The event, which was organized as part of V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls, brings together the efforts of the Women's Studies program, FSU’s Student Center for Volunteerism, the Ophelia Project and the FSU theatre department. As a precursor to the evening’s performance, volunteers will be available at tables throughout the Performing Arts Center lobby with informative brochures about preventing violence against women during an Info Festival that starts at 7 p.m.

Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. In 2006, over 2,700 V-Day benefit events took place around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. This year’s festivities focus on the theme of ending violence against women in conflict zones. “The Vagina Monologues,” which is based on interviews with over 200 women, has been performed in cities all across America and at hundreds of college campuses. It is renowned as a witty, irreverent and compassionate play about women’s sexuality.

“When I first began to perform these monologues around the world, I realized that just saying the word ‘vagina’ caused enormous controversy, because ‘vagina’ is, in fact, the most isolated, reviled word in any language,” Ensler writes about her play on vday.org. “You can find words like ‘nuclear,’ ‘scud’ or ‘plutonium’ on the front pages of newspapers and they never caused anywhere near such a stir. The taboo on the word is no accident. As long as we cannot say ‘vagina,’ … young girls get genitally mutilated and sex trafficked throughout the world. Women get raped and acid burned, and beaten, and no one is held accountable.”

Tickets to the FSU performance are $5 for students and $10 for non-students. Call (301) 687-7462 for ticket information. To learn more about FSU’s V-Day events, contact Whitney Young, president of the Ophelia Project Advisory Council, at (410) 703-0898 or e-mail wyoung0@frostburg.edu. For more info about V-Day, visit www.vday.org.