The Katrina Monologues will premier in New Orleans on April 11, 2008. The performers, musicians and production crew who are local New Orleanians, will of course be paid for their performances. Profits from ticket sales will be going to support women’s programs in New Orleans, although those programs have not yet been specifically named.
In addition, during the weekend of the premier of The Katrina Monologues, which is also VDay (www.vday.com) there will be a special benefit performance of the Vagina Monologues. Eve is busy signing up celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek, Joss Stone and Kerry Washington for that performance. The proceeds from that performance will establish a women’s fund in New Orleans. A group of young activists, the Katrina Warriors is planning all kinds of events for the two weeks leading up to the gala.
Our Boulder event is an evening of conversation with Carol Bebelle, who will take us behind the scenes of The Katrina Monologues and the stories that will be told. It is not a performance of the play. That is still a work in progress. The Katrina Monologues will premier in New Orleans April 11, 2008. Let me assure you though, that an evening of conversation with Carol is an event not to be missed!
Oct 11th is going to be quite a night here in Boulder. April 11-12 will be quite a weekend in New Orleans. We hope you can join us for both events.
Thank you again for your interest and your generous support of this project.
Eighteen months after Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast and the levees in New Orleans broke, the city was still in shambles. Yet much of the country had moved on. Determined that the country should never forget what had and was taking place in their city, a diverse group of 15 local women artists – young and old, black, white and hispanic – many of national renown, were brought together by Carol Bebelle, founder and director of the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, a key institution in the revitalization and rebuilding of New Orleans, and Eve Ensler, playwright, director and author of the world-famous Vagina Monologues, to write and produce an original theater piece recording the experiences of New Orleanians during and after the country’s worst natural disaster.
The goals of The Katrina Monologues are twofold: to help support local artists through a most difficult period so that they can remain in the city they love and rebuild their homes and families, and to ensure that the story of what happened after that storm is not forgotten.
The monies we are raising through our Boulder event Oct. 11 will go directly to support the development of the New Orleans production of The Katrina Monologues. The total budget for the production is $270,000. Of that, $150,000 goes to the 15 artists ($10,000 each over 18 months). Additional costs include rental of performance space, sets and costumes, production staff, musicians, promotion and other associated production costs. Eve Ensler is donating her time to the project; her travel and lodging expenses will be paid from the money raised.