Performance will assist women around the world

Women from Pullman to Louisiana to East Asia stand to benefit from the 2006 production of “The Vagina Monologues,” which is performed yearly at WSU as part of V-Day, a worldwide effort to stop violence against women through education, awareness and fund raising. Last year’s benefit raised about $8,000. The cast and crew each year choose the beneficiaries of the WSU performance. This year they are:

• The nonprofit Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse, which has served victims and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence since 1979 via 24-hour crisis intervention; counseling; legal, medical and child advocacy; emergency shelter; referrals and support groups.

• The Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which created a relief fund after Hurricane Katrina destroyed four domestic violence shelters and two nonresidential programs in Louisiana. Donations will be used to relocate abused women and children and to buy food and supplies.

• The V-Day 2006 Spotlight: Justice to “Comfort Women,” which seeks to secure an apology and monetary damages for the estimated 50,000-200,000 aging “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Army during World War II.

The WSU benefit production of “The Vagina Monologues” will be at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Feb. 24-25, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, in Jones Theatre, Daggy Hall. Tickets cost $6 for students, $8 nonstudents, and are on sale 10 a.m.-2 p.m. daily at the west entrance of the CUB and at the Women’s Resource Center, the Daily Grind and Brused Books during normal hours of operation.

“The Vagina Monologues” is a play based on Eve Ensler’s interviews with more than 200 women about their experiences with sex, violence and life in general.