Introduction

The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler will be performed for only the second time ever in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in February 2009. Parallel to producing and staging the play, the production team has started a 'parallel process' of workshops involving Cambodian women, of which more below.

For more information about The Vagina Monologues and the V-Day Movement, of which the Phnom Penh production is a part, please see http://www.vday.com/.

The TVM Phnom Penh 2009 production is a charity event raising money for an organisation or group working to end violence against women and girls in Cambodia.

Background:

The play The Vagina Monologues (TVM) by Eve Ensler was first performed in Phnom Penh in October 2005 to wide acclaim, albeit with an all expatriate cast and largely expatriate audience too. The production team behind the TVM Phnom Penh 2009 production, which is part of the official V-Day Campaign (www.vday.com), decided it would be important and valuable to reach out to the local community too and include Cambodian women in the project. Recognising that the subject matter of the play is largely taboo and even controversial in Cambodian society, the team decided to launch a process parallel to the production of the play to introduce ideas arising from the play to local women. The starting point was to thus create opportunities for Cambodians to take part in the TVM process, without them necessarily performing the play itself if they did not feel comfortable doing so.

Goal:

Begin a process of compiling articulations of what it means to be a woman in a woman’s body in contemporary Cambodia parallel to (and potentially going beyond) the TVM Phnom Penh 2009 production.


Activities:

Workshops for Cambodian women in a confidential, secure and comfortable environment discussing issues related to women in Cambodia

Private interviews where individual women’s stories are documented

Production of a booklet/book featuring information on violence against women in Cambodia, as well as Cambodian women’s ‘monologues’ (similarly to the play)

Create a blog documenting the process and enabling more people access to the ideas underlying the project

Film screenings of Until the Violence Ends to highlight the international reach of the play and how violence against women is a global problem

Mission:

Encourage a mentality as well as create a space and environment in which a dialogue on what it means to be a woman in a woman’s body in Cambodia is possible

Vision:

A society in which issues surrounding the female body and female sexuality can be discussed and explored

Values:

Confidentiality: All activities are conducted confidentially; no stories or personal information shared shall be discussed or published outside of the activities (without explicit permission)

Anonymity: Any published stories will be published anonymously, and only with the permissionof the participant

Acceptance: There can be no right or wrong in a woman’s experience

Respect: Members of the opposite sex are not adversaries and shall be treated with respect