V, formerly Eve Ensler (/ˈɛnslər/; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, author, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play The Vagina Monologues.[1][2][3] In 2006 Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called The Vagina Monologues "probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade."[4]
In 2011, V was awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards, which recognizes an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations. V was given this award for her creation of the non-profit V-Day movement which raises money and educates the public about violence against women and efforts to stop it.
She writes for The Guardian and has been featured in films including V-Day's Until the Violence Stops, the PBS documentary What I Want My Words to Do to You, and the Netflix documentary City of Joy, among others. She regularly appears in print, radio, podcast, and television interviews including on CNN,[5] Democracy Now,[6] TODAY,[7]Real Time with Bill Maher and Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.
Personal life
V was born in New York City, the second of three children of Arthur Ensler, an executive in the food industry, and Chris Ensler.[8][9][10] She was raised in the northern suburb of Scarsdale.[10] Her father was Jewish and her mother Christian,[11] and she grew up in a predominantly Jewish community;[12] however, V identifies herself as a Nichiren Buddhist and says that her spiritual practice includes chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō and doing yoga.[13][14][15]
V says that from the ages of five to ten, she was sexually and physically abused by her father. Growing up, she has said she was "very sad, very angry, very defiant. I was the girl with the dirty hair. I didn't fit anywhere."[10]
V attended Middlebury College in Vermont, where she became known as a militant feminist.[10] After graduating in 1975, she had a string of abusive relationships and became dependent on drugs and alcohol.[10] In 1978, she married Richard Dylan McDermott, a 34-year-old bartender, who convinced her to enter rehab.[10] When she was 23, she adopted Mark Anthony McDermott, her husband's 16-year-old son from his first marriage.[16] Their relationship came to be a close one, and V said that it taught her "how to be a loving human being".[10] After V suffered a miscarriage, Mark took the name she had planned for her baby, Dylan.[10] V and Dylan's father separated in 1988, the former citing that she "needed the independence, the freedom". According to a 2012 article in the Sydney Morning Herald, "After her marriage ended, she had a long relationship with the artist and psychotherapist Ariel Orr Jordan but is single now, which seems to suit her nomadic lifestyle – she has homes in New York and Paris but travels much of the year."[17]
A June 2010 article by V in The Guardian said that she was receiving treatment for uterine cancer.[18] She wrote about her experience with cancer in her memoir, In The Body of the World.[19] In an interview with Democracy Now! in 2012, V stated that she was two and a half years cancer free.[20]
Name change
After publishing her book The Apology in 2019, where she described sexual and physical abuse by her late father, the author stated she wished to distance herself from the surname he used and expressed her preference to be called by the mononym V.[21][22][23]
V's memoir In the Body of the World was released on April 30, 2013. Booklist reviewed the book, saying, "This is a ravishing book of revelation and healing, lashing truths and deep emotion, courage and perseverance, compassion and generosity. Warm, funny, furious, and astute, as well as poetic, passionate, and heroic, Ensler harnesses all that she lost and learned to articulate a galvanizing vision of the essence of life: 'The only salvation is kindness.'".[27] On February 6, 2018, she premiered a theatrical version of her memoir, which she performs as a solo monologue, directed by Diane Paulus, at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City.[28]
V provided uncredited contributions to the book for Wicked, the fourth-longest running Broadway show in history. [30]
From October 2005 to April 2006, V toured twenty North American cities with her play The Good Body, following engagements on Broadway, at ACT in San Francisco, and in a workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre.[31]The Good Body addresses why women of many cultures and backgrounds perceive pressure to change the way they look in order to be accepted in the eyes of society.[citation needed]
V's play, The Treatment debuted on September 12, 2006, at the Culture Project in New York City.[citation needed] This play explores the moral and psychological trauma that are the result of participation in military conflicts.[citation needed] It stars her adoptive son, Dylan McDermott.[citation needed]
In 2006, V released her first major work written exclusively for the printed page. Insecure at Last: Losing It In Our Security-Obsessed World (Villard; Hardcover; October 3, 2006).[citation needed] In Insecure at Last, she explores how people live today, the measures people take to keep themselves safe, and how people can experience freedom by letting go of the deceptive notion of "protection".[citation needed] In 2006 V also co-edited A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer, an anthology of writings about violence against women.[citation needed]
V's work I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around The World, a collection of original monologues about and for girls that aims to inspire girls to take agency over their minds, bodies, hearts and curiosities, was released February 2010 in book form by Villard/Random House and made The New York Times Best Seller list.[citation needed] The book was workshopped in July 2010 at New York Stage and Film and Vassar College, moving toward an Off-Broadway production.[citation needed] The theatrical production of the piece, titled Emotional Creature, had its United States debut at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, CA in June 2012.[32] In February 2012, The South African production of Emotional Creature was nominated for a 2011 Naledi Theatre Award for Best Ensemble Production/Cutting Edge Production.
V was a consultant on feminism and women's issues for the 2015 action film Mad Max: Fury Road.[33]
In 2019, V published the book The Apology, where she imagines what her now dead father would say if he was able to apologize for the sexual and physical abuse he inflicted on her as a child. After completing the work, V said that she had ceased to feel any bitterness towards her father, but that she no longer wished to carry his name, inviting people to call her V.[21][22][23]
Activism
V is an activist addressing issues of violence against women and girls. In 1998, her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day raises funds and awareness through annual benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues. In 2010, more than 5,400 V-Day events took place in over 1,500 locations in the U.S. and around the world. As of 2014, the V-Day movement had raised over $100[34] million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. These safe houses provide women sanctuary from abuse, female genital mutilation and 'honor' killing.[35] The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.
In 2011, V-Day and the Fondation Panzi (DRC), with support from UNICEF, opened the City of Joy, a new community for women survivors of gender violence in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). City of Joy provides up to 180 Congolese women a year with an opportunity to benefit from group therapy; self-defense training; comprehensive sexuality education (covering HIV/AIDS, family planning); economic empowerment; storytelling; dance; theater; ecology and horticulture. Created from their vision, Congolese women run, operate and direct City of Joy themselves.[citation needed] The City of Joy celebrated its first graduating class in February 2012.[citation needed] The story of the City of Joy, including V's involvement, is portrayed in the documentary City of Joy, screening on Netflix.
In 2012, along with the V-Day movement, V created One Billion Rising, a global protest campaign to end violence, and promote justice and gender equality for women. On February 14, 2013, V-Day's 15th anniversary, women and men in countries around the world held dance actions to demand an end to violence against women and girls.[38][39][40]
In 2017 in an opinion piece in The Guardian V voiced criticism of the newly inaugurated president of the United States, Donald Trump, referring to him as a "self-confessed sexual assaulter" and "our predator-in-chief".[42]
V has received numerous awards for her artistic and humanitarian work:
Tony Award – In 2011, V was awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards, which recognizes an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations.[44]
Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, 1999[45]
^McDermott, Shiva Rose. "V-Day Activist Spotlights: Shiva Rose McDermott" Vday.orgArchived June 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved October 26, 2009
^Saner, Emine (January 14, 2012). "Interview: Eve Ensler". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
