In creating her hit production, Eve Ensler, a native New Yorker and award-winning playwright and global activist, interviewed more than 200 women of all ethnicities, ages and religions. These interviews were brilliantly shaped into funny, poignant and moving monologues that have been translated into 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries as The Vagina Monologues.
In 1998, inspired by the attention The Vagina Monologues raised, Ensler founded V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery. By creating this global community, V-Day strives to create a dialogue that shatters taboos and empowers women to find their collective voices, demanding an end to the violence that affects one in three women around the world.
Through the overwhelming support of the community of Chase, with dedicated volunteers, ticket sales, and generous raffle and goodie donations from local small businesses, Sketch Theatre (V-Day Chase 2012) was honoured to be able to raise a total of $2,700 for the Shuswap Area Family Emergency Society (SAFE) in Salmon Arm. In operation for more than 20 years, SAFE is a free, confidential and safe women’s shelter. Its mission is to end violence against women and children in the Shuswap. The donation this year will go to the Children Who Witness Abuse Program.
