Rehearsal 1 Minutes

Hello everyone,

Here are the 'minutes' from our first rehearsal. For those of you that attended and those of you that didn't.

V-Day Islington Mission: We worked in small groups to come up with our V-Day Islington Mission from the notes gathered at the first two auditions. Excellent ideas were created in regards to slogans, display as well as the programme. All of this will be included in the display that Erin is creating for the process of our V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues. She will also be taking photos during rehearsals to display on the evening of the show. If you don't want your picture taken, then please tell her at the next rehearsal. I am very excited about the ideas created and Heather, Eli and myself will be working on the programme with some feed back from Sue A and her wonderful idea about the traffic lights! As well as some feedback from the other group that came up with some excellent slogans. Let me know if you are interested in helping out with this and stay tuned for more information as it comes together.

Vagina Warriors: I read Eve Ensler's essay entitled: Vagina Warriors: An Emerging Paradigm. An Emerging Species. Please read it as it is attached if you did not attend the rehearsal. This will give you some background on Vagina Warriors. We discussed ideas to honour them at our show. Monica came up with the balloon idea, modified by Sharon: red balloons with black string and white cards attached. At the end of the show we will say something to the audience about Vagina Warriors and they will be invited to write the name of a Vagina Warrior in their lives on the white card and take the balloon with them to let it off outside the library. We will need a helium tank, balloons, string and cards. The balloons can be in the hallway and also serve as decoration for the show.

Warm-Up with Noel: We had a lot of fun with this and I think it really opened up our bodies and minds for the remainder of the rehearsal. I know that I took a lot away with me from this and have been really conscious of how my body shows different emotions through breathe, tension, facial, and body language. It was both fun and beneficial. If you were unable to attend the first rehearsal, you must attend all or part of the workshop on the 17th of March, 11-1pm because with it, you will have the tools needed to successfully deliver, understand and feel your monologue. (Harriet, Louise and Sue S. have told me prior to making the dates for our rehearsals/workshop that you are unable to attend this workshop; the rest of you should be there.)

Rehearsal Time: Everyone worked in partners and small groups to practice their monologues, while Noel and myself walked around listening and giving feedback to everyone. I hope that between us we were able to spend a little time with everyone, because I know that I didn't get to see each of you. But those that I did see were doing an excellent job and I especially enjoyed the side conversations that were inspired from the monologues themselves. Everyone was working very hard and I saw a lot of team work. Way to go!!! This is also something that is very important in the process of preparing for our production, that is why it is imperative that you attend the remainder of the rehearsals and workshop in order to continue being cast in the show. You need to have that time to work with someone as well as get objective feedback. I encourage you to keep in touch with your partner during the duration of the preparations for the show in case you have any questions and also just to give each other support. I will send an email with the partner lists and emails.

Final Cast Lists: I am creating the final list, pending feedback from a couple of the new women that attended the rehearsal on Thursday. Cat, can you email me Anna's email as well as forward this on to her? Thanks.

What's Coming Up:
*Rehearsal 2: 8 March, 5.30-8/9pm I need to confirm how late we can be at the library. We will be doing a run through of the entire show straight away, after some simple warm-ups in order to see how long it takes us as well as to do some blocking. Between now and then, practice your monologue. I will pass out black cards for you to paste your monologue onto for the show. Between now and then, prepare your monologue by writing or typing it onto a piece of A4 paper cut in half and you will hold it vertically. I will give you as many pieces of card as you need, so feel free to spread it out if you need a larger font size. If you don't understand, we can work through it at the next rehearsal. Bring your full script as well as a copy only of the monologue you will be performing.
*Workshop with Noel: 17 March, 11-1pm. This is required for those that missed the first rehearsal and recommended for the rest of the cast. Even if you can only come for half of it, it will be more beneficial than not attending at all.
*23 March, Dress Rehearsal, from 5.30/6pm-9/10 We will share our challenges as well as run through the entire show. Dinner and drinks will be provided. This will be a fun, but long night.
*24 March, Our Performance!!! from 5pm-10pm we have the library, we will discuss the time line as the date gets closer for how this evening will go. Doors open at 6.30 and show begins promptly at 7pm, no later. There will be a short intermission and we must leave the venue by 10pm; however, we can store items from the show overnight. I will need volunteers to come on Sunday to do the final strike of the venue.

V-Day Flyer: See attached. Remember, you each have two seats that you can reserve, but tickets for these must be purchased through Hannah by 8 March. Please have those two people put your name in the corner of their booking form so that Hannah can keep track of everyone's two tickets. Questions about this, please contact Hannah (her information is on the flyer) Please pass on/email/post flyer to anyone and everyone!

