Gwangju Vagina Monologues: Five Years Strong

V-Day, a global project to raise awareness and bring attention to women’s issues, is entering its fifth performance year in Gwangju.

In April 2012, American performer, writer and women’s rights activist Eve Ensler’s 1996 play The Vagina Monologues had its first Gwangju performance at the now-defunct Kunsthall Theater in downtown. Since then, members of the foreigner-run Gwangju Performance Project have worked with local theaters to continue staging an annual performance.

As part of Ensler’s V-Day and One Billion Rising campaign, performers also stage a flash mob to raise awareness about ending violence against women. The proceeds from fundraisers and ticket sales have been donated to local charities that help Korean and foreign women and children in Gwangju.

The 2015 performance, ‘A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer,’ a longer offshoot of the first play, was the first production to include male performers. This year, the Gwangju Vagina Monologues reverts back to the original script and an all-female cast. It brings together its largest production team yet, with five organizers and twenty cast members, each performing a monologue piece.

Ynell Lumantao, who has performed in the play since 2013 and made her directorial debut for last year’s performance, returns as director this year.

“This is my fourth year, so imagine how empowered I am now,” Lumantao said. “Imagine if we have a lot of women like us, feeling the way we feel right now.”

Co-organizers echoed her sentiment in hoping the performance would inspire others to join the production.

Liaison Stel Deianne, who joins for her second consecutive V-Day production, believes that, “As long as anyone is willing to pass the torch, it will be here.”

Stage manager Monique Dean Onyema, who was particularly moved to perform the piece “Respect” in last year’s play, sees the Vagina Monologues production as a way for foreigners to give back to the Korean community.

While previously, Gwangju V-Day has partnered with several charities, this year’s production focuses on raising money for My House 우리 집, a shelter for teenage single mothers and their children.

“Being a single mother is pretty much stigmatized here in Korea,” Onyema said. “It’s something that is so taboo and people are not really aware of it because it is so hidden and so sometimes they do not get the support that they need.”

Deianne said that by choosing this particular charity, the V-Day team will “be able to open at least a little bit of that closed-mindedness.”

During a visit, assistant director Dana Han observed the young women at the shelter.
“Most of them are high school students, some are middle school students so they have to continue studying. The teachers come and teach them right there. They have psychologists who come, art classes, where they draw themselves.”

For Han, the Vagina Monologues performance is also a means to explore personal issues.

“The title is this taboo word, screaming at you,” she said.  “It’s more about my sexuality. What is it to learn to be a woman? To be proud and comfortable with myself, my body. I’m a wife and a mother and I have a daughter and I have to talk to her about those things. If I don’t have answers, then how am I going to talk to her about that? It’s a personal journey.”

Sound director Paolo Mondragon, the sole male member of the production team, referred to the name as a “double-edged sword” for those such as himself, who first heard about the Vagina Monologues last year.

“The title can turn you off, but it also grabs your attention so your curiosity is activated. You realize it’s an important issue.”

This year’s monologues include a transgender woman’s story, reflecting more awareness of the particular challenges faced by this part of the LGBTQ community.

Dongmyeong-dong’s Yunbaram Theater is hosting the performance for the second year in a row. While organizers agree about the language and cultural challenges of working with Korean theater companies, theater director Lee Dang Geum has been a strong support of the project.

Among other fundraisers, the V-Day Team will have a GIC Talk and bake sale on April 2 and an upcoming flashmob that will invite all members of the community to participate.

The Vagina Monologues performance happens at Yunbaram Theater on Saturday, April 23 at 3 pm, 7 pm and Sunday, April 24 at 3 pm.

Some of the pieces include Korean performers translating the English pieces.

For more information on V-Day, visit onebillionrising.org