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52-626: Thompson was born as Richard Ernest Thompson in Bellows Falls, Vermont , to parents Theron and Esther Thompson. He spent his early years in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, moving to Maryland as a junior high school student. He attended the University of Maryland and the Catholic University of America , before ultimately graduating cum laude from American University in 1971. Thompson

104-716: A "lighthearted" answer to The Vagina Monologues . In 2001, he directed his own live TV version of On Golden Pond , starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer . His play White People Christmas played at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, directed by Thompson. In 1991 his son August was born. In 1993, Thompson married Kristie Lanier at his home in New Hampshire, where he raised daughters Heather and Danielle. Thompson and Lanier later divorced. On Christmas Day in 2012, he married Kerrin (Rocha) Adrian. Thompson lives most of

156-439: A Second Wave consciousness-raising group rather than a ground-breaking, inter-sectional, Third Wave cornerstone. Because of the title and content of The Vagina Monologues being body-centric, American University chose to change their production of it to a new show including all-original pieces, giving the production the name of Breaking Ground Monologues. Although members of American University's Women's Initiative believe that

208-409: A continuing chain of referrals. In an interview with Women.com, Ensler said that her fascination with vaginas began because of "growing up in a violent society". "Women's empowerment is deeply connected to their sexuality." She also stated, "I'm obsessed with women being violated and raped, and with incest . All of these things are deeply connected to our vaginas." Ensler wrote the piece to "celebrate

260-453: A contradiction between the promotion of rape awareness on V-Day and the monologue "The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could", in which an adult woman recalls that being given alcohol and statutorily raped at 13 by a 24-year-old woman was a positive, healing experience, ending the segment with the proclamation "It was a good rape." Outcry from the play's supporters resulted in Swope being fired from

312-582: A hit 1981 film , starring Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda . Thompson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1981 as well as awards from the Golden Globes and the Writers Guild of America . The West Side Waltz , Thompson's second popular play, opened on Broadway, starring Katharine Hepburn on November 19, 1981. Thompson is quoted as saying that The West Side Waltz came about after

364-405: A hit. Soon, Eve Ensler's episodic play had graduated from off-off Broadway to Madison Square Garden to college stages the world over." In 2004, an all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues was held for the first time. The performance was covered by the 2006 documentary Beautiful Daughters , which displays the hardships the all-transgender cast faced with the production. The play

416-445: A limited run that was scheduled to end November 15 but was extended to December 31. The play gained popularity through sold-out performances, media coverage and word of mouth. "In 2001, V-Day sold out New York's Madison Square Garden with more than seventy actors performing. The evening raised $ 1 million raised for groups working to end violence against women and girls." "After "The Vagina Monologues" debuted in 1996, it quickly became

468-570: A producer of the Westside Theatre production, launched V-Day, a global non-profit movement that has raised over US$ 100   million for groups working to end violence against women (including those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence), through benefits of The Vagina Monologues . In 2011, Ensler was awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards, which recognizes an individual from

520-534: A telephone call he received on behalf of screenwriter George Seaton , creator of movies such as Miracle on 34th Street , offering Thompson "the only George Seaton grant" to write a new play for the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. Thompson wrote and directed a television version based on the play, premiering on Thanksgiving night 1995, starring Shirley MacLaine , Liza Minnelli , Kathy Bates , and Jennifer Grey . As an actor, Thompson's only Broadway appearance

572-498: Is a documentary about the cast of the first performance by transgender women. An article in Signs by Christine M. Cooper begins by applauding The Vagina Monologues for benefit performances done within the first six years (1998–2004). These performances raised over $ 20 million, 85 percent of which was donated to grassroots organizations that fight against violence towards women. The Vagina Monologues has been criticized by some within

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624-554: Is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that distributes funds to national and international grassroot organizations and programs that work to stop violence against girls and women. The Vagina Monologues is the cornerstone of the V-Day movement, whose participants stage benefit performances of the show and/or host other related events in their communities. Such events take place worldwide each year between 1 February and 30 April, many on college campuses as well. All performances must stick to

676-663: Is an incorporated village located in the town of Rockingham in Windham County , Vermont , United States. The population was 2,747 at the 2020 census . Bellows Falls is home to the Green Mountain Railroad , a heritage railroad ; the annual Roots on the River Festival; and the No Film Film Festival. The community was settled in 1753 by colonists of English descent, who called it Great Falls . Later

728-579: Is best known as the author of the play On Golden Pond , which he wrote at the age of 28. The play opened off-Broadway in 1978, starring Tom Aldredge and Frances Sternhagen . A great success at the Kennedy Center , it opened at the New Apollo Theater on Broadway February 28, 1979. Revived the following season at the Century Theatre, On Golden Pond ran for more than 400 performances. It became

