For most, February is just one month too many of winter, but for Mady Glickman it is the time when all last semester’s hard work pays off in Penn’s production of The Vagina Monologues. For the past two years, this savvy senior has helped raise close to $70,000 for organizations that support and provide care for abused women. This year Glickman has stepped up to the role of producer for the heavily anticipated show.
The job of producing a show with almost 100 cast and crew member seems an almost impossible task, but with great ideas and an understanding of how to build a close knit community, there is no doubt that this woman will pull it off with flying colors. So get your tickets and put on your winter coat because this February, Mady has put together a show that, come time for the curtains to open, will not disappoint. The show plays Feb. 10-11.
What are the Vagina Monologues?
The Vagina Monologues are a show that was written by Eve Ensler about fourteen years ago. She basically interviewed hundreds and hundreds of women about their sex life, their lives as women, about their work, about everything. And she created a group of monologues based on these women’s’ stories. Some of them are based on one woman’s stories; some of them are based on multiple women’s stories. The Vagina Monologues in general is a collection of these monologues written about women.
There are over 2,000 performances that go on around the world and internationally, the Vagina Monologues has been translated into many languages and they happen anytime in February. The idea is that every production is then encouraged to do some fundraising. So part of the monologues is also what we call the V-day campaign and our show is part of our campaign. Every production raises money for a local women’s organization. We donate 90% of the proceeds to Women’s Organized Against Rape which is Philadelphia’s only full service rape crisis center. Then 10% of our proceeds go to an international V-day campaign… this year they’re going to an international campaign addressing sexual violence in Haiti.
What is your job as the producer of UPenn’s Vagina Monologues?
My job is to oversee the performance, oversee the fundraising, and oversee the publicity. I do everything from helping with casting to making sure that we are raising money and we are reaching out to everyone that we need to reach out to. I also am in charge of planning a lot of awareness events for different groups. I facilitate discussions between all of [the cast and crew]. I bring in speakers to talk about different issues at Penn or in the world. So it’s a lot of community building between our group and I’m also the link within our organization and also to the world.
Have you ever produced a show before?
No. In the past two years I was the fundraising chair and I was in charge of all the fundraising. So in the past two years we have raised about $70,000 , which is awesome. Usually producer is a role that seniors take on.
What is the biggest challenge as a producer?
We have a really big cast and crew– it’s about sixty women in the cast and in the crew it’s about thirty or forty. It’s the biggest cast we’ve ever had and so it’s definitely difficult to get everyone on the same page and build a sense of community because there are so many of us. But at the same time it’s amazing to have so many people involved and passionate about it. So I really can’t complain. But I guess the hardest thing is to maintain that sense of community. And building a kind of safe space in our meetings where we discuss a lot of different personal issues while still making sure that everyone that wants to be apart of it can be apart of it.
What is the greatest reward of producing the Vagina Monologues?
I think it’s really great to be in charge of these meetings and facilitate these discussions because I get to bring different people in to talk to our cast and crew… For example this year we have a new monologue in our show that’s about trans-women and so we had a trans-women come talk to us about the process, what her life has been like, what the surgical risks are and things like that and to give us a vocabulary for how to talk about trans-culture and trans-issues… The biggest reward is to bring awareness to not only the cast and crew but also the outside community.
What is the message of this show?
The message is that we need to be talking about these issues; we need to be more aware about these issues, and we’re not going to stop talking about these issues and performing the Vagina Monologues until the violence stops. What’s great about the Monologues is that many of them can hit home for Penn students but then there are also ones that are about the war in Bosnia and things that people aren’t necessarily going to know about…. So it’s about balancing awareness with raising money so we can actually do something for victims and survivors of sexual abuse.
Have you been able to see what this money has done?
The great thing about the money we donate every year is that it’s unrestricted… Which means our money can go toward the salary for the counselor to offer free counseling for abuse victims and things like that.
Why did you choose to get involved with the Vagina Monologues?
I’ve always been passionate about women’s rights. My sister went to Penn and graduated in 2008, before I got here and she was involved in the Vagina Monologues and so I’ve been coming to the shows since I was in high school. It’s a really amazing show and to me it’s the most important thing I do on campus.