Our Creation Story

Since we've made it our mission to encourage storytelling, we'll dedicate this first blog entry to telling ours. And by "our" I mean "mine."

I’m Lauren, a theatre grad who got a day job some years ago. I still have said day job, but I also had this idea. Like all good ideas, it came to me in the aftermath of a traumatic event while organizing a bookshelf. 

The traumatic event was the 2016 presidential election. In its wake, I experienced shock, mourning, and genuine fear. I considered for the first time what it was to be American. I Googled things like “what’s the meaning of life?” and “should I run for political office?” I thought about the people I know and love who voted for Her and the people I know and love that voted for Not Her. I thought a lot about the people I know and love who didn't vote. I wondered how many other people were going through their days as if out-of-body.

I wondered and then I organized, not the knocking-on-doors kind of organizing (too soon), but the kind of organizing Type A personalities do when experiencing a loss of control. During this organizing, I came across my collegiate copy of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. Revisiting the pieces a decade after performing them, I was struck (horrified, saddened, enraged) by their relevancy.

What I loved about the Monologues, about plays and stories in general, are the characters and the stories they give voice to.  It was impossible after revisiting the Monologues to ignore the fact (facts are important) that a war was being waged to silence certain voices. I brushed off the script, recruited some friends who recruited some of their friends, and directed the play in the Queen Village neighborhood of Philadelphia. We raised nearly $2,000 for Planned Parenthood. Though the show wrapped, the conversation continued.

We (women and a few men) had so much to say, that after just a few conversations, there existed enough material to create a new play: V2: Creation Myth. As you can read here, V2 is inspired by The Vagina Monologues. It’s honest, timely, and important. It’s about women, but also an example of what happens when we hold space for others to share their stories. 

I see V2  as just the beginning. There’s still much to say, so many stories to tell.  I look forward to telling them through EBP and to hearing yours.