780-487: Is the primary register through which 'the global' is evoked, the main lens for looking outside the United States. These global locations serve to signify the terror that is used to hold the laughter in balance, to validate the seriousness of the enterprise, while the 'vagina' pieces are more directly associated with pleasure and sexuality and set in the United States." In 2013, Columbia University's V-Day decided to stage

832-587: The Burqa , about the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. In 2004, Ensler wrote one called They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy. . .Or So They Tried after interviewing a group of women whose gender differed from that assigned to them at birth. Every V-Day thousands of local benefit productions are staged to raise funds for local groups, shelters, and crisis centers working to end violence against women. V-Day

884-469: The gorge . River traffic declined after railroads were built to the Connecticut Valley in 1849, and by 1858 the canal had become used exclusively for water power to run the paper mills which became established there. In 1874 the canal was enlarged to 75 feet wide and 17 feet deep. By 1908 it was delivering 15,000 horsepower to the mills. When the mills replaced water power with electrical power,

936-614: The historic railroad station and the Adams Gristmill Warehouse . The village is located within the town of Rockingham . According to the United States Census Bureau , the village has a total area of 1.4 square miles (3.6 km ), all land. Bellows Falls is bounded on the east by the Connecticut River . As of the census of 2000, there were 3,165 people, 1,329 households, and 782 families residing in

988-729: The "South Asian adaptation of The Vagina Monologues ", and as loose inspiration for The Manic Monologues , "the mental-illness version of The Vagina Monologues ." The Cardinal Newman Society has criticized the performance of the play on Catholic college campuses. In 2011 ten of the fourteen Catholic universities hosting the Monologues were Jesuit institutions. The Jesuit Tim Clancy, pastor and philosophy professor at Gonzaga University , explains why he supports VM performances on campus: "They are not arguments – they are stories … stories of pain and suffering, stories of shame, violation and impotence" that lead to discussions on "the extremes of

1040-637: The 1990s, Thompson wrote the television film Take Me Home Again (released on DVD as The Lies Boys Tell ) in 1994, based on the novel by Lamar Herrin, starring Kirk Douglas and Craig T. Nelson , in which Thompson also appeared. He directed and acted opposite Shirley MacLaine and Jennifer Grey in The West Side Waltz and co-wrote and directed the Emmy-nominated movie Out of Time , starring James McDaniel and Mel Harris . In 2000, Thompson directed The Penis Responds , with Richard Gilliland , as

1092-503: The Belles . Other acting credits include roles in the Bob Fosse movie Star 80 and Next Stop Wonderland , directed by Brad Anderson . Thompson wrote the screenplay for the feature film Sweet Hearts Dance , directed by Robert Greenwald and starring Susan Sarandon and Don Johnson . He directed 1969 , starring Kiefer Sutherland , Robert Downey, Jr. , and Winona Ryder . During

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1144-539: The HERE premiere and in the first off-Broadway production, which was produced by David Stone , Nina Essman, Dan Markley, The Araca Group , Willa Shalit and the West Side Theater. When she left the play, it was recast with three celebrity monologists. The play has been staged internationally, and a television version featuring Ensler was produced by cable TV channel HBO . In 1998, Ensler and others, including Willa Shalit,

1196-703: The annual script that V-Day puts out specifically for the V-Day productions of The Vagina Monologues . The V-Day organization encourages the renditions to include as many diverse actors as possible. With a minimum of 5 actors required by V-Day, the organization also has no maximum limit on the number of actors that can be included in the productions and encourages inclusion of as many actors as possible. The performances generally benefit rape crisis centers and shelters for women, as well as similar resource centers for women and girls experiencing violence against them. On 21 February 2004, Ms. Ensler in conjunction with Jane Fonda and Deep Stealth Productions produced and directed

1248-621: The bridge. The Vagina Monologues The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written in 1996 by Eve Ensler which developed and premiered at HERE Arts Center , Off-Off-Broadway in New York and was followed by an Off-Broadway run at the Westside Theatre . The play explores consensual and nonconsensual sexual experiences, body image, genital mutilation, direct and indirect encounters with reproduction, vaginal care, menstrual periods, prostitution , and several other topics through

1300-527: The canal was widened again in 1927–28 to 100 feet, and the water was used to power turbines to generate electricity. The canal's bottom was lined with concrete, and the sides secured with rip-rap set in concrete. A fish ladder allows salmon to continue upstream at times when the bulk of the river's flow is diverted to the canal. The canal is now part of the Bellows Falls Downtown Historic District. In 1802, entrepreneurs built

