Single moms get price break on tickets for ‘Monologues’

If organizers have their way, a large segment of the audience for this week’s production of “The Vagina Monologues” in Coeur d’Alene will never have heard of the show.

It won’t be because those audience members don’t understand the issues addressed by the award-winning performance. Sexual abuse, rape and domestic violence are often topics too familiar to the target audience for this year’s benefit show: single, working mothers.

“The largest percentage of single, working mothers are those who’ve left abusive relationships,” said Shirley Thagard, producer.

But many affected women have had little time, money or energy to spare on theater performances. At the same time, those women might benefit most from “The Vagina Monologues” and its message of empowerment and independence, Thagard said.

That’s why organizers of this year’s event are reaching out to single, working moms, offering them deep discounts and encouragement.

“We think it’s kind of an awareness,” Thagard said. “A woman who has the courage to leave isn’t always capable of finding the resources to change.”

So far, about 200 women have bought $10 tickets to the show, down from the $25 full cost. About 1,000 people are expected for the 7 p.m. performances Friday and Saturday at North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium.

The event is expected to raise $15,000 for a local children’s center.

The 90-minute performances will include a monologue by Tom Cronin, former police chief in Coeur d’Alene and for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Men usually aren’t included in the productions, but Thagard said she got permission from the show’s creator, New York’s Eve Ensler, to add a male perspective.

Cronin said his 10-minute monologue centers on intuition.

“It’s listening to that inner voice,” he said. “It’s a little bit about taking some responsibility for personal safety.”

Adding a professional man’s perspective to the lineup of women’s views is valuable, Thagard said.

“It’s not always an unemployed, uneducated drunk who beats his wife,” she said. “It’s an executive. It’s a young man struggling to deal with his life. Those are the kind of stories that people need to be reminded of.”

The Coeur d’Alene show is based on the popular theater production created by Ensler. Since 1998, so-called V-Day events have sprung up around the globe as groups on college campuses and elsewhere found that audiences resonated with personal tales of triumph over rape, incest, violence and other trauma.

The V-Day Foundation makes the script for the show free during February, allowing local organizations to raise money to help end violence against women and children. This is the third time since 2000 that the show has benefited the local Soroptimist of Coeur d’Alene Club, which finances the local center for children affected by domestic violence, Thagard said.

With the help of members of the Student Social Workers group at Lewis-Clark State College and NIC Students for Progressive Change, organizers have reached out to businesses, shopping centers and other places where the women might be. The hope is that women who attend the show will be inspired to change their lives or maintain positive changes for their children’s sake.

“When a mother leaves a violent relationship, she reduces the probability that her child or children will be abusers or will be willing to tolerate abuse when they grow up,” Thagard said.