Bad Seed Theatre Strives For Diversity In ‘Vagina Monologues’
Director Kirsten Popper and actor Denise Santos
photos by Lauren Krupczak talk to Lois Reitzes.
Myke Johns / WABE
It’s been more than 20 years since Eve Ensler first stepped onstage with her show, “The Vagina Monologues.” In the following decades, that event turned into a movement which sees yearly performances all over the world, as well as lots of money raised for charity. Atlanta audiences will have a chance to see this work, which remains as relevant as ever, next week.
This is director Kirsten Popper’s seventh year working on a production of the show.
“It was really important to me this time to extend the outreach,” Popper says. “I wanted more diversity, more inclusion. I wanted everyone sitting in the audience to feel they could connect to the material.”
To achieve this, the production intentionally sought a diverse group of performers. Of the 24 actors in the cast, about half are women of color. The cast also includes six trans women.
The show is being staged by Bad Seed Theatre Company and they are going beyond Eve Ensler’s original 1996 play. The run of the show will also include a staging of Ensler’s later work, “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer,” as well as original monologues delivered by a number of women activists and sexual assault survivors.
“The Vagina Monologues” is onstage at Out Front Theater Feb. 19, 20 and 24. “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer” will be performed on Feb. 24 at 3 p.m.
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