Title: The Vagina Monologues in Taipei Taiwan Church News 2823 3-9 April 2006 Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong. Written by David Alexander
The American actress Eve Ensler's long running play "The Vagina Monologues" is staged in more than 100 countries on over 1000 stages around the world every year. This year the Garden of Hope Foundation sponsored productions at the Golden Nation Theater in Sanchung City, near Taipei, on April 1st and 2nd. All on stage performers were Garden of Hope staff members.
Chi Huei-young, the foundation's executive secretary, has long participated in social justice issues. She said, "Every aspect of the Vagina Monologues' message touches on current cases in which our foundation is involved. This is not a play, this is real human life."
Through this production the foundation hopes to bring attention to a social movement, hoping to let everyone know that a woman's genital organs are not filthy, but sacred. Since human life is born through the vagina discussion of genitals is healthy.
Lin Hsu-ling is the production's director. She said that though this is the first time she has directed social workers it is not her first experience of involvement in something so vital. She notes that women's permission to talk privately of the vagina has been limited in the past but that in current times people can hear open discussions of sexual matters in movies and on TV. She hopes that discussions will become ever more open.
A team from the foundation re-decorated the door of the Golden Nation Theater to resemble a vagina, through which people entered and departed and the seating area as a uterus, within which they sat. The intent was to stage the entire event, all that was seen, spoken and heard, in the context of a vagina. According to the director, this was not a gimmick, but a life context.
For more information: Garden of Hope Foundation <http://www.goh.org.tw/>www.goh.org.tw Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local languages. Visit our web site: <http://www.pctpress.com.tw/>www.pctpress.com.tw