Local performers rally for ‘Vagina Monologues’ benefit show

V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls, is presenting a special benefit performance of Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking play “The Vagina Monologues” Feb. 3 at the William Way LGBT Community Center.

The show’s director, Kathy Pacheco, said the event will feature many local female performing artists from the burlesque and drag communities, including Asha Lo, Tootsie Von, Da Saint, Shakeera Collins, Khaki Capri, JJ Van Name, Tiel Batters Guarino and Aida BummCake, to name a few.

“I do performance in Philadelphia myself,” Pacheco noted. “I’m a bio drag queen under the name of Kitty Devereaux. So I know a lot of bio drag queens, burlesquers and belly dancers. I originally started by asking my friends in that community, which I do have a lot of them in the show. After that, I put out audition notices on Theater Philly and other websites welcoming anybody else who wanted to be a part of the show.”

Pacheco said it was important for her to have women from across the various social and artistic communities involved with this production. 

“I’m very much involved in the LGBT community in Philadelphia,” she said. “The women in the show are all very strong women, feminists and activists. They all do their own things besides the burlesque and being drag queens. The bio drag queens are very important to me because drag itself is so dominated by men normally. So I really wanted them incorporated into it because we fight so hard to get recognized and get approval from the community that I thought it was so important to have them involved in it in some way, shape or form. This show is strongly about empowering each other and encouraging each other. There is no community that I have personally been in besides my community in Philadelphia that has been more true to those themes of the show.”

“The Vagina Monologues” was originally created in 1996 and based on more than 200 interviews with women about everything from love to sex to violence. The show has always had an important message, but it’s even more timely with the ascent of a certain reality-TV star, who has a history of objectifying women, to the White House.

Last weekend, millions of women took to the streets in protest of his views and policies, and Pacheco said there is no better time for a show like this to be seen.   

“Every single year, this show is important,” she said. “This year though, the show is the most vital just because of the current temporary resident that we have occupying our White House. His stance on women, his cabinet’s views and their constant attacks on Planned Parenthood, LGBTQ people, people of color and people of lower income, they only prompt other individuals of his like mind to feel that it’s OK to attack us.”

Pacheco added that she and fellow local performers immediately felt the shift in attitudes toward women and minorities after the recent election.

“I have several female-artist friends in Philadelphia that have their male counterparts or other male performing artists walk them to their garages after their shows because they themselves have been verbally attacked in Center City, and this started happening mostly after he was elected,” she said. “One of my performers in the show was actually physically attacked in front of an elevator in a garage by Franky Bradley’s. I was at the demonstration on Saturday and it was beautiful. There were so many people there representing not just women but everyone. It is most important now to get the word out and get this show done.”

Pacheco said there is a silver lining to the controversy surrounding the election as the issues now in the spotlight are attracting renewed interest in “The Vagina Monologues.”

“This show is for women about women,” she said. “I do have males coming in volunteering to set up. Me being of a Hispanic culture, I wanted to especially include women of color. I have trans women in this show. I’m trying to include everybody. That broadens the spectrum of viewers coming to see it as well. I know a lot of people are hopefully going to be interested in it.”

The performance at the William Way Center will benefit the Philadelphia-based Women in Transition, one of the oldest women’s service organizations operating in the United States. The show will also feature resources about other women’s service groups.

“They basically offer crisis intervention, needs assessment and counseling to women who are victims of domestic violence, which often includes women who are battered by their same-sex partners,” Pacheco said about the beneficiary. “They give counseling to women who are addicted to drugs and alcohol as well as survivors of sexual or child abuse. Ninety percent of the proceeds are going to Women in Transition. Planned Parenthood will also be available on site with information about their services.”

V-Day Philadelphia presents “The Vagina Monologues” 7-9 p.m. Feb. 3 at the William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St. For more information or tickets, call 215-732-2220 or visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-vagina-monologues-philadelphia-tickets-29434424155 or https://www.facebook.com/events/1352981628065823/. For more information about Women in Transition visit www.helpwomen.org/wp/.

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