Ok, that's it for now. Keep thinking of your 'challenge' monologue; I know I am thinking about mine. Mine from last year is posted on our V-Day blog in the archives for Feb. 2006.

All the best. Please feel free to contact me by phone or email if you have any questions and I will send out the list of partners from our rehearsal and match up others that weren't here, just so you have a mentor of sorts to touch base with throughout the process.

Thanks for all of your hard work, time and commitment.

Kara

First Rehearsal

Hello all,

Just a reminder that our first rehearsal will be on Thursday, 22 February at the Town Hall in Islington from 6-9pm in Room 5. We will be doing some acting and voice warmups with Noel and Bruce as well as working individually and in pairs on your individual monologues.

In addition to preparing for our monologues, we will also be working together to create our final Islington V-Day Mission and discuss Vagina Warriors and ideas about how we can celebrate them in our show. Please read the information posted on our V-Day blog and look through the documents linked in that post as well to gain a background of Vagina Warriors. I will be reading one of the essays Eve wrote at our rehearsal to kick start our discussion.

Please eat prior to attending the rehearsal or bring your food with you. You will have some time at the beginning of our evening to eat your dinner, while we discuss. This will also be the plan for our second rehearsal but for our final dress rehearsal, dinner and drinks will be provided.

Tech Update: some of us met at the venue on Monday, 13 February, to discuss the layout of our show. Noel is looking into getting red fabric for both sides of the stage, to be hung from the ceiling. He is also organising lights and the sound system. Ayanna will assist Noel with lights and sound. The actors will sit in rows on each side, creating a V-Formation. Maria will be looking into music to be played prior to the show during a slide/projector presentation on the back wall of the stage. This presentation will have pictures, artwork and facts relating to our campaign and local population. Erin will provide a disc with the slide show used in her Japan show last year and we can add as we see fit. Maria is also looking into designing/creating a vagina for the entrance door into our performance room. Actors will wear black with red accents. We will discuss developing character costumes and makeup during rehearsals. Ayanna is looking into the possibility of a friend with a van helping out to pick up and return the lights and sound equipment. Any others who have a driver and large vehicle please let me know in case we need a backup. Harriet is organising the bar and refreshments for our performance, both of our partners, Ali and Ros, will be running the bar. Maria and a friend will also help out as needed.

Ticket Sales: flyers and booking forms will go out this week by email. Harriet is working on the design of the flyer. There will be a ticket sales contact (still to be confirmed) as well as two dates which we will sell tickets from the Central Library so that individuals will be able to buy tickets in person. There will be 220 seats. Each member of our V-Team will have two tickets each reserved for family/friends to purchase, the price will be a donation on a sliding scale from £5-15, using gift aid. If these tickets are not bought by 8 March, they will be available for the public to purchase. If you have more than two seats you'd like to extend to those you know, encourage your family and friends to buy tickets as soon as possible to ensure they get a seat.

Cast List Updates: There are a few women who have joined our team late and they will be taking a small speaking part in one of the lists. These updates will be finalised by our first rehearsal. I will send you an individual email if your additional speaking parts have been modified. Remember, there will be opportunity to read extra once we have decided on the v-facts we will add to our script, which will be for the second rehearsal.

V-Challenge: I want to remind each of you of the challenge I gave you at the auditions. Remember that for our final dress rehearsal you will be encouraged to share your 'challenge' with the rest of the team. The challenge is this: throughout our v-day campaign leading up to our production, reflect on your journey with v-day and why you are here to take part in our production. Write or create your own monologue to be shared with the group that comes from this reflection. This could be something you write or perform, a drawing, photo, sculpture, etc: anything that expresses your feelings, and experience with v-day or why you decided to take part in v-day. If you would like to read what I wrote last year for myself, then please visit here: I am creating something new for this year's experience and production.

You will also be encouraged to put these on display at a table at our show which will be created to show those that attend our production our journey as a team with V-Day. Erin will be taking photos throughout our rehearsals to be a part of this display, which will also include our V-Day Islington Mission and any other artifacts we feel would be helpful to share. You will not be required to put your reflections on display, but are welcome to. However, I do hope that many, if not all of you, will be able to share your 'challenge' with the rest of the team for our final rehearsal.

Rehearsals: Remember, you must attend every rehearsal to take part in the production. There are a couple of you that have already spoken to me about dates you are unable to make it and we agreed upon this prior to creating the rehearsal dates. Otherwise, I should see everyone there. Noel and Bruce will not be attending our second rehearsal but I have a couple of others that may be helping in warm-ups, this will also be the rehearsal we do the first run through of the entire script. The workshop on 17th March led by Noel and Bruce is not required, but recommended.

