On a Sunday afternoon last month, members of The Vagina Monologues sat down for a group arts and crafts project.
The assignment? Represent the Penn vagina.
At the 2009 performance, those posters will be on display for the audience. The designs turned out to be "completely different" from one another, according to College senior Rachel Garber, the producer of the play at Penn.
One of the play's themes, according to College senior and director Jessica Gartner, is that "your vagina is you." If that's the case, then the art project also tapped into questions about female identity at Penn.
Is "the Penn vagina" different from "the Brown vagina," or "the Princeton vagina," or "the Penn State vagina"? What makes V-Day - Eve Ensler's global movement to prevent violence against women and girls - at Penn different from V-Day at other schools?
Some students in the show pointed to the pressure that female students at Penn may face - which may or may not be as prevalent at other schools.
College senior Jessica Shanken, who performs the "Outrageous Vagina Fact" monologue, said women at Penn face "a lot of pressure."
"You're supposed to go out, look good, get drunk while also being fun and still handling yourself, wake up at 8:00 and get an A on your econ midterm," she said.
College junior and cast member Chi-Chi Achebe agreed that the female doctrine at Penn can be a tall order.
"You kind of have to project the image of perfection in all areas of your life," she said, citing "school, work, social life and image" as examples.
In light of those conditions, Penn's rendition of The Vagina Monologues may take on a unique meaning for both its cast and audience, Achebe and Shanken said.
According to Shanken, one Penn-specific function of the play is to celebrate that women rise to the occasion.
"For me, I try to look at the good things, so while [the pressure at Penn] sucks, my attitude is, 'yeah, women can do this,'" she said. "I have a type-A personality, so I like that," she said.
To the female student who finds expectations at Penn to be more draining than motivating, Shanken advised: "Don't do it."
The bottom line, according to Shanken, is that ideals about female identity shouldn't influence the woman.
"If you're a woman and you like pink, or a push-up bra, or screaming the word, 'vagina,' do it," Shanken said. "That's what The Vagina Monologues is all about."
In addition to celebrating women and their achievements, Achebe said the play could also serve to answer anxieties about perfectionism.
"Because women at Penn kind of feel pressure to project the image of perfection, it makes it that much harder to talk about your imperfections," she said. "The Vagina Monologues talks about those imperfections, or issues that affect women."
"It gives us an opportunity to learn from other people's stories, and it invites discussions on a lot of topics," she added.
Where the Penn female population can feel fragmented into sororities, sports teams and other social groups, The Vagina Monologues builds a sense of connection and community, according to many involved.
"There's a sense of camaraderie that the show engenders," said College senior and cast member Nia Davis. "I think when you see the show, whether you're a man or woman, you're a little more connected to the female psyche."
In Davis's monologue, "My Angry Vagina," a woman humorously complains about tampons, gynecological exams and thong underwear - "all the things that can possibly piss us off as girls" but "that nobody really talks about," she said.
Davis said the best word she could think of to describe her state of mind as she delivers her monologue is "proud."
"Proud to be a woman, proud to be part of the human race and aware that we're connected - all of humanity - in a very deep sense," she said.
Davis's reflections point to one of the show's strengths, according to Penn Women's Center Director Felicity Paxton: It "transcends a lot of lines."
"It's intergenerational, interracial, it crosses cultures, ethnicities, religions," she said. "It has multiple narratives, points of view and histories. Nonetheless, it makes some fundamental claims."
The sense of human transcendence is reflected in the nature of the cast, which draws from 90 student groups on campus, according to Gartner.
"The Vagina Monologues is a really unique opportunity to engage with women all over the University who you wouldn't meet otherwise," Gartner said. "It just merges all these social circles: athletes, dancers, performers, student government, sorority girls, literally almost everything that you can imagine."
"I think most of the year, we're not a community of Penn women until it comes to V-Day," Garber said.
"We have 'Women's Week' and I hate that - it's one week," she added, referring to the annual program of events at Penn scheduled to coincide with V-Day. "It would be really cool if that excitement carried through the whole year."
But when it comes to The Vagina Monologues, there is no shortage of pride.
"I almost want to brag and say we have the best Vagina Monologues of all colleges," said Garber. "I think we take it so seriously here."
