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The
Monologues
Play based on interviews with 200
women seeks to raise consciousness
and restore joy to feminist movement
PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN
Top right: Bronwyn McNutt instructs performers in this
weekend's “The Vagina Monologues” during Wednesday's
rehearsal. Above: Cast members rehearse for “The Vagina
Monologues” In the Russell House Theater this weekend.
BY SARAH K. HAMMOND
THE GAMECOCK
A lifelong activist, playwright
Eve Ensler has covered subjects
like homelessness and nuclear
disarmament. But she never cre
ated the kind of frenzy with those
plays as she has now that she has
tapped into the word vagina.
“Let’s just start with the word
vagina,” reads the beginning of
“The Vagina Monologues.”
“It sounds like an infection at
best, maybe a medical instru
ment: ‘Hurry, nurse, bring me the
vagina.’ Vagina. Vagina. It’s a to
tally ridiculous, completely un
sexy word. If you use it during
sex in an attempt to be politically
correct, you kill the act right
there.”
This weekend, “The Vagina
Monologues” finally comes to Co
lumbia with a student production
at the Russell House Theater di
rected by Michelle Crisp and pro
duced by Bobbie Wofford and
Bronwyn McNutt.
What began in 1996 as a one
woman show at the off-broadway
HOME for Contemporary Theatre
and Art at HERE has touched peo
ple from Zaire to Romania, London
to San Francisco. It is still running
in New York at the Westside The
atre with a three-woman cast that
has featured countless high-profile
women, including actresses Jane
Fonda, Calista Flockhart, Glenn
Close and Rudolph Giuliani’s es
tranged wife, Donna Hanover.
The play is based on Ensler’s
interviews with 200 women.
“I was worried about vaginas,”
Ensler said. “I was worried about
what we think about vaginas, and
even more worried that we don’t
think about them... I talked to old
women, young women, married
women, single women, lesbians,
college professors, actors, corpo
rate professionals, sex workers,
African-American women, His
panic women, Asian American
women, Native American women,
Caucasian women, Jewish women.
At first, women were reluctant to
talk. They were a little shy. But
once they got going, you couldn’t
stop them.”
Ensler is interested in demys
tifying the vagina. She’s also in
terested in restoring joy to the
feminist movement that she took
part in as a young woman.
Both humor and grief figure
into this play. The monologues
have titles like “My Angry Vagi
na” and “If Your Vagina Got
Dressed What Would It Wear?”
The monologues also include the
story of a gang rape in Bosnia.
“The Vagina Monologues”
isn’t just a play anymore. In ad
dition to raising awareness, En
sler has seen her play raise a lot
of money in the commercial
sphere. She decided to make the
play work for women everywhere
by establishing V-Day, the glob
al movement to stop violence
against women and girls.
Ensler finds the word “chari
ty” full of weakness, contrary to
the spirit of the V-Day move
ment. V stands for Victory,
Valentine, and Vagina. V-Day is
a day on or around Valentine’s
Day for which theatrical and
artistic events are produced
around the world to raise money
and transform consciousness.
McNutt, a second-year com
puter science student, read about
V-Day in the back of her copy of
“The Vagina Monologues,” a gift
from last Valentine’s Day. Presi
dent of the Women Students’ As
sociation, McNutt signed USC up
to produce the play as part of V
Day’s college campaign. Student
organizers around the nation are
mounting more than 600 benefit
performances of the play. The
proceeds from USC’s production
will go to Sistercare, the Revolu
tionary Association for the
Women of Afghanistan and USC’s
Sexual Health and Trauma Ser
vices. Thirty-seven women will
perform on the Russell House
stage.
“Everyone just seemed so in
terested and enthusiastic that
we wanted to include as many
If you’re going...
WHAT: “The Vagina
Monologues”
WHERE: Russell House
Theater
WHEN: Feb. 16 and 18
at 8 p.m. and Feb. 17 at
2 p.m.
BOX OFFICE CONTACT:
79.9-6551
TICKETS: Tickets are $5
for students, $8
nonstudent tickets
people as possible,” McNutt
said. “Our age range is 17 to 49.1
really wanted it to be well
mixed. We have 22 white women
and 15 racially diverse women,
including African-American,
Asian, Indian, and Polish
(women).”
