V-Day Ottawa is raising money for the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Ottawa and the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre with its production of TheVagina Monologues this month at the Bronson Centre Feb. 20-22.
Created in 1998 by American playwright Eve Ensler, V-Day is a global campaign to raise awareness and end violence against women. For the month of February, rights to Ensler’s 1994 play The Vagina Monologues are waived and proceeds from the production are donated to women’s centres around the world.
The Vagina Monologues is a play comprised of different soliloquies touching on various aspects of women’s lives. The culmination of stories and moments deals with themes of love, sexuality and “excitement buried in women’s experiences”.
After a one-year lull, Sandi Stoliar has stepped up as producer for this year’s event, after several years in the core and treasurer, bringing the show back to Centretown, where it’s run in years past. Having been involved with the event for seven years, excluding last year’s hiatus, Stoliar says this year she’s made some changes to boost fundraising.
“I’ve introduced a VIP component; I’ve wanted to make sure that all the ticket monies went to the charities and that we weren’t paying thousands of dollars in expenses,” she says. “I kicked up the sponsorship component so that we can try and pay for our event before ticket sales.”
V-Day Ottawa has chosen sexual assult centre and the rape crisis centre as beneficiaries for this year’s event with 100 per cent of proceeds being split between the two help centres.
Amanda Graham, a support worker at sexual assault centre and an actor in this year’s production of The Vagina Monologues, says that the funding centre receives from the event is crucial for the centre.
“We have a number of programs that we don’t have covered under core funding . . . we have it as part of our centre that we run but we have to do fundraising in order to run those programs,” says Graham.
The centre receives some government funding through the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, but according to Graham, it doesn’t cover everything.
The successful Women and War Art Group – a program for immigrant and refugee women, public education in the community, and support line are just a few of the resources that require additional funding, says Graham.
This year marks the first year that the rape crisis centre has been named a beneficiary and Tara Henderson, the public education and fundraising coordinator at the centre, says they are honoured to receive the support.
“It is very tough to fund this issue and every dollar goes so far and there are things that we want to be able to do like advocacy,” she says. “There are a lot of women who experience sexual violence who are marginalized, and those women actually have a need for advocacy and support.”
The Sunday matinee will consist of a staged reading and talk back for youth in the community, says Stoliar, with a focus on healthy boundaries among teens, teen empowerment and community support.
“As long as we’re reaching a new audience and creating an opportunity for dialogue, we just think that we’ll hopefully, maybe next year, have younger people involved.”