Please feel free to share with us your experience at one of our productions!

A blog from an audience member from V-Day Portsmouth 2013 The Vagina Monologues:

An Unusual Valentine from my Daughter

An email from an audience member after seeing Wit 2012:

“I was the one who fell apart trying to give you a hug after the show today. What I wanted to say (I have no idea what came out of my mouth in that moment!), was, thank you! Thank you for giving me such a gift today!

My mom and I had come to see Todd, a family friend, in this production. I live in Middlebury, VT while my mom lives locally in Portsmouth. She had shown me the article, several weeks ago, re: Wit and that Todd was in it. I promised that I would return and take her to see it. I had no idea what the production was about until I started researching it on line. I must be honest, I wasn’t sure my mother could handle the topic. She had just buried her husband of 56 years in mid-March. Todd had sung a beautiful tribute to my dad at his celebration of life service. Never did it enter my mind that this would also be very cathartic to me also and that your show would contribute so significantly to the on-going healing process for me (I lost my first wife to cancer in 1998 when she was 40). It was my current wife who said, three weeks ago, that she thought it would be important for both my mom and me to experience together. Yes, I’ve been so lucky to fall in love again!

Boy, was she ever right! This is a long winded explanation I’m giving you. Wow, what a production! What great acting! What a great story! Needless to say, my mom and I went back to her apartment and talked for quite a while. Thank you, thank you for taking this role. You were outstanding and very talented! Both of us were riveted for the full 90 minutes! You gave us both such a gift! For each of us, we were able to open the door and look inside again at our loss, at the journey of that loss, at life.

I have never driven in silence for the full 3 1/2 hr. drive back home. Tonight I did and it was wonderful! So much to think about, so much to process, so much to be grateful for. Thanks again for such a wonderful gift Constance! You are a remarkable actress!”

A Letter from an audience member after seeing V-Day Portsmouth 2012 The Vagina Monologues:

“Last night, around 7:30, I walked into SRT alone. I had no expectations. I just came to be entertained. At 10:00, I walked to my car in tears. During the 2 hours of the Vagina Monologues, my whole world turned upside-down. You see, I had spent my life in guilt and shame, always feeling like there was something just inherently WRONG with me. For the first time, I am feeling normal and hopeful and FREE!

My mother called my vagina my “shame”. It was a dirty thing that I should be ashamed of. When it started to bleed, I was sure I was being punished for being a bad girl. I was 11. I had never been told about menstruation. A friend’s mother assured me that I was not dying and taught me about my period. My mother never said a word.

I was date-raped at 17. I never told anyone. In fact, I have never been able to even say the word “rape” out loud. I thought I had brought it on myself and heaped more shame on myself. Last night, I learned that it was not my fault. I wasn’t “bad”.

It was your monologue that caught me off guard right from the beginning. You told a part of my story. I married a man who demanded things of me that made me uncomfortable. The hair thing hit me like a ton of bricks. That was me. His demands pushed me even further into my “asexual” mode. I dreaded sex. Dirty sex. I learned how to just drift off until he was finished.

Last night I learned that I am not alone. That there is nothing wrong with me. Today I am proud to be a woman. Part of a sisterhood where women survive unthinkable pain and injustice, rejoice in their womanhood, and grow stronger through their connection with their SELF.

I never expected to be “healed” last night, but that is how I feel today. I feel like I have just begun a new relationship with the most important person in my life – me! I know old habits and hurts don’t go away overnight. I know that I have work to do. But I also know that I have the courage and strength inside to to change me.

Thank you. You and the cast gave me, at 58 years old, a challenge to become the woman I was born to be. A woman with a VAGINA!!!! There – I said the word!

Thank you, thank you, thank you all. For all the women who are reborn this week-end. We thank you.”