Eve Ensler Performs The Good Body in Weeklong Run

Author of International Phenomenon The Vagina Monologues Turns Her Unique Eye to the Rest of the Female Form

“Hilarious! Ensler claims the stage and solidly connects.”—Variety

Eve Ensler, the author of the international phenomenon The Vagina Monologues, plans to explore and expose even more when she comes to Columbus to perform her new play The Good Body. The Good Body will be presented by the Wexner Center in eight shows, Tuesday– Sunday, January 10–15 in Ohio State’s Thurber Theatre at Drake Center—the only Ohio dates on Ensler’s 20-city North American tour. This marks Ensler’s debut performance in Columbus and the second Ensler work to be presented by the Wexner Center: In 2001, The Vagina Monologues played to sold-out houses in its weeklong run in Columbus.

Tickets to The Good Body are $25 general public, $20 Wexner Center members, $10 students, available at the Wexner Center (614 292-3535) and Ticketmaster (614 431-3600 or Ticketmaster.com).

Ensler will hold a talk back following the January 10 (opening night) and January 12 performances.

ABOUT THE SHOW When Eve Ensler takes the stage, she doesn’t just perform a play—she causes a sensation. In The Good Body, she takes an inside look at the outside, exploring the cultures of beauty, food and desire through the eyes of women around the world. This provocative, hilarious, and profoundly moving show promises to be no less extraordinary than Eve’s previous triumph, The Vagina Monologues, which inspired a worldwide revolution.

With The Good Body, Eve Ensler turns her unique eye to the rest of the female form. Whether undergoing Botox injections or living beneath burkhas, women of all cultures and backgrounds feel compelled to change the way they look in order to fit in. The Good Body merges cross-cultural explorations with Eve’s own personal journey coming to terms with her “less-than-flat, post-40’s stomach.” The Associated Press called The Good Body “insightful, entertaining and hilarious”; the San Francisco Chronicle described it as “passionate, funny, frank, revealing, even shocking”; and The New York Times said The Good Body is “forthrightly funny, bristling with wisecracks and exotically harvested snippets of wisdom.”

The Good Body, written and performed by Ensler, debuted on Broadway in October 2004 following a workshop production at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and an engagement at ACT in San Francisco. The Good Body is directed by Peter Askin, and the tour is produced by Harriet Newman Leve, in association with Ron Nicynski, Mark Kaplan and Michele Crowley. Associate producers are Allison Prouty and Laura Wagner. The tour is managed by 321 Theatrical Management. A portion of the proceeds from the tour will benefit V-Day, the global movement founded by Ensler to end violence against women and girls.

The Good Body features set designs by Tony nominee Robert Brill (Assassins), costume design by recent Tony Award winner Susan Hilferty (Wicked) and lighting design by Kevin Adams (Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Sound design and original music is by David Van Tieghem (Doubt), co-designed by Jill B.C. Du Boff (The Constant Wife). More info: www.TheGoodBody.com.

EVE ENSLER (playwright/performer/activist): Award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, Ensler most recently performed her new play The Good Body on Broadway in NYC, at ACT in San Francisco, and in a workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Ensler is founder and artistic director of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. The Vagina Monologues has been translated into more than 35 languages and has run in theaters worldwide, including sold-out runs at Off-Broadway’s Westside Theater and on London’s West End (2002 Olivier Award nom., Best Entertainment). Her play Necessary Targets, set in a Bosnian refugee camp, opened Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theatre in February 2002, following a hit run at Hartford Stage Company. Ensler’s other plays include Conviction, Lemonade, The Depot, Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man and Extraordinary Measures. The Good Body, The Vagina Monologues, and Necessary Targets have been published by Villard/Random House, who will also publish Ensler’s upcoming books I Am an Emotional Creature and V-World. Ensler is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in playwriting, the 2002 Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award for leadership, and the Matrix Award (2002). She is an executive producer of “What I Want My Words to Do to You,” a documentary about the writing group she has led since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. The film had its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Freedom of Expression Award; the film premiered nationally on PBS’s “P.O.V.”

PETER ASKIN (director): Askin’s recent New York credits include Eve Ensler’s The Good Body on Broadway; Privilege by Paul Weitz; Trumbo, starring Nathan Lane followed by a rotating cast, including Paul Newman and Brian Dennehy; Mike O’Malley’s Searching For Certainty; John Leguizamo’s Sexaholix, Spic-O-Rama, and Mambo Mouth. He also directed the New York, London and Los Angeles productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Dael Orlandersmith’s Monster, Beauty’s Daughter and The Gimmick. Past New York credits include: Dinner With Demons; How It Hangs; Linda Her; Beauty Marks; Ourselves Alone; Reno; Reality Ranch; and Down An Alley Filled With Cats. In film, Peter has written (and co-written) a number of screenplays including Smithereens and Paramount Classic’s Company Man (which he also co-directed with Doug McGrath), with Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, and Woody Allen. He recently finished adapting Martin Millar’s Good Fairies of New York, and is currently adapting Someone Else’s Child by Nancy Woodruff. In television, Peter directed the HBO production of Spic-O-Rama for which he won a Cable Ace. He was the Supervising Producer for John Leguizamo’s HBO/Fox comedy series “House of Buggin’.”

Description: Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues, is back, exposing even more in her new one-woman show, The Good Body. Presented by the Wexner Center.

Dates and times: Tuesday–Friday, January 10–13 at 8 pm; Saturday, January 14 at 2 & 8 pm; Sunday, January 15 at 2 & 7 pm. Ensler to hold a talk back following January 10 & 12 shows.

Location: OSU’s Thurber Theatre at the Drake Center, 1849 Cannon Drive (across from stadium).

Tickets: $25 general public, $20 Wexner Center members, $10 students.

Ticket outlets: Wexner Center (614 292-3535) and Ticketmaster (614 431-3600) or Ticketmaster.com.

Public information: 614 292-3535 and www.wexarts.org (also www.TheGoodBody.com).

EVENT SUPPORT Major support for the Wexner Center’s 2005–06 performing arts season is generously provided by Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and The Columbus Foundation. Significant contributions made by Altria Group, Inc., Morgan Stanley, Nationwide Foundation, and Ron and Ann Pizzuti. Additional funding is provided by the Ohio Arts Council, the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation, and Wexner Center members. Preferred accommodations: The Blackwell Inn.

The Wexner Center for the Arts is The Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art. Through exhibitions, screenings, performances, artist residencies, and educational programs, the Wexner Center acts as a forum where established and emerging artists can test ideas and where diverse audiences can participate in cultural experiences that enhance understanding of the art of our time. In its programs, the Wexner Center balances a commitment to experimentation with a commitment to traditions of innovation and affirms the university’s mission of education, research, and community service.