Every year since 1998, V-day has been celebrated on or around Valentine's Day. According to its Website, www.vday.org, V-day is "a global movement to stop violence against women and girls" that "provides funding to create and nurture innovative programs to stop the violence." For the second year in a row, the Brandeis Vagina Club presented Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" to commemorate the occasion. Organized by Whitney Cohen '03, Jessica Levenson '04, Courtney Kelly '04 and Seyhan Musaoglu '05, the event ran Thursday, Friday and Saturday and enjoyed a huge audience response on all three nights. Cohen was excited about the "Vagina Monologues" sophomore production at Brandeis, saying "there's always more people to empower, more people to talk to."

When I arrived at the Carl J. Shapiro Theater on Saturday evening, it was packed. Tickets had sold out and the show was delayed slightly as everyone found a seat. However, some unlucky people were left outside. The stage was sparsely decorated with seven chairs in a line and a red-lit backdrop. The group of women presenting individual monologues took the stage, including Cohen, Levenson, Kelly, Musaoglu and Beril Elhadef '03, Sarah Freidson '04, Pamela Giller '05, Heather Anne Law '03 and Alyson Sachs '06.

The show began with the women on-stage answering the question, "If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?" The energy on stage was electric as the women traded answers ("a mink coat," "leather"), and it only got better. The women, all dressed in red and black, read monologues that ranged in tone from serious to wry to funny and included facts about violence committed against women and girls worldwide and about vaginas in general.

The monologues reflected material taken from interviews with all kinds of women, old and young, rich and poor and of all races; it did not perpetuate any stereotypes. The actors all did a commendable job interpreting the material, doing everything from faking orgasms on-stage to enticing the audience to yell the word "cunt."

"Audience response has been amazing," Cohen said. Indeed, the audience was either sitting in rapt attention or laughing at the women's humorous renditions of their characters. One of the main goals of "The Vagina Monologues" is to remind everyone that sexual assault plays a role in each of our lives, even though we may not be completely aware of it.

At one point in the show, the actors asked everyone who was sexually assaulted or knew someone who had been to stand. Nearly everyone in the room stood. It was an effective visual example of the prevalence of sexual assault in all of our lives. "Even people knowing that one in three is not just a statistic," Cohen said, "has a tremendous impact."

Asked about her main motivation for putting on the show again, Cohen spoke about the importance of reaching even more people. Although "the purpose of the show is mainly about a woman's perspective, it's not about male bashing," she said.

This year the V-day organization gave the OK to change "The Monologues"' format slightly and include men. So, after the individual monologues, there was a section comprised of two group skits which were entirely student-written.

The group performers included Leah Collier '05, Svetlana Dvoskin '03, Maggie Frye '05, Jonathan Hoar '04, Adena Kemper '06, Hadas Kroitoru '06, Deirdre Mooney '04, Peretz Partensky '03, Noam Smooha '06, Barrie Sueskind '03 and Sarah Sullivan '06.

The first skit began with three male actors posing as audience members. They then took their discussion on-stage, and it turned into a clever skit dealing with a male's concerns and perceptions about the feminism question. This made the message of the show more about empowerment of every single person, rather than the clich and inaccurate idea that feminists are man-haters. The second skit consisted of eight women performing a "group monologue." The women confidently strutted, whistled, traded information and ended their performance in the shape of a V across the stage.

"The Vagina Monologues" was artfully done, informative and quite enjoyable. The final proceeds totaled $4,500, which will be donated to the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Waltham's Support Committee for Battered Women and V-Day's International fund.

"The Vagina Monologues" is part of a week-long awareness-raising campaign from the Vagina Club.

For more information go to http://people.brandeis.edu/vday.