BETHLEHEM, PA—“The Vagina Monologues,” a play by Eve Ensler, comes to SteelStacks on Valentine’s Weekend when it appears in the Fowler Blast Furnace Room of the ArtsQuest Center, 101 Founders Way, on Feb. 16, 6 p.m. The episodic play was developed and premiered in New York and enjoyed an Off-Broadway run in 1996 at Westside Theatre. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called the play “probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade.”  Tickets, which are on sale now at www.steelstacks.org and 610-332-3378, are $22.50 for ArtsQuest Members, $23 for students & seniors and $25 for the public. 

Produced by Samuel Saint Thomas and directed by Casey McGinty, the relevant and humorous Obie Award winning play and its diverse local cast explore topics such as consensual and nonconsensual sexual experiences, body image, genital mutilation, direct and indirect encounters with reproduction, vaginal care, menstruation and sex work from the perspectives of women of various ages, races, sexualities and other differences. 

Saint Thomas, a Bethlehem professor and musician, says, “There has never been a more important and crucial time than now to bring men into the conversation of women’s empowerment and freedom.”  

A prolific veteran fundraiser, Saint Thomas has been active in humanitarian causes both locally and abroad. “Eve Ensler bravely exposes fear, myth and shame surrounding women’s sexuality to reveal beauty and celebration,” he says. 

McGinty, a Lehigh Valley actress and musician, says, “For men and women to find freedom and healing through embracing the feminine spirit that connects us all and to reconcile with the life-giving femme force of the planet is unfortunately as relevant now as it was when Eve Ensler wrote the play.” 

“Spellbinding, funny, and almost unbearably moving…Written with a bluntness that is nevertheless intensely lyrical, it is both a work of art and an incisive piece of cultural history, a poem and a polemic, a performance and a balm and a benediction.” – Variety 

Saint Thomas, McGinty and the cast join Ensler and The V-Day organization in its mission to end violence against women and girls by sharing all proceeds with Women’s Resources of Monroe County and Crime Victims Council of the Lehigh Valley.

 

For more information, visit www.steelstacks.org.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Mark Demko, ArtsQuest
http://www.artsquest.org/

 

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