Chase may be a smaller rural community, but that doesn’t mean there’s any sophistication lacking in the culture. There is a production coming to town with some international acclaim, the message to stop domestic violence.
On March 31st, 2012, at 7 p.m., V‑Day Chase will present a one-night only benefit reading of Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues at Chase Community Hall.
After a limited run off Broadway in 1996, the original production has been staged internationally, and a television version featuring Ensler was produced by cable TV channel HBO. In 1998, Ensler and others, including Willa Shalit, a producer of the Westside Theatre production, launched V-Day, a global non-profit movement for women’s anti-violence groups through benefits of The Vagina Monologues.
The play gained popularity through a word-of-mouth campaign that culminated with a performance at Madison Square Garden in 2001, which featured Melissa Etheridge and Whoopi Goldberg performing segments of the play.
Last year over 5,800 V-Day benefits were held around the world, raising more than $5 million through performance of the award-winning play, readings from V-Day’s A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer and Any One Of Us: Words From Prison, as well as screenings of V-Day’s documentary Until The Violence Stops.
Chase has joined this global movement as part of the V‑Day 2012 Campaign.
Sketch Theatre will again present a benefit production of The Vagina Monologues at 7 p.m. March 31 at the Chase Community Hall. The proceeds from the event will be donated to the Shuswap Area Family Emergency Society.
The Shuswap Area Family Emergency Society(SAFE) was established in 1979 by a group of caring women who recognized the need to end domestic violence and that a safe, supportive environment was needed for women in our area.
SAFE offers free, confidential, shelter and support services to Shuswap women that assist in ending violence.
Under the SAFE Society umbrella are: the Children Who Witness Abuse Program, Stopping the Violence Program, Outreach Services, specialized victim services and police victim services, community counselling program, and the transition house (women’s shelter).
There is ongoing fundraising for the women’s shelter, children’s programming and Police Victim Services.
SAFE relies heavily on donations for the women’s shelter, including food, small household items, seasonal clothing and children’s toys.
SAFE currently receives funding for core services from Interior Health, the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and BC Housing.
See the SAFE website at www.safesociety.ca.
