Eve Ensler’s drama empowers young women

Cleveland State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance, a Resident Company of Playhouse Square, will continue its Theatre season with the hard-hitting all-female play, *EMOTIONAL CREATURE – THE SECRET LIFE OF GIRLS AROUND THE WORLD (EC). Writer Eve Ensler (of “The Vagina Monologues”) celebrates the authentic voice inside every girl and lets EC be a vehicle to empower young women and inspire activism.

Running February 22 – March 4, 2018, EC is the “bold voice of a new generation” and is directed by CSU Associate Professor Holly Holsinger. The show has been called “empowering and entertaining” by the New York Observer.

Performances run at the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre at the Allen Theatre Complex (Playhouse Square) Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5.00-$10.00 and are available by calling 216.241.6000, visiting www.playhousesquare.org, or at the State Theatre Ticket Office, located at 1519 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115. Tickets are also available 60-minutes prior to performances at the Allen Theatre Complex.

Two $25.00 Dinner and a Show Nights will be offered in partnership with Elements Bistro on Euclid and are available on Fridays, February 23 and March 2, 2018 by pre-reservation only by using ticket code DIN.

*Parental guidance recommended. Ages 12 and up due to some sexual and violent content.

THE STORY

Through scenes, monologues, poetry, questions, and facts, the Tony Award-winning playwright brings to the stage an understanding of the universality of girls around the world: their resiliency, their wildness, their pain, their fears, their secrets, and their triumphs. Songs and games interweave everything from finding the perfect Facebook selfie to enjoying time with friends while having a Beyoncé dance party. These true stories told through the actors explore the questions of “who am I,” “where do I belong” and “why did this happen to me?”

The 90-minute play also delves into harder topics. Among the girls Ensler creates are an American who struggles with peer pressure in a suburban high school; an anorexic blogging as she eats less and less; a Masai girl from Kenya unwilling to endure female genital mutilation; a Congolese forced into sex slavery; a Chinese factory worker making Barbies; an Iranian student who is tricked into a nose job; a pregnant girl trying to decide if she should keep her baby, and a young South African teen defiantly calling for an end to rape. The play is engaging, moving from laughter to tears, and giving audience’s one of the most powerful theatrical experiences of a lifetime.

EC has played all over the world. Girls have shared that the show and the subjects resonated for them on a personal level, from rape to their sexuality, to racism and economic injustice. Boys have said that for them it was the first time they understood what their female peers were experiencing.

THE CAST

The all-female CSU cast includes Lilyvette Acevedo, Sophia Marcella Costanzo, Brianna Hohenfeld, Brooke Myers, Jada Mykel, Brittany Ozanich, Cara Rovella, Elizabeth Stewart, Kynnedy Stewart, Madelyn Voltz, and Angela Warholic.

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