously, go for it and it will have a totally objective reception,” she said. “Whatever you need us to do. You can perform it yourself or cast someone to perform it for you. We’re completely flexible -- and super excited!”