See you all on Thursday, and if all goes as planned, you will have received the ticket flyer and booking form prior to then to pass on to everyone you know!

Have a good week,

Kara

Updated Cast List

I've filled the remainder of the parts. There will be V-Facts related to Islington that we will add to the show as well with prominent women from the Islington community who will read them and possibly take part in the show otherwise.

If you have not already done so, can you confirm that you received this list, as we were having difficulty and a couple of you did not get the first casting list.

This will also be the order of the monologues in the production. For the monologues where there are more than one performing, you can work together at the first rehearsal to decide who will read Women 1, 2, 3, 4, unless I have otherwise specified below.

Introduction: Sarah T., Patricia, Trish
Hair: Sangita
The 'Wear and Say' Lists: Marisa, Monica, Vicky
The Flood: Annie
The Vagina Workshop: Heather
Vagina Happy Fact: Monica
Because He Liked to Look At It: Catherine
I Was 12. My Mother Slapped Me: Ayanna, Erin, Eli, Louise
Not So Happy Fact: Catherine
The Memory of Her Face: Carrie (Baghdad, facts at end of monologue), Harriet (Islamabad), Ayanna (Juarez)
My Angry Vagina: Sharon

*If we chose to have a short intermission, it will be placed here.

My Vagina Was My Village: Mags
The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could: Sue A.
The 'Smell' List: Trish, Amanda, Sirvan
My Short Skirt: Sarah T.
Reclaiming Cunt: Eli
A six-year-old girl was asked...: Marisa
The Woman Who Liked to Make Vagina's Happy: Erin
I Was There In the Room: Sue S.
Spotlight Campaign Information/Monologue: Kara
Honouring Vagina Warriors (we will discuss this at our first rehearsal)

Thank you for your patience. Please be sure to have read the entire script before our first rehearsal and spend some time reading over your monologue and practicing on your own. I will email the agenda for the first rehearsal next week, as well as individual notes in regards to your monologues, as needed.

Have a great week and see you soon!

Kara

Vagina Warriors

CELEBRATE VAGINA WARRIORS. LET THEM BE HONORED AND SEEN. LET THEM BE BORN.

- Eve Ensler, Founder/Artistic Director, V-Day; playwright, “The Vagina Monologues” 08/04

Being a Vagina Warrior “means developing the spiritual muscle to enter and survive the grief that violence brings and, in that dangerous space of stunned unknowing, inviting the deeper wisdom.” --Eve Ensler

Honoring and celebrating Vagina Warriors, the extraordinary women and men in your communities who have witnessed or experienced violence and responded by helping to end it, has been a V-Day tradition since 2004. We hope you will continue the tradition and this year celebrate those women's anti-violence activists who are 'Reclaiming Peace' in their lives and in their communities.

Reclaiming Peace: Honoring Vagina Warriors at Your Events
2007 Reclaiming Peace - To reflect this year's theme Reclaiming Peace, we encourage you to honor women and men who are working to end violence against women AND are leaders for peace and non-violence in your own communities. By celebrating the work of these women and men, you can help make the connection between our ongoing anti-violence work and our 2007 call for Peace.

An Emerging Paradigm, An Emerging Species
2004 Vagina Warriors: Eve Ensler wrote this essay defining vagina warriors for V-Day 2004; It served as a statement of purpose for "Celebrating Vagina Warriors".

2005 Vagina Warriors Lead the Way

2006 Vagina Warriors: The New Revolution
Building on the momentum of years past by recognizing new warriors in order to inspire even more to join the movement. Vagina Warriors: The New Revolution will bring to light faces new and old with one thing in common: tireless and creative commitment to ending violence against women. These are women and men that are just coming to understand the violence in their community and are showing their commitment to ending it in new and transforming ways.

From soccer moms to veteran activists, from law makers and law enforcers to young college students, Vagina Warriors around the world are leading the new revolution to end violence against women and change the world.

Celebrate the new revolution in your community. Honour Vagina Warriors. Make them visible. Support them. Be inspired. -- Eve Ensler

[source]

Casting: TVM

Hello All,

I've casted most of the monologues. There are a few spaces for the lists monologues at the end of the script that I am still placing as I am still meeting with a couple of women and need to confirm. I tried to take everyone's interests into consideration and have chosen roles which I believe you will do wonderfully as well as feel empowered upon performing them. If you are interested in being considered for an additional role, such as reading in one of the lists, or reading one of the V-Facts that will be compiled for Islington, then please let me know as I will be placing these in the next week. I've also left these spaces in order to include a couple of women that are just now joining us and I will send out a final cast list next week. I apologise it has taken me the full week to get back to you, but I wanted to contact some of you individually and get feed back as well as I have been battling a pretty massive headache most of the week. Thank you for your patience and please contact me should you have any questions or concerns.