1352-506: The clitoris. There is also criticism of The Vagina Monologues about its conflation of vaginas with women, more specifically for the message of the play that women are their vaginas, as Susan E. Bell and Susan M. Reverby argue, "Generations of feminists have argued that we are more than our bodies, more than a vagina or 'the sex'. Yet, TVM re-inscribes women's politics in our bodies, indeed in our vaginas alone." The focus on women finding themselves through their vaginas, many say, seems more like

1404-404: The common names for the vagina or simply as a physical aspect of the body. A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality. Some monologues include : Every year a new monologue is added to highlight another issue affecting women around the world. In 2003, for example, Ensler wrote a new monologue, called Under

1456-399: The decision not to endorse the 2007 production, claiming the yearly event was getting to be "redundant". The response of the university's student-led feminist organization was to continue the production at an off-campus location. In 2000, Robert Swope, a conservative contributor to a Georgetown University newspaper, The Hoya , wrote an article critical of the play. He suggested there was

1508-513: The eyes of women with various ages, races, sexualities, and other differences. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called the play "probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade." In 2018, The New York Times stated "No recent hour of theater has had a greater impact worldwide" in an article "The Great Work Continues: The 25 Best American Plays Since ' Angels in America ' ". Ensler originally starred in both

1560-411: The feminist movement, including pro-sex feminists and individualist feminists . Sex-positive feminist Betty Dodson , author of several books about female sexuality, saw the play as having a narrow and restrictive view of sexuality. Dodson's main concern seemed to be the lack of the term "clitoris" throughout the play. She believes that the play sends a message that the vagina is the main sex organ, not

1612-456: The first paper mill in Windham County. Two railroads converged in 1849 at Bellows Falls, helping it develop into a major mill town . By 1859, a woolen textile mill was operating, in addition to factories that produced furniture, marble , sashes and blinds , iron castings, carriages , cabinetware, rifles, harness , shoe pegs and organs . The years of industry created wealth in

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1664-529: The first all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues , with readings by eighteen notable transgender women and including a new monologue documenting the experiences of transgender women. It debuted in connection with "LA V-DAY Until the Violence Stops" with monologues documenting the violence against transgender women. Since that debut, many university and college productions have included these three "Transgender Monologues". Beautiful Daughters (2006)

1716-736: The play with a cast entirely of non-White women. That decision, too, was controversial. The play has also been criticized by social conservatives , such as the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and the Network of Enlightened Women . The TFP denounced it as "a piece replete with sexual encounters, lust, graphic descriptions of masturbation and lesbian behavior", urging students and parents to protest. Following TFP and other protests, performances were cancelled at sixteen Catholic colleges . Saint Louis University made

1768-436: The population. There were 1,329 households, out of which 32.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.0% were couples living together and joined in either marriage or civil union , 14.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.1% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size

1820-473: The president of the school's theater group, said, "the show offers an extremely narrow perspective on what it means to be a woman. … Gender is a wide and varied experience, one that cannot simply be reduced to biological or anatomical distinctions, and many of us who have participated in the show have grown increasingly uncomfortable presenting material that is inherently reductionist and exclusive." The traditionally all-female college had begun admitting trans women

1872-496: The previous year, but the college denied that had anything to do with the decision to discontinue the annual performances of the play. Kim Hall, a professor of philosophy at Appalachian State University, further criticizes the play, particularly the sections dealing with women in developing countries , for contributing to "colonialist conceptions of non-Western women", such as the piece "My Vagina Was My Village." Although she supports frank discussions about sex, Hall rescales many of

1924-467: The same critiques leveled by feminists of color at " White privilege " among second-wave feminists : "premature white feminist assumptions and celebrations of a global 'sisterhood.'" In The Vagina Monologues, depictions of sexual violence are told through mostly non-white and non-US centered stories, as Srimati Basu states, "While a few of these forms of violence, such as sexual assault and denigration of genitalia, are depicted in U.S. locations, violence

1976-534: The script being modified in 2008 to change the age of the statutorily raped girl from 13 to 16 and to remove the "good rape" line. Every year, the play is performed on hundreds of college campuses as part of V-Day's College campaign. Inspired by The Vagina Monologues , many colleges have gone on to develop their own plays. Performances at colleges are always different, not always pre-written, and sometimes feature actors writing their own monologue. The Vagina Monologues also served as inspiration for Yoni Ki Baat ,

2028-450: The settlers renamed the town for Colonel Benjamin Bellows, a landowner, but kept the name Great Falls for the waterfall, a translation of their Abenaki name, "Kitchee pontegu." In 1785, Colonel Enoch Hale built at the falls the first bridge over the Connecticut River . It was the only bridge across the river until 1796, when another was built at Springfield , Massachusetts . The bridge

