Vaginas are taking over Oakland University as the Gender & Sexuality Center brings to life the award-winning play “The Vagina Monologues.”

The play is based off V-day founder and playwright Eve Ensler and her interviews with over 200 women.

Ensler interviewed these women about their vaginas and their experiences. The play covers every range of emotions and gives women the chance to portray other females that are able to talk open and freely about their sexuality, including the use of the word “vagina.”

“’The Vagina Monologues,’ by providing an outlet for women’s experiences, allows for women who participate or attend the performances to feel that they aren’t alone in their experiences,” said Grace Wojcik, who is in her fourth year as the coordinator for OU’s Gender & Sexuality Center.

“By bringing what are often seen as taboo issues to the forefront, women’s voices and experiences are lifted for more people to hear,” she said.

“It’s called the ‘Vagina Monologues,’” was Kelsey Cunningham’s response for why she wanted to be a part of the play.

Cunningham is a junior, majoring in women and gender studies and psychology, at Oakland.

Natalee Baeten is a senior who will be graduating in May with a sociology major and a women and gender studies minor.

“I’d heard about it last year and wondered what it was about,” Baeten said. “Then in one of my WGS courses, we watched a clip of a few women’s performances of them and I was hooked. When I saw the ad this year I made sure I was there to try out.”

The play is meant to empower women to use the word “vagina” more freely.

“This play gives women an interesting chance to speak through the experiences of other women. I think this takes time, effort, talent and attention to detail,” Baeten said.

“It is one thing to try and understand yourself. To attempt to embody another woman, telling her story aloud for an audience, pushes you further than you would yourself. It is a way for us to communicate with one another in a language purposely ambiguous. Perhaps hearing or reading another woman’s story could give someone else that extra push to share her own, whatever way she wishes to.”

This empowering play could change the way OU sees vaginas.

“The first time I read through the script was the first time I heard anybody talk about their vaginas so openly,” Cunningham said. “I’m already a feminist advocate, yet when I heard the many different stories, it changed the way I felt and envisioned my own body and feminine experience. I hope that if a so-called ‘anti-feminist’ hears or sees the ‘Vagina Monologues,’ they realize how important the feminist movement is.”

“I hope they also realize the lack of information they have around their own bodies and the importance of not only self-love, but loving other women who may embody the feminine experience in others ways,” she said.

“The Vagina Monologues” will be performed twice on Friday, March 20th in 201 Dodge Hall. Tickets are  $10 in advance and $12 at the door.  The proceeds from ticket sales will go to benefit non-profits working to end violence against women and girls.