Meet the Cast:
Eve Ensler, award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, is touring 20 North American cities from October 2005-April 2006 with her newest play The Good Body. Following engagements include Broadway in NYC, at ACT in San Francisco, and in a workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre. The Good Body (www.thegoodbody.com) has been published by Villard/Random House and addresses why women of all cultures and backgrounds - whether undergoing Botox injections or living beneath burkhas - feel compelled to change the way they look in order to fit in, to be accepted, to be good.
Ms. Ensler's The Vagina Monologues has been translated into over 35 languages and running in theaters all over the world, including sold-out runs at both Off-Broadway's Westside Theater and on London's West End (2002 Olivier Award nomination, Best Entertainment). Her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Ms. Ensler's performance in The Vagina Monologues can be seen in the HBO original documentary of the play (2002). Ms. Ensler has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive. The Vagina Monologues is based on Ensler's interviews with more than 200 women. With humor and grace the piece celebrates a woman's sexuality and strength. Today, V-Day is a global movement that supports anti-violence organizations throughout the world, helping them to continue and expand their core work on the ground, while drawing public attention to the larger fight to stop worldwide violence (including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual slavery) against women and girls. V-Day exists for no other reason than to stop violence against women. In just seven years, it has raised over $30 million and was named one of Worth Magazine's "100 Best Charities." V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films, and programs to educate and change social attitudes regarding violence against women. These include the documentary Until The Violence Stops; community briefings with Amnesty International on the missing and murdered women of Juarez, Mexico; the December 2002 V-Day delegation trip to Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan; the Afghan Women's Summit; the Stop Rape Contest; the Indian Country Project; and Karama. In 2006, more than 2500 V-Day benefit events - produced by local volunteer activists and performed in theaters, community centers, houses of worship, and college campuses - will take place around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls and raising funds for local groups within their communities.
Ms. Ensler's play Necessary Targets, set in a Bosnian refugee camp, opened Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theater in February 2002, after a hit run at Hartford Stage. Other plays include Conviction, Lemonade, The Depot, Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man, and Extraordinary Measures. The Good Body, The Vagina Monologues, and Necessary Targets have been published by Villard/Random House, as will Ms. Ensler's upcoming new works, Insecure at Last: Guidelines to Groundlessness and I Am an Emotional Creature. Vagina Warriors, words by Eve Ensler and photos by Joyce Tenneson, were published by Bulfinch Press for V-Day 2005. Ms. Ensler is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, the Berrilla-Kerr Award for Playwriting, the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, and the Jury Award for Theater at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, as well as the 2002 Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award for Leadership and The Matrix Award (2002). She is an Executive Producer of What I Want My Words To Do To You, a documentary about the writing group she has led since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. The film had its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival where it received the Freedom Of Expression Award and premiered nationally on PBS's P.O.V. In May 2003, she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from her alma mater, Middlebury College.
Ms. Ensler's The Vagina Monologues has been translated into over 35 languages and running in theaters all over the world, including sold-out runs at both Off-Broadway's Westside Theater and on London's West End (2002 Olivier Award nomination, Best Entertainment). Her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Ms. Ensler's performance in The Vagina Monologues can be seen in the HBO original documentary of the play (2002). Ms. Ensler has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive. The Vagina Monologues is based on Ensler's interviews with more than 200 women. With humor and grace the piece celebrates a woman's sexuality and strength. Today, V-Day is a global movement that supports anti-violence organizations throughout the world, helping them to continue and expand their core work on the ground, while drawing public attention to the larger fight to stop worldwide violence (including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual slavery) against women and girls. V-Day exists for no other reason than to stop violence against women. In just seven years, it has raised over $30 million and was named one of Worth Magazine's "100 Best Charities." V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films, and programs to educate and change social attitudes regarding violence against women. These include the documentary Until The Violence Stops; community briefings with Amnesty International on the missing and murdered women of Juarez, Mexico; the December 2002 V-Day delegation trip to Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan; the Afghan Women's Summit; the Stop Rape Contest; the Indian Country Project; and Karama. In 2006, more than 2500 V-Day benefit events - produced by local volunteer activists and performed in theaters, community centers, houses of worship, and college campuses - will take place around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls and raising funds for local groups within their communities.
Ms. Ensler's play Necessary Targets, set in a Bosnian refugee camp, opened Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theater in February 2002, after a hit run at Hartford Stage. Other plays include Conviction, Lemonade, The Depot, Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man, and Extraordinary Measures. The Good Body, The Vagina Monologues, and Necessary Targets have been published by Villard/Random House, as will Ms. Ensler's upcoming new works, Insecure at Last: Guidelines to Groundlessness and I Am an Emotional Creature. Vagina Warriors, words by Eve Ensler and photos by Joyce Tenneson, were published by Bulfinch Press for V-Day 2005. Ms. Ensler is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, the Berrilla-Kerr Award for Playwriting, the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, and the Jury Award for Theater at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, as well as the 2002 Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award for Leadership and The Matrix Award (2002). She is an Executive Producer of What I Want My Words To Do To You, a documentary about the writing group she has led since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. The film had its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival where it received the Freedom Of Expression Award and premiered nationally on PBS's P.O.V. In May 2003, she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from her alma mater, Middlebury College.
UPDATE: Since directing and performing in the VDay LA production, Calpernia joined a well-known Hollywood academy and continues to study her passion, acting. Now in the final stages of Casting Pearls, the Deep Stealth short comedic film about being a trans actress, she can also be...
read more
UPDATE: Recently, Leslie relocated from Houston, Texas to her hometown near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to be closer to her family. Her relationships with them continue to flourish. Leslie and her father are moving forward in their relationship as well, trying to heal from past...
read more
Lynn grew up in White Plains, NY in the 40's and 50's. Although born and raised as a boy, she felt deeply drawn to become a girl from an early age. Lynn began acting out her dreams when she went off to college at 17. She took on a secret life outside school - finding hormones and finding boyfriends...
read more
UPDATE: As I reflect on the events that lead to the release of this ground breaking film, I am both excited about the possibilities and cautioned by the society I live in. I like my life and enjoy the freedoms of being both out and proud with the privileges of privacy and all it brings. If I...
read more
UPDATE: Since producing and performing in the Vday LA production, Andrea has turned her energies toward writing and directing with the upcoming short film Casting Pearls, soon to be expanded into a feature-length script. As transition consultant and voice coach for the award-winning...
read more
Josh Aronson has been directing and producing films for many years. Starting in commercials he directed over 500 spots and MTV rock videos. Aronson started working in television in 1996 directing pilots and specials for Nickelodeon. He directed the opening 16 episodes of the reality show Outward...
read more
Ariel Orr Jordan's diverse career includes writing & directing over 25 TV docudramas including: When the Lions Weeps and The Chocolate Strike for Israeli TV, The Bubble Garden for the BBC, and Words Apart, a four-film series that captures the lost world of shamanic...
read more
