Feb. 16 marks V-Day in Green Valley

V-Day Green Valley 2008 will be celebrated locally with a two-performance run of Eve Ensler’s, “The Vagina Monologues” at 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15, and 2 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Community Performing Arts Center, 1250 W. Continental Road.

The benefit production, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Green Valley will be directed by DD Jay and produced by Elizabeth “Libby” Beyrer.

Tickets are $15 in advance and proceeds will go to the Brewster Center Domestic Violence Services in Tucson and the women of New Orleans. Call Beyrer at 269-7701 for tickets and more information.

“V-Day is all about stopping violence against women,” Jay says. “Performing Ensler’s play is directly related to this cause.”

“The ‘Monologues’ are performed all over the world in different venues and always within two weeks of Valentine’s Day,” Beyrer adds.

If you are interested in auditioning for a part in “The Vagina Monologues,” contact Jay at ddfjay1@cox.net or 777-4478.

The parts are all performed by women volunteers in “reader’s theater-style” format, so memorization and acting experience are not necessary.

For women and men wishing to work behind the scenes, please contact ElizabethBeyrer@cox.net or call 269-7701.

V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls and raises funds and awareness through benefit performances of Ensler’s award-winning play, the director says.

Further information about V-Day can be found at www.vday.org.

“The Vagina Monologues” is an Obie Award-winning episodic play written by Ensler which ran at the off-Broadway Westside Theatre after a limited run at HERE Arts Center in New York City in 1996.

Ensler originally starred in the production, playing all the various women who share their views with the audience. When she left the play, it was recast with three celebrity monologists.

The production has been staged internationally, and a television version featuring Ensler was produced by cable TV channel HBO.

The mission of the Brewster Center Domestic Violence Services is to provide safer options and support to all victims/survivors of domestic violence through individual empowerment, advocacy, shelter, prevention, community education and social change.

Director DD Jay says she was “very involved” with community theater in Flagstaff, Ariz. for many years before moving to the Green Valley area.

Jay was co-founder of the Magic Curtain Children’s Theatre in Flagstaff. She produced, directed and acted, as well as served as stage manager for the Flagstaff Theatrikos Community Theatre and oversaw her own production company for improvisational performances, called FoxPaws, for more than 10 years, co-writing and producing mystery dinner theater show.

She is still actively involved in improv classes.

Elizabeth E. Beyrer is the retired director of community relations for Interval House in Hartford, Conn. where she provided prevention-based education services to the community.

She trained social workers in the state departments of children and families, area agencies on aging, and social services.

This past October, Beyrer organized and moderated a panel discussion on domestic violence for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Green Valley. Representative from the three agencies that serve the area—The Brewster Center, Casa de Esperanza, and Hands of a Friend, presented information about how their agencies serve battered women. Certified as a battered women’s counselor, she remains passionate about the issue.

rford@gvnews.com