Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler (born May 25, 1953) is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist, best known for re-play The Vagina Monologues . ^{[1] [2] [3]} In 2006, Charles Isherwood of the New York Times called The Vagina Monologues “then probably the must important piece of political theater of the last decade.” ^[4]

In 2011, Ensler was Awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65TH Tony Awards , welke onderkent an individual from the theater community who has made a contribution to this club Substantial or volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or Charitable organizations.

Personal life

Ensler was born in New York City , the second of three children of Arthur Ensler, an executive in the food industry, and Chris Ensler. ^{[5] [6] [7]} She was raised in the northern suburb of Scarsdale . ^[7] Her Father was Jewish and re mother Christian, ^[8] and she Grew up in a predominantly Jewish community; ^[9] however, Ensler identifies as a Nichiren Buddhist and states dat re spiritual practice of includes chanting Namu Myōhō renge kyo and doing yoga . ^{[10] [11] [12]}

Ensler says dat from the ages of five to 10, she was sexually abused and Physically to re Father. Growing up, she has stated she was “very sad, very angry, very opstandige. I was the girl with the dirty hair. I did not fit anywhere.” ^[7]

Ensler attended Middlebury College in Vermont , where she became known as a militant feminist. ^[7] After graduating in 1975, she had a string of abusive relationships and became dependent on drugs and alcohol. ^[7] In 1978, she married Richard Dylan McDermott, a 34-year-old bartender, who convinced re to enter rehab. ^[7] When she was 23, she eerste Mark Anthony McDermott , re husband’s 16-year-old sun from his first marriage. ^[13] Their relationship cameramen to be a close one, and Ensler has stated dat it taught her “how to be a loving human being.” ^[7] After Ensler suffers a miscarriage, Mark took the name she had planned for re baby, Dylan. ^[7] Ensler and Dylan’s Father ulcers separated in 1988, the former Citing dat she “needed the Independence, the freedom”. Volgens to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, “After re marriage ended, she had a long relationship with the artist and psychotherapist Ariel Orr Jordan but is single now, welke Seems to suit re nomadic lifestyle – she has homes in New York and Paris but travels much of the year. ” ^[14]

A June 2010 article by Ensler in the Guardian revealed dat she was Currently Receiving treatment for uterine cancer . ^[15] Eve writes about re experience with cancer in her memoir In The Body of the World . ^[16]

The Vagina Monologues

Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues in 1996. First Performed in the basement of the Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village , the play has translated leg JSON 48 languages and Performed in over 140 countries. Celebrities who harbor starred in it include: Jane Fonda , Whoopi Goldberg , Idina Menzel , Glenn Close , Susan Sarandon , Marin Mazzie , Cyndi Lauper , Mary Testa , Sandra Oh 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 ook RECEIVED the Berrilla Kerr Award for Playwriting, the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, and the Jury Award for Theatre at the US Comedy Arts Festival . ^[17]

Subsequent work

Ensler’s memoir In the Body of the World was released on April 30, 2013. Book List reviewed the book, saying, “This is a ravishing book of revelation and healing, lashing truths and deep emotion, courage and perseverance, compassion and generosity. Warm, Funny, furious, and Astute, as well as poetic, passionate, and heroic, Ensler harnesses all dat she lost and learned to articulate a vision GALVANIZING or the essence of life: “The only Salvation is kindness.” ” ^[18]

Ensler has bone involved in verschillende films zoals V-Day’s Until The Violence Stops and the PBS documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You , and has Appeared on many television shows waaronder numerous interviews on CNN, ^[19] Democracy Now, ^{[ 20]} TODAY, ^[21] Real Time with Bill Maher (August 26, 2005) and Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry (August 12, 2005).

She Contributed the piece “Theatre: A Sacred Home for Women” to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women’s Anthology for a New Millennium , edited by Robin Morgan . ^[22]

From October 2005 to April 2006, Ensler toured twenty North American cities with re-play The Good Body , volgende engagements on Broadway, at ACT in San Francisco, and in a workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre . The Goodbody addresses why women or many cultures and Backgrounds perceive pressure to change the way they ‘look in order to be accepted in the eyes of society.

Ensler’s play, The Treatment debuted on September 12, 2006, at the Culture Project in New York City. This play Explores the moral and psychologische trauma therein are the result of participation in military conflicts. It stars re adoptive sun, Dylan McDermott .

In 2006, Ensler released re first major work written exclusively for the printed page. Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-obsessed World ( Villard ; Hardcover; October 3, 2006). In Insecure at Last , she Explores how people live today, the maatregelen people take to keep themselves safe, and how people kan experience freedom to Letting go of the Deceptive notion of “protection.” In 2006 Ensler’ll be co-edited A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer , an anthology of Writings about violence Against women .

Ensler’s work I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around The World , a collection of original monologues about and for girls dat AIMS to inspire girls to take agency over hun minds, bodies, hearts and Curiosities, was released February 2010 in book form by Villard / Random House and made the New York Times Best Seller list . The book was workshopped in July 2010 at New York Stage and Film and Vassar College , moving toward an Off-Broadway production. The theatrical production of the piece, Titled Emotional Creature , had zijn United States debut at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, CA in June 2012. ^[23] In February 2012, The South African production or Emotional Creature was nominated for a 2011 Naledi Theatre Award for Best Ensemble Production / Cutting Edge Production.

