Eve Ensler.

Eve Ensler (born 25 May 1953 in Scarsdale, New York) is a Jewish American playwright and feminist activist best known for the play The Vagina Monologues. Image File history File linksMetadata Eveensler. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Eveensler. ... is the 145th day of the year (146th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Scarsdale is both a town and village in Westchester County, New York, USA postal code 10583. ... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies that are concerned with cultural, political and economic practices and inequalities that discriminate against women Feminism is also described as an ideology focusing on equality of both sexes [1] Some have argued that gendered and sexed... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Personal life

Ensler graduated from Middlebury College in 1975. She married Richard McDermott in 1978 and divorced in 1988. She is the adoptive mother of actor Dylan McDermott, whom she adopted when he was 18 and she was 26. Middlebury College is a private, small, highly selective liberal arts college located in the rural New England shire town of Middlebury, Vermont, United States. ... Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Dylan McDermott (born Mark Anthony McDermott[1] on 26 October 1961) is an American actor, known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the former TV legal drama The Practice. ...

The Vagina Monologues

The Vagina Monologues were written in 1996 as a response to the guilt and embarrassment that some women still connect with their bodies and/or their sexuality. First performed in the basement of the Cornelia Street Café in SoHo, The Vagina Monologues has been translated into 45 different languages and performed in over 119 countries. Celebrities who have starred in the play include: Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon and Oprah Winfrey. Ensler was awarded the Obie Award in 1996 for ‘Best New Play’ and in 1999 was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting. She has also received 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. There has been much debate about The Vagina Monologues and whether it has any connection to the real world. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Soho is an area of central Londons West End, in the borough of the City of Westminster. ... Jane Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. ... Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is a five time Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actress. ... Susan Sarandon (born October 4, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Oprah Winfrey, (born January 29, 1954) is a multiple-Emmy Award winning host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest rated talk show in television history. ... The Obie Awards, short for Off-Broadway Theater Awards, are annual awards bestowed by the newspaper The Village Voice on theater artists performing in New York City. ... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... US Comedy Arts Festival is a comedy festival held each year in Aspen, Colorado. ...

Recent works

Ensler has been involved in several films and has appeared on television on Real Time with Bill Maher (26 August 2005) and Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry (12 August 2005). Real Time with Bill Maher is a talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by comedian and political satirist Bill Maher. ... Russell Simmons (born October 4, 1957 in Queens, New York), is an American entrepreneur, the co-founder, with Rick Rubin, of the pioneering hip-hop label Def Jam, founder of another label, Russell Simmons Music Group, and creator of the clothing fashion line Phat Farm. ...

From October 2005 to April 2006, Ensler toured twenty North American cities with her newest play The Good Body, following engagements on Broadway, at ACT in San Francisco, and in a workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre. The Good Body addresses why women of many cultures and backgrounds perceive pressure to change the way they look in order to be accepted in the eyes of society. Seattle Repertory Theatre located at the Seattle Center Seattle Repertory Theatre (Seattle Rep) is a Tony Award winning regional theatre located in the heart of Seattle, Washington at the Seattle Center. ...

Ensler's play, The Treatment debuted on September 12, 2006, at the Culture Project in New York City. This play explores the moral and psychological trauma that are the result of participation in military conflicts. It stars her step-son, Dylan McDermott. Dylan McDermott (born Mark Anthony McDermott[1] on 26 October 1961) is an American actor, known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the former TV legal drama The Practice. ...

Her latest work is the book "Insecure At Last: Losing It In Our Security-Obsessed World" (Villard; Hardcover; October 3,2006). In Insecure At Last, Ensler gives us her first work written exclusively for the printed page. Insecure At Last explores how people live today, the measures people take to keep themselves safe, and how people can experience freedom by letting go of the deceptive notion of "protection."

Activism

Ensler is a prominent anti-violence activist. In 1998, her experience performing "The Vagina Monologues" inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day raises funds and awarenss through annual benefit productions of "The Vagina Monologues." In 2007, more than 3000 V-Day events took place in 1150 locations in the U.S. and around the world. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $40 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 5000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.

Ensler has led a writing group since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, which was portrayed in What I Want My Words To Do To You.

She has received awards for her anti-violence work, including the 2002 Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award for Leadership, and the Matrix Award (2002). In October, 2002, she was honored as a "Lion of Judah" by the United Jewish Communities.[1][2] In May 2003, she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Middlebury College. Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a pressure group that promotes human rights. ...

In February 2004, Ensler, alongside Sally Field, Jane Fonda and Christine Lahti, protested to have the Mexican government re-investigate the slayings of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juárez, on the Texas border. Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is a two-time Academy Award winning American actress . ... Jane Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. ... Christine Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress. ... Ciudad Juárez, or simply Juárez, is a city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua with an estimated population of 1,512,354 as of 2005. ...

Ensler is a very close supporter of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and went to Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. She supports Afghani women and has organized many programs for them. She organized one event named the "Afghani Women's Summit For Democracy". Logo of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) (جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان) is a womens organization in Afghanistan that promotes womens rights and secular democracy. ...

Criticism

The Vagina Monologues includes a section entitled "The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could". This portion of the play, as originally performed, has been criticized for including a lesbian "rape" scene of a 13-year-old girl by a 24-year-old woman who uses alcohol to lower the inhibitions of her victim. [3] This scene has been seen by some as supporting a double-standard of "good rape" when initiated by a lesbian as compared to rape intiated by a man, which presumably is considered "bad rape".

The scene was modified in later performances; the young girl's age was changed to 16, and the more inflammatory passages were omitted. The 2001 feminist.com site, which co-ordinated performances, was emphatic that performances for anti-violence/campus events adhere to the new script. It stated, "You must use the version...that is included in the Performance Kit that you will receive. No other version of the play is acceptable for your production. Do not use the book of the play or versions of the script from previous College Initiatives."

Selected works

Plays

• Conviction
• Lemonade
• The Depot
• Floating Rhoda
• The Glue Man
• Extraordinary Measures
• The Vagina Monologues
• The Good Body
• Necessary Targets

Books Lemonade is a play by American playwright Eve Ensler. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

• V-World
• I Am An Emotional Creature
• Vagina Warriors
• Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security Obsessed World
• The Good Body

Films

• Fear No More: Stop Violence Against Women (2002) - interviewee
• The Vagina Monologues (2002)
• Until the Violence Stops (2003)
• What I Want My Words to Do to You: Voices From Inside a Women's Maximum Security Prison (2003)

External links

• Eve Ensler biography via V-Day
• Eve Ensler via Internet Movie Database
• Eve Ensler's Speech on Oct.7, 2006 in Los Angeles (Audio)
• Eve Ensler: "Afghanistan is everywhere"
• Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution from the Jewish Women's Archive
• Pamela Grossman (April 19, 2000). Down the Vagina Trail. Salon.com
• Video of Eve Ensler performing an excerpt from her play "The Vagina Monologues." Presented February 2004 at the TED Conference in Monterey, CA. Duration: 21:11
• Eve Ensler - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org, October 2006
• Eve Ensler Q&A

"Eve Ensler on "good" bodies and bad politics -Mother Jones [4] The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... Screenshot of Salon. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... TED (short for Technlogy Entertainment Design) is an annual conference in Monterey, California founded by Richard Saul Wurman. ... The American Theatre Wing (ATF) is a New York City-based organization dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre, according to its mission statement. ...

• Writer's Voice 2007 audio interview
• Eve Ensler talks about her latest book Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World, October 10, 2006 (video)