10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
January 6, 2006
Beauty, seen through the eyes of women around the world
by Kaizaad Kotwal
Rarely these days does a play, or any work of art for that matter, change the world. And yet, that is exactly what Eve Ensler and her seminal play The Vagina Monologues have done with violence against women and girls. The Vagina Monologues garnered Ensler many gay and lesbian devotees, men and women who understood oppression based on sexuality, much in the way the playwright explores in her work. Gay and lesbian people also identify with Ensler's excoriation of violence, for just as women have been abused and battered merely by virtue of their gender, GLBT folk too have known violence-physical, emotional and psychological-as the main language in which the dominantly homophobic culture chooses to speak to them in just because they are of varied sexualities.
Ensler is at it again with a new piece called The Good Body, which like Vagina, is also based on oral histories gathered from women all over the world and takes on issues central to the identity of women today. In The Good Body she takes on issues of women's obsession with their bodies and the fetishization of those bodies by others-men, corporations, cultural norms, politics, capitalism, and on and on.
I know about the power of the earlier work, having produced it all over India. I also worked with Ensler on a huge fundraising venture in 2004 to raise money for shelters dealing with battered women in Bombay along with Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei.
I have seen first hand the good that her VDay Movement--a global endeavor to end violence against women and girls-has done in real and concrete ways-building shelters, constructing safe houses, providing refuge and other resources. And I have seen over and over again the life-changing experience the play proves to be for audiences—mostly women, but many men too, straight and les-
bian folk alike, young and old also.
Ensler not only explored female sexuality openly and graphically in Vagina, but she also explored issues of bisexuality and lesbianism. She told those stories with humanity and dignity, one of the many reasons GLBT fans have been some of her largest supporters.
She will play her exclusive Ohio engagement of The Good Body in Columbus courtesy of the Wexner Center. Here she explores and exposes all sorts of things about women and their bodies during a 20city North American tour. This marks Ensler's debut performance in Columbus.
In The Good Body, she takes an inside look at the outside, exploring the cultures of beauty, food and desire through the eyes of women around the world. This provocative, hilarious, and profoundly moving show allows her to turn her unique eye to the rest of the female form.
Whether getting Botox injections or dwelling underneath burkhas, women of all cultures and back sounds feel compelled to change the way they look in order to fit in. The Good Body merges cross-cultural explorations with Ensler's own personal journey coming to terms with what she claims as her "lessthan-flat, post-40s stomach."
The Good Body debuted on Broadway in October 2004, following a workshop production at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and an engagement at ACT in San Francisco.
A portion of the proceeds from the tour will benefit V-Day.
The Good Body will play at OSU's Thurber Theater at the Drake Center, 1849 Cannon Drive, Tuesday-Friday, January 10-13 at 8 pm; Saturday, January 14 at 2 and 8 pm; Sunday, January 15 at 2 and 7 pm.
Ensler will hold a talk back after the January 10 and 12 shows. For tickets and more call 614292-3535, Ticketmaster at 614431-3600
or visit www.wexarts.org.
JOAN MARCUS
El
Windsong
Cleveland's Feminist Chorus
Karen Weaver Artistic Director
Winter Concert Voices of Freedom Voices of Truth
Saturday, Jan. 14 at 7:30p.m.
Archwood United Church of Christ
2800 Archwood in Cleveland
Advance tickets: $12
Available from any Windsong member; or by calling 216-368-6522; or by mail to P.O. Box 609534, Cleveland, OH 44109-0534
At the door: $15
See us on the web! At www.geocities.com/windsongchorus
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