Ensler was a consultant on feminism and women’s issues for the critically acclaimed 2015 action film Mad Max: Fury Road . ^[24]

Activism

Ensler is a prominent activist addressing issues of violence Against women and girls. In 1998, re experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired re to create V-Day , a global activist movement to stop violence Against women and girls. V-Day raises funds and awareness through benefit productions annual or The Vagina Monologues . In 2010, morethan 5,400 V-Day events took place in over 1,500 locations in the US and around the world. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $ 100 ^[25] million and educated millions about the issue of violence Against women and the policy-making to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East , Reopened shelters, and funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo , Haiti , Kenya , South Dakota , Egypt and Iraq . These safe houses bieden women sanctuary from abuse, female Genital mutilation and “honor” killing. ^[26] The ‘V’ in V-Day stands for Victory , Valentine and Vagina .

In February 2004, Ensler, alongside Sally Field , Jane Fonda and Christine Lahti , protested to harbor the Mexican government re-Investigate the slayings or Hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez , a city Along the Texas border.

Ensler is a close supporter of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and went to Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban . She supports Afghan women and has organized many programs for them. ^[27] She organized one event named the “Afghani Women’s Summit For Democracy”.

Ensler has led a writing group since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women , welke was portrayed in What I Want My Words To Do To You. ^[28] Judy Clark , Kathy Boudin , and Pamela Smart ulcers onder the writing group’s participants featured in the film.

In 2011, V-Day and the Fondation Panzi (DRC), with support from UNICEF , opened the City of Joy, a new community for women survivors of gender violence in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). City of Joy will bieden up to 180 Congolese women a year with an opportunity to benefit from group therapy; self-defense training; uitgebreid sexuality education (covering HIV / AIDS, family planning); economic empowerment; storytelling; dance; theater; ecology and horticulture. Created from hun vision, Congolese women run, operate and direct City of Joy themselves. The City of Joy celebrated zijn first graduating class in February 2012.

In 2012, Along With The V-Day movement, Ensler created One Billion Rising , a global protest campaign to end violence, and promote justice and Gender Equality for women. On February 14, 2013, V-Day’s 15th anniversary, women and men in countries around the world hero dance action to demand an end to violence Against women and girls. ^{[29] [30] [31]}

In 2016, Ensler co-signed a letter to Ban Ki-Moon calling for a more humane drug policy, Along with people like Warren Buffett , John Legend and Elizabeth Warren . ^[32]

In 2017 in an opinion piece in The Guardian Ensler voiced harsh criticism of the newly inaugurated president of the United States, Donald Trump , highlighting his self-confessed sexual assault and referring to im as our predator-in-chief . ^[33]

Selected awards and receptacles

Ensler has RECEIVED numerous awards for re artistic and humanitarian work:

• Tony Award – In 2011, Ensler was Awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65TH Tony Awards , welke onderkent an individual from the theater community who has made a Substantial contribution to this club or volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or Charitable organizations. ^[34]
• Obie Award for The Vagina Monologues , 1997
• Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, 1999 ^[35]
• Berrilla Kerr Award for Playwriting, 2000
• Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance 2001
• Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award for Leadership, 2002
• The Matrix Award, 2002
• Jury Award for Theatre at the US Comedy Arts Festival, 2002
• Lion of Judah by the United Jewish Communities , 2002 ^{[36] [37]}
• Sundance Film Festival’s Freedom of Expression Award for What I Want My Words to Do to You , 2003
• Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from re alma mater, Middlebury College, 2003
• NETC Theatre Award, a regional Boston theater award, in 2004
• NOW Award from the Intrepid Award Gala 2004
• The Civil Revolutionary Award from Miami Dade College, 2004
• Award for International Peace Efforts from Cardozo Law School, 2004
• The Avon Award 2005
• The Sandra Day O’Connor Award from the Arizona Foundation for Women, 2005
• Honorary Doctor of Human Letters from Manhattanville College, 2005
• Honorary Doctor of Communications from Simmons College, 2006
• City of New York Proclamation in honor of founding and re work for Green Day 2006
• OK2BU Humanitarian Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the LGBT community, 2006
• Honorary speaker D010 at TED Talks, Dec 2010
• Ensler has ook leg honored with industry leaders organizations as Planned Parenthood (2004, 2006), The Women’s Prison Association (2004), Sahkti (2004), and verschillende LGBT centers (2004, 2006) for re effort to end violence Against women and girls.

Selected works

Plays

• Conviction
• Lemonade
• The Depot
• Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man
• Extraordinary Measures
• The Vagina Monologues
• The Goodbody
• Necessary Targets
• The Treatment
• Emotional Creature
• IPC

Books

• The Vagina Monologues
• In the Body of the World: A Memoir ^[38]
• I am an Emotional Creature: the Secret Life of Girls Around the World
• Insecure at Last: Losing it in our Security obsessed World
• The Goodbody
• Necessary Targets
• vagina Warriors
• A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer

Movies

• Until the Violence Stops (2004)
• What I Want My Words to Do to You: Voices From Inside a Women’s Maximum Security Prison (2003)
• The Vagina Monologues (2002)
• Fear No More: Stop Violence Against Women (2002) – Interview

References