The Vagina Monologues Coming to Wallace, Idaho | Arts & Culture

The Vagina Monologues has been empowering women around the world for over a decade, fighting the silenced inner voice. The highly-acclaimed play is giving women in North Idaho’s Silver Valley the same chance to speak their mind to fight violence locally.

It’s the first time The Vagina Monologues has ever been performed in the area. It’s making its regional debut in Wallace, Idaho this Saturday. Rachael Clark-Krusemark, an English teacher at Kellogg High School, applied for the opportunity to produce the show in the Silver Valley this year - she got it.

For those unfamiliar with the popular performance, it’s a series of monologues written and based on interviews with about 200 women on issues like sex, violence and current events. It was performed off-Broadway for the first time in 1996 and since then, performed globally benefiting organizations through V-Day, an activist movement to end violence against women.

When the performance debuted, it was read completely by one woman, the writer of the entire play, Eve Ensler. During the Silver Valley performance, audience members will hear from 17 members of the community.

You might recognize a few names on the program including the principal of Canyon Elementary School, Sue Hansen-Barber.

The director of the Shoshone County Women’s Resource Center, Kellie Lavinge, also joins the cast list. There will even be a monologue from the wife of Shoshone County Sheriff, Keri Alexander.

Kenzi Lewis, music director for Kellogg Elementary Schools, is directing the show.

Clark-Krusemark is hoping the show will sell out because there are only 200 tickets available and performers keep calling her saying they ran out of tickets to sell. Demand for the show is high since it’s running for one night only.

When the show was announced, Clark-Krusemark thought only five people would try out and to top it off, she expected negative feedback. They’ve received nothing of the sort and are getting all the help they need. She’s planning for a positive evening that will benefit the Shoshone County Women’s Center and 10% of funds going to women in Haiti - not just the victims of the 2010 earthquake, but victims of violence.

A first-time attendee can expect a raw performance. The show is meant to be unrehearsed. Clark-Krusemark says the women speaking are not really performing, they’re just telling the story of other women in their voice. It could also become uncomfortable for some who are not used to hearing words to describe the connecting theme of the performance, the vagina.

“It’s the whole point of the play!” Clark-Krusemark said. The start of the monologues even references the stigma by saying, “I bet you're worried. I was worried. That's why I began this piece. I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even more worried that we don't think about them.”

In that paragraph, switch out “vaginas” with “domestic violence”. That’s how Clark-Krusemark believes the theme plays together. If we don’t talk about it, it simply continues.

Event Details: The show is at the Eagles Building on Saturday, March 10th, 8 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. with local band, White Chocolate, performing.

Tickets are still available at Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office and the Shoshone County Women’s Resource Center, $15 each. Tickets may be sold at the door if they’re not sold out.