The actresses are going
through an unorthodox re
hearsal process, mostly doing
group-building exercises be
cause they don’t have the op
' portunity to interact onstage.
The script is always growing
as Ensler speaks to more women.
The USC production will use an
updated script, which involves
new monologues based on En
sler’s interviews with women in
Afghanistan.
“The hardest thing is that be
cause it’s called ‘The Vagina
Monologues,’ it sort of sets the
stage that it’s going to blanket the
entire topic, and you really
can’t,” McNutt said of producing
the play. “It’s impossible to dis
cuss every single issue that
women face and every single way
that they see it. I think a lot of
people may leave saying ‘that re
ally didn’t speak to me.’ Other
people will leave saying, ‘I can’t
believe someone else thought
that.’ “
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gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com
Contemporary sculpture show
finds venue at the Art Garage
Art by USC
students and
teachers to be
displayed
BY ERIC SUTTON
THE GAMECOCK
Tomorrow night, 3D@USC will
display some student and teacher
art at The Art Garage. The force
behind the show is visiting assis
tant professor Bernadette Vielbig.
The show will bring her students
and their art together at the rela
tively new venue. Though it’s new,
The Art Garage has already hosted
a number of shows. It also rents in
expensive studio space to artists.
Vielbig said: “The 20 or more
works represent a variety of me
dia and stylistic impressions of
what constitutes contemporary
sculpture. While most of this work
is the result of projects, each has
managed to communicate the in
dividual voices of the different
artists.”
Vielbig is the woman behind
USC’s metal foundry. When she
arrived, the foundry was in
shambles, but through her labor
ing, it is now a functioning part
of the USC art department. The
foundry is the facility that stu
dents use to cast bronze to make
sculptures.
3D@USC will run through the
entire month. The opening is free
to the public, with an auction at
the end of the night. Drinks and
b.ors d’oeuvres will be served.
“I think it is great being here
so long and finally having a venue
for student work,” said Billy Mak
er, a fourth-year art student.
“Bernadette has done a great job
putting the show together. I think
this show will be a good step in
bringing together the artists’
community at USC.”
Student Lisa Caldwell said.“I
took the self-portrait idea and the
use of large-scale murals and
made it my own,”
Elizabeth Adams is a post-doc
toral rstudent who received her
English doctorate in creative writ
Left: "Plush Perv" by
Jerl Ford. Mixed
media assemblage
3D design. Above:
"Ode to the Colonel"
by Stephanie Leach.
Mixed media
assemblage 3D
display. Student and
faculty art will be on
display at the as part
of 3D@USC. The
show will run through
the entire month.
PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE
GAMECOCK
ing under James Dickey. She is a
poet and “likes to combine poetry
with her physical art work,” as in
her piece “Possibilities of Flight.”
Other students displaying
their art include Stephanie
Leach, Caitlin Bright, Michele
Skillman, Eric Miller, Daniel
Bailey, Lindsey Brown, Ginger
Hogg, Eun Hyen Kim, Tommy
Bonner, Kevin Pena, Elizabeth
Adams and Dot Ross-Vaughn.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockrhixeditor@hotmail.com
Country music icon
Jennings dies at 64
BY JIM PATTERSON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASHVILLE, TENN. - Despite
the black cowboy hat and bad
guy image, country star Waylon
Jennings was known as a stand
up guy. But when it came to his
songs, it was a different story.
“You start messin’ with my
music, and I get mean,” he told
The Associated Press in 1992.
“As long as you are honest and
upfront with me, I will be the
same with you. But I still do
things my way.”
Jennings died peacefully
Wednesday at his Arizona home
after a long battle with diabetes
related health problems, said
spokeswoman Schatzi Hage
man. He was 64.
“Waylon Jennings was an
American archetype, the bad
guy with a big heart,” said Kris
Kristofferson, who sang with
Jennings in the Highwaymen.
Jennings’ list of hits spans
four decades and includes coun
try music standards like "Good
Hearted Woman” and "Mammas
Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up
to Be Cowboys,” both duets with
Nelson.
He made 60 albums and had
16 country singles that reached
No. 1. His "Greatest Hits” album
in 1979 sold 4 million - a rare ac
complishment in country music
for that era.
Singer George Jones called it
a “great loss for country music.”
Jennings “had a voice and a
way with a song like no one
else,” said country star Emmy
PHOTO BY SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
Waylon Jennings released 60
albums during his career.
lou Harris, adding “He was also
a class act as an artist and a
man.”
Jennings had been plagued
with health problems in recent
years that made it difficult for
him to walk. In December, his
left foot was amputated.
He often refused to attend mu
sic awards shows on the
grounds that performers
shouldn’t compete against each
other. He didn’t show up at his
induction into the Country Mu
sic Hall of Fame last year.
“Whenever country music got
a little too impressed with itself,
Waylon was there to let them
know what the music’s roots
were. He was very uncompromis
ing about that,” said Lenny Kaye,
a guitarist with the Patti Smith
Group who helped Jennings write
his 1996 autobiography.
Bom in Littlefield, Texas, Jen
nings became a radio disc jockey
at 14 and formed his own band
0
♦ WAYLON, SEE PAGE 7
MOVIE REVIEW
Warfilm
doesn’t
compare
to greats
“HART’S WAR”
Starring Bruce Willis
out of ☆☆☆☆☆
BY ADAM MCALLISTER
THE GAMECOCK
War movies are a dime a
dozen, particularly this season,
when theatergoers get the chance
to choose between different wars
with different stars and different
agendas. During the next few
weeks, viewers will be able to
decide between Ridley Scott’s
Battle of Mogadishu epic “Black
Hawk Down,” Mel Gibson’s
Vietnam epic “We Were
Soldiers” or “Hart’s War,” the
Bruce Willis World War II
prisoner-of-war film.
However, “Hart’s War”
unfortunately falls into the trap
of the wannabe epic, a type of
movie that is only a derivative of
far superior features. POW films
are not a new thing - previous
examples include 1937’s “Grand
Illusions” or 1953’s “Stalag 17.”
Regrettably, very little has been
improved upon over four
decades. Classics such as those
will never be surpassed.
Despite this, “Hart’s War”
does well on its own as simple
entertainment. The film
follows Lt. Tommy Hart (Colin
Farrell), a second-year law
student ripped out of his
surroundings and placed
behind a desk during World
War II.
During a planned siege, he is
captured and placed into a
POW camp, where he finds
himself swept away. He is
enveloped in a whole new
culture, finding people
sustained by what they can
barter for or scrounge. His
every move is watched, not
only by his Nazi captors, but by
a new makeshift order of
command within the camp led
by Col. William McNamara
(Willis), a seemingly by-the
book career military man.
Uprooting the camp after Hart
arrives are two other soldiers,
black Tuskegee Airmen forced
to live with their racist peers.
Tempers begin to flare as racial
rivalries are drawn, leaving
only Hart to intervene. After a
framed escape and brutal
murder, a white soldier is killed,
leaving innocent Lt. Lincoln
Scott, who is black, to face the
consequences. This sets in
motion events that ultimately
"lead to the film’s cluttered
downfall, including a court
martial, attempted escapes and
countless selfless sacrifices.
Director Gregory Hoblit, last
working behind the camera of
“Frequency,” had good
intentions for this feature, but
they fall short in an attempt for
something better. What starts off
as a simplified plot mostly given
away mostly in the previews
ends Up burying itself under too
many wartime devices. We have
already seen the racial conflicts
in war, we have already seen the
daring escapes, and we have
already seen the “do-what-it
takes” attitude, all of which are
displayed in this movie.
What does provide a
welcome relief is fresh-faced
Farrell, who only recently has
become a hit Hollywood name
after critically acclaimed roles
in “Tigerland” and the soon-to
be released “Phone Booth.”
Rarely do we get a chance to
follow the progression from a
young actor into bigger and
better roles, such as Steven
Spielberg’s upcoming
“Minority Report.”
Ultimately, Farrell’s acting
prowess coupled with Willis’
veteran sensibility provides
the saving grace for “Hart’s
War.” What we are left with is a
decent film, but one that could
have been something much
better.
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