“The Vagina Monologues … Come Again” is the slogan for NIU’s celebration of V-Day.

V-Day is a worldwide endeavor to promote awareness of physical and sexual violence against women and girls. For the fifth consecutive year, the annual V-Day college campaign will bring you all you ever wanted to know about the vagina and more.

Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” will be performed to benefit the worldwide movement. NIU’s Women’s Law Caucus will host this global salute to the vagina.

Ensler’s award-winning play was motivated by her personal experiences with sexual abuse. It includes both a comical exploration of the female genitalia and chilling accounts of rape victims.

Amy Colby-Rybicki, president of the Women’s Law Caucus and producer of NIU’s staging, said the monologues’ mature content would be inappropriate for younger audiences.

“It’s everything from ‘my angry vagina’ to an account of a woman that has been raped,” said Colby-Rybicki. “It’s pretty emotional.”

Around 15 to 20 performers will participate in the monologues, mostly students in the College of Law. A requirement of the playwright is that the actors do not memorize their lines. Colby-Rybicki said that Ensler wants the actors to read the lines so that the audience only focuses on the words and the meaning behind them.

Although the play is based off the female anatomy and has the goal of motivating women to be comfortable with their vagina, the audience won’t consist of only women. Men actually will be allowed to participate in the show.

“Any man that is comfortable in his own skin, doesn’t have any hang-ups about powerful women and is not ashamed to talk about the vagina will enjoy the monologues,” Colby-Rybicki said.

Three shows will be performed at 7:30 p.m. today, Thursday and Friday in the Cavin Auditorium at Gabel Hall. Both of last year’s performances sold out, so it is requested that students reserve tickets ahead of time by e-mailing their request to [email protected]. Reserved tickets will be held until 7:15 p.m. the night of the show, before they are sold at the door. Tickets cost $7 for students with an NIU Onecard, and $14 for the general public.

All proceeds will go to area programming that works toward stopping violence against women and girls. Last year, $1,000 was donated.