UB to Present "The Vagina Monologues" as Part of V-Day 2002 College Campaign

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- As part of the V-Day 2002 College Campaign, the University at Buffalo will present "The Vagina Monologues," the ground-breaking, Obie Award-winning play by Eve Ensler at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 and 20 in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The cast will feature 13 students from the UB Department of Theatre and Dance and will be directed by Kelli Bocock-Natale.

Hailed by The New York Times as "funny" and "poignant," and by the New York Daily News as "intelligent" and "courageous," "The Vagina Monologues" dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement buried in women's experiences. Based on interviews with a diverse group of hundreds of women -- from a Long Island antiques dealer to a Bosnian refugee -- "The Vagina Monologues" explores questions often pondered, but seldom asked. Ensler has performed the play to great acclaim throughout the world, and Villard Books/Random House published "The Vagina Monologues," which includes a foreword by Gloria Steinem, in February 1998. A special V-Day edition of the play, including two new sections about the College Campaign, was released in February 2001.

Proceeds from "The Vagina Monologues" will benefit the UB Anti-Rape Task Force. Tickets are $15 general and $7 for students, and are available from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday at the Center for the Arts Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's and Movies Plus. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada, call (416) 870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information call 645-ARTS.

V-Day University at Buffalo 2002 is sponsored by UB's College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Theatre and Dance and UB's Center for the Arts.

V-Day 2002, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls, offers a 12-week calendar of events and social-action campaigns anchored around Valentine's Day. Last year's sold-out V-Day 2001 benefit in New York City's Madison Square Garden featured a performance of V-Day founder and artistic director Ensler's play, "The Vagina Monologues," by 70 of the most notable women of stage and screen. V-Day 2002 will encompass 800 benefit productions of "The Vagina Monologues" in theaters, houses of worship and college campuses around the world.

The Anti-Rape Task Force, founded in 1975 by two female students interested in promoting women's safety at UB, began as an organization within the Student Association to provide a walk service. Management of the Anti-Rape Task Force later moved to Sub-Board I, Inc., a not-for-profit student-service corporation.

The Anti-Rape Task Force (ARTF) offers walk services on both the UB North and South campuses, and is staffed by student volunteers. Services are free of charge and available to everyone. In addition, the Anti-Rape Task Force supports an education program that provides workshops and volunteer training sessions to the university community as well as the local community. In addition, the Anti-Rape Task Force hosts several outreach programs each year designed to address different aspects of rape and sexual assault and to appeal to a broad audience.

V-Day is a global movement that helps anti-violence organizations throughout the world continue and expand their core work while drawing public attention to the larger fight to stop worldwide violence -- including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery -- against women and girls.

For the V-Day College Campaign -- the longest-running and most far-reaching of V-Day's global campaigns -- colleges and universities around the world are invited to present benefit productions of "The Vagina Monologues" on their campuses on or around V-Day (Valentine's Day) to raise awareness and money to stop violence against women and girls. Proceeds from these events go back into the schools' communities to benefit local organizations and programs already working to stop this violence. College Campaign productions are non-commercial, non-professional productions that are primarily student-run, student-directed and student-performed.

Round-the-clock and up-to-the-minute information about V-Day -- its mission, global campaigns, grassroots initiatives and special events -- can be found at http://www.vday.org.