May 25

Eve Ensler's Birthday
 


Eve Ensler is an American playwright,  actor, feminist and activist, best known for her play
 The Vagina Monologues. The play was written in 1996.and first performed in the basement of the Cornelia Street Café in Greenwich Village. The Vagina Monologues has been translated into 45 different languages and performed in over 119 countries. Celebrities who have starred in the play include Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg,  Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, and Oprah Winfrey.  Eve was awarded the Obie Award in 1996 for ‘Best New Play.

Eve originally starred in the first production of the play. When when she left, it was recast with three celebrity monologists. The production has been staged internationally, and a television version featuring Eve was produced by HBO. In the play, each monologue somehow relates to the vagina, be it through sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the variety of names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body. A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality.

The play is unique in that Eve  adds a new monologue each year  to highlight a current issue affecting women around the world.  In 2003, for example, Ensler wrote a new monologue about the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. This Monologue is known as "Under the Burqa."  In 1998, her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day raises funds and awareness through annual benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues that take place in February and March. In 2008  More than 4000 V-Day events are taking place in 1250 locations in the US.and around the world. The V-Day movement has raised over $60 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 5,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Vagina, and stopping Violence against Vaginas V-Day has raised more $50 million for women's anti-violence groups through benefits of The Vagina Monologue.

The most appropriate dish for Eve 's birthday is any fichette recipe. Fichette are vagina-shaped pasta that are popular in major Italian cities and can be ordered in the United States from Italian Harvest in South San Francisco ( 650- 871-2959) and via the web. However, the fichette from Italian Harvest are packaged mixed with cazzetti (penis-shaped pasta) so you will have to separate them for the following recipe. (A recipe for cazzetti is featured in this book on May 08). Make this a double celebration by watching the 2002 TV production of The Vagina Monologues.

 Fichette and Tomato Soup


Ingredients
 
1&1/2 cups fichetti
2 cups milk
1 cup half and half
 

3 TB butter
salt and pepper to taste

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
 

Instructions
 
  1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add fichetti and cook for 8  minutes or until al dente; drain.
  2. In a large saucepan combine cooked macaroni, milk, half and half, butter and salt and pepper. Stir in tomatoes.
    Cook over medium heat until quite hot.

Serves 4

© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes