Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Monologues returns to PCC for 10th edition

Photos and story by Kate Chester

For a decade, Portland Community College production of “The Vagina Monologues,” has raised $100,000 to help battle domestic violence against women.

Once again the Women’s Resource Center at the Sylvania Campus (12000 S.W. 49th Ave.) will put on the event at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12 and 13, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14, in the campus’ Performing Arts Center. Tickets to the production cost $12 for students and $15 for general admission; group discounts are available. The monologues are produced at PCC as part of the international V-Day effort to stop the violence against women all over the world. V-Day (www.vday.org) is a global movement to heighten awareness about violence against women and girls.

Proceeds from the production support a variety of local nonprofit agencies such as the Women & Girls of Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Portland Crisis Line, Healing Roots Center and PCC’s Illumination Project, an innovative social justice theater series. As a result, Eve Ensler’s award-winning play, “The Vagina Monologues,” has enabled the Sylvania Campus to raise more than $100,000 for local women’s nonprofits.

The need to raise awareness on domestic violence is crucial. Research indicates that violence affects one in three women in the United States and around the world. As a result, more than 4,000 benefit events have been produced each year around the world, raising more than $60 million. Efforts to end violence against women and girls include developing international educational, media and PSA campaigns; launching the Karama Program in the Middle East; reopening shelters; and funding more than 6,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.

For more information about the play and Sylvania’s Women’s Resource Center, contact Jessica Mease at (503) 977-8101.