Posted on January 25, 2001 at 10:27 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — As part of a national campaign to address the problem of violence against women, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Women’s Studies Program will present an award-winning play about modern women, their lives and their experiences.

“The Vagina Monologues” will be performed at 8 p.m., February 16, 17 and 18 at Bell Theatre, 700 13th Street South. Tickets are $5 for students and $12 for the general public. Call (205) 975-5738 or e-mail mwilson@uab.edu for reservations. A silent auction of goods and services will be held at 7 p.m. at the theater before each performance and immediately after each show. For information or to make donations, contact Shelia Wentzel at shewentzeled@aol.com.

“The Vagina Monologues” is the off-Broadway hit play by Eve Ensler. The play is based on interviews with women from various backgrounds, from a Long Island antiques dealer to a Bosnian refugee, about their attitudes toward their bodies. “The Vagina Monologues” will be presented at UAB as part of the V-Day College Initiative, which is just one of several projects of V-Day, a campaign to spread the message to stop violence against women.

The idea for V-Day came as Ensler performed “The Vagina Monologues” in small towns and large cities around the world and saw and heard first hand the destructive personal, social, political and economic consequences that violence against women has for many nations. As a result of hearing stories by women of rape, incest, and domestic battery, Ensler founded V-Day in 1998.

The mission of V-Day is to call an end to violence against women and to proclaim Valentine’s Day as V-Day until the violence ends. As part of the V-Day initiative, colleges and universities worldwide are encouraged to present productions of “The Vagina Monologues” on Valentine's Day. For more information, go to www.vday.org.

In Birmingham, V-Day is sponsored by the UAB Women’s Studies program, the Alabama Women’s Health Initiative and the Odd of Medusa Project. Money raised from the three performances of “The Vagina Monologues” will go to organizations working in the area of sexual violence against women.

“The Vagina Monologues” won a 1997 Obie Award, the jury award for the Best Theater Performance at the Aspen Comedy Festival 2000 and was nominated for Drama Desk and Helen Hayes awards. Ensler’s other works for the stage include “The Depot” “Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man” and “Extraordinary Measures.” Her play, “Necessary Targets,” about the plight of women in Bosnia, has had benefit performances on Broadway, at the National Theater in Sarajevo, and at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Her newest play, “Conviction,” was commissioned by Music-Theater group and recently performed at the Berkshire Theater Festival.

Ensler is the 1999 recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting. She is now working on a documentary about women in prison.