Introduction: Sarah T., Patricia, Trish
Hair: Sangita
The 'Wear and Say' Lists: Marisa, Monica, Vicky
The Flood: Annie
The Vagina Workshop: Heather
Vagina Happy Fact: _________ (to be confirmed this weekend)
Because He Liked to Look At It: Catherine
I Was 12. My Mother Slapped Me: Ayanna,___,___,___
Not So Happy Fact: Catherine
My Angry Vagina: Sharon
My Vagina Was My Village: Mags
The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could: Sue A.
The 'Smell' List: __________,__________,__________
Reclaiming Cunt: Eli
A six-year-old girl was asked...: Marisa
The Woman Who Liked to Make Vagina's Happy: Erin
I Was There In the Room: Sue S.
The Memory of Her Face: Harriet, Ayanna,(third to be confirmed this weekend)
My Short Skirt: Sarah T.
Spotlight Campaign Information/Essay: Kara

So there it is! First rehearsal will be 22 February from 6-9pm at the Town Hall in Islington. Be there or be square!

Have a great weekend. I will send each of you some notes individually to think about as you consider and read over your piece while on your own at home.

Kara

Rehearsal Dates: Mark Your Calendar!

Hello everyone. Please mark your calendar for the dates, times and locations below. I have heard from just two of you about conflicts with the workshop afternoon, and one of you with a conflict for the first rehearsal. Otherwise, please mark your calendars for the dates below. And tomorrow I will email what you will be rehearsing!

Tech Crew Meeting: Central Library
12 Feb. Mon. 6-7/8
for those interested in working on the technical aspects of the production, I have sent an email out to you today

Two Full Rehearsals:
22 Feb. Thurs. 6-9: Town Hall
8 Mar. Thurs. 5.30/6-8: Central Library

Acting/Voice Workshop: Central Library
17 Mar. Sat. 11-1

Full Dress Rehearsal: Central Library
23 Mar. Fri. 6-9

TVM Production: Central Library
24 Mar. Sat. 5pm set up
7pm show
10:30pm must be out of venue

Details will follow, I just wanted to get the dates and locations organised as soon as possible so you could mark your calendars. Remember, the workshop is not a requirement, but for those who wish to attend. If you are unable to attend, then perhaps we can set up a small meeting with Noel and Bruce to give some extra coaching to those who feel the need/wish to have it. I tried to spread things out a bit as well.

More soon...

Kara

Rehearsal Dates

Hello All,

I have taken a look at the calendar and I would like to throw some dates out there to get feedback so we can put them on the calendar permanently. I have also been working on casting and am nearly there. My goal is to have the casting completed by Wed. this week. I may be in touch with some of you individually to go over ideas for your personal monologue.

I'd like to organise an optional acting workshop for either Sat. March 10th or Sat. March 17, for around 11am for an hour or so. I need to confirm whether voice and acting coaches are available as well as how many of you would be interested in doing this.

We need to have two full rehearsals before our final dress rehearsal. We will also have meetings outside of these rehearsals in smaller groups to keep connected and work on other areas of the campaign and leading up to the production. These will be planned separately. I need you to check your calendar and let me know what dates you CANNOT do from the following: February: Thurs. 22nd, 6-9, March: Thurs. 8th, 6-9; Fri. 16th 6-8/9; Sat. 17th 10-1 or 11-2. Of these dates, I will chose two based on everyone's availability. I think we should give ourselves about three hours, but we may finish earlier. Remember, if you are not acting or working on tech, you do not need to attend the rehearsals, as you may be working on other projects at different times.

We have confirmed the venue, it will be the Central Library in Islington. The dress rehearsal will be the night before our production, on March 23rd. Time is to be confirmed, but I was thinking around 6pm so that we have plenty of time for the rehearsal as well as sharing our final 'projects' that I put forth to each of you as well as ordering in pizza or something. Remember, we are also here to have fun!

I would also like to plan a meeting with those working/interested in the technical areas of the show for us to meet at the Central Library to take a look at the venue, look into needs for lighting, sounds, etc. I would like to do this Monday evening, either Feb 12 or 19. I also need to confirm with the venue that this is a possibility.

I will be in touch with some of you individually. I am also creating groups for the other items that need to be addressed as per the previous email. I only heard back from a few of you, so I will put forth some ideas and assign projects and you can decide whether it is what you want/can do or not.

Also, if you are on this list and have decided not to participate in our event, then please let me know. If you don't have time to commit now, you are always welcome to help out the night of the show with ushering, etc.

All the best!

Kara