2080-556: The show was revolutionary in the 1990s, they concluded that equating having a vagina with being a woman is not an accurate display of womanhood in the 2010s, suggesting that The Vagina Monologues continues to perpetuate the gender binary and erase the identity of those who are genderqueer . In 2015 a student organization at Mount Holyoke College canceled its annual performance of the play for being, in its opinion, insufficiently inclusive of transgender people. "At its core", Erin Murphy,

2132-536: The staff of The Hoya , before the piece was even run. Swope had previously criticized the play in an article he wrote entitled "Georgetown Women's Center: Indispensable Asset or Improper Expenditure?" His termination received critical editorial coverage in The Wall Street Journal , Salon , National Review , The Atlantic Monthly , The Washington Times , The Weekly Standard , and by Wendy McElroy of iFeminists . The controversy resulted in

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2184-577: The theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations for her creation of the V-Day movement. Eve Ensler wrote the first draft of the monologues in 1996 (there have been several revisions since) following interviews she conducted with 200 women about their views on sex, relationships, and violence against women. The interviews began as casual conversations with her friends, who then brought up anecdotes they themselves had been told by other friends; this began

2236-490: The town, and substantial Victorian houses and mercantile buildings were constructed. Bellows Falls today attracts visitors through heritage tourism based on its historic Victorian architecture . The commercial town center, along with the canal, the bridges spanning it, and several neighborhoods of houses, were listed as historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places , as were individual landmarks such as

2288-478: The vagina". Ensler states that in 1998, the purpose of the piece changed from a celebration of vaginas and femininity to a movement to stop violence against women. This was the start of the V-Day movement which has continued strong every year since, has turned into a worldwide phenomenon, and a very successful non-profit organization. The play opened at HERE Arts Center in New York City on October 3, 1996, with

2340-562: The village was $ 29,608, and the median income for a family was $ 45,688. Males had a median income of $ 29,137 versus $ 22,340 for females. The per capita income for the village was $ 15,276. About 5.6% of families and 12.6% of the population were below the poverty line , including 14.3% of those under age 18 and 15.9% of those age 65 or over. One of Bellows Falls' cultural attractions is the Bellows Falls Petroglyph Site : petroglyphs on large boulders, located just downstream of

2392-430: The village. The population density was 2,286.1 people per square mile (885.5/km ). There were 1,443 housing units at an average density of 1,042.3/sq mi (403.7/km ). The racial makeup of the village was 97.28% White , 0.35% African American , 0.16% Native American , 0.51% Asian , 0.03% Pacific Islander , 0.22% from other races , and 1.45% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.14% of

2444-528: The year 2018. The Vagina Monologues is made up of personal monologues read by a diverse group of women. Originally, Eve Ensler performed every monologue herself, with subsequent performances featuring three actresses, and more recent versions featuring a different actress for every role. Each of the monologues deals with an aspect of the feminine experience , touching on matters such as sex , sex work , body image , love , rape , menstruation , female genital mutilation , masturbation , birth , orgasm ,

2496-577: The year in New Hampton, New Hampshire (very close to where On Golden Pond was filmed). In 2008, Thompson co-founded Whitebridge Farm Productions with partners Morgan Murphy and Lori Gigliotti-Murphy. He wrote, directed and starred in the company's first two movies, Heavenly Angle and Time and Charges , both of which were primarily filmed in the Granite State and offered by Whitebridge Farm Productions. Bellows Falls, Vermont Bellows Falls

2548-412: Was 2.35 and the average family size was 3.01. In the village, the population was spread out, with 26.1% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 21.5% from 45 to 64, and 16.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.6 males. The median income for a household in

2600-525: Was also adapted into a Marathi play called Yonichya Maneechya Gujagoshti by feminist writer-activist Vandana Khare in the year 2009. Gabriela Youth, the one and only national democratic mass organization for young women in the Philippines also adapted the play into a Tagalog theatrical show called "Ang Usapang Puke" with its student members from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in

2652-505: Was as drifter Hal Carter in Summer Brave , William Inge 's revised version of his play Picnic . He portrayed Ranger Matt Harper on NBC’s 1974 series Sierra and Dr. Phil Parker on ABC's Westside Medical . He appeared on the NBC soap opera Somerset as Tony Cooper, son of Rex and Laura Cooper, and in the television films The Rimers of Eldritch and F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Last of

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2704-766: Was later replaced. Two bridges currently link Bellows Falls to New Hampshire: the New Arch Bridge (also called the Church Street Bridge), which replaced the Arch Bridge in 1982, and the Vilas Bridge. The Bellows Falls Canal , one of the first canals built in the United States, was dug by a British-owned company from 1791 to 1802. The original canal was 22 feet wide and four feet deep, and had 9 locks , each 75 feet long and 20 feet wide, which allowed shipping to go around Great Falls by being lifted 52 feet (16 m) around

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