Sixteen kinds of moans, five weeks of rehearsal, four charities, three performances, two student organizations, a local church and an enormous papier-m?ch? vagina joined forces this weekend to help women in need.

Absolute Pleasure Productions and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance performed Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” at Western Presbyterian Church to raise money for women’s charities as part of V-Day, a month long, nationwide effort to raise money and awareness for women’s issues.

The shows were performed royalty free at college campuses and theaters around the world between Jan. 31 and March 9 (International Women’s Day). This year the V-Day movement, a non-profit corporation that distributes funds to stop violence against women, expects to raise more than $5 million from more than 1,000 shows, with corporations providing matching funds.

Sophomore Allison Curtis, who directed the GW production, said the event raised more than $1,600 after two shows Friday and Saturday, to be split between the Sexual Minority Assistance League, HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive), Ruth’s House, a battered woman’s shelter, and the Mautner Project, which benefits lesbians with cancer.

The show, derived from more than 200 interviews with women regarding their vaginas, was produced by Absolute Pleasure Productions with support from the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance GW chapter. The FMLA worked to publicize the event on campus and helped usher at the performances. This is the third year GW hosted a V-Day production of the monologues, and the first under the FMLA auspice and with a student director.

For Curtis, the challenge of directing the play in its third year was to expand the role of minority viewpoints.

“I wanted fewer white faces (and) more gay representation,” Curtis said.

The show continues to evolve as Ensler writes additional monologues to include more diverse groups and issues. This weekend’s performance included one monologue about a Native American woman who had been raped and beaten. While the cast was glad Native Americans were represented, several of them worried the focus on rape belittled the monologue and made the woman appear weak.

“I wish (the character) had done something to get out … it made (the Native Americans) sound helpless,” said cast member junior Blayr Nais.

“It’s like a parody of a stereotype …I would’ve liked to see (Native Americans) celebrated, not shown as victims,” said Curtis.

Curtis and her cast tried to find a way to include the concerns of transgendered people into the evening. Ensler stipulated transgendered people may only take part in the play if they had a sex change or could pass as a woman. This troubled Curtis, who, frustrated by the lack of sexual minorities, was forced to come up with a creative way to work around Ensler’s decision.

Her answer was to allow junior P.J. Yap-Diangco, a transgendered member of the FMLA, present a “gender monologue” that he wrote on growing up transgendered after the show, followed by a question and answer session. Yap-Diangco, who is biologically male but says he has always felt like a woman inside, spoke about coming out, high school persecution and the place of the transgendered in society.

“(The play is) not complete, but Eve Ensler had an idea and she wrote her “Vagina Monologues,” and maybe this will inspire (me and others like me) to go and write our own gender monologues. I look at it like an opportunity,” Yap-Diangco said. “It’s a confusing issue for a lot people that needs explaining, it’s not like I can just say, I’m transgendered, here’s some literature, deal with it.”

Despite worrying about the depiction and inclusion of various groups, Curtis said it’s neither practical nor desirable for the show to cover every possible topic.

“The show is meant to start a conversation,” Curtis said about the importance of continued awareness of women’s and minority concerns.

More than two-thirds of the he 21-member cast were newcomers to the monologues, and many said the show also must entertain as well as educate the audience, which presents challenges.

“It’s real easy to be funny and shout about how your vagina is angry, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s not that funny or that shocking, it’s work,” said cast member freshman Geraldine Pierre on some of the less controversial monologues.

Talking about their vaginas made some members a little nervous, but most were unconcerned when it came time to perform the show in front of their friends and family.

“I’m a Women’s Studies major, and so my parents are used to it … the show’s about the initial stigma of the word, that bad reputation of vaginas what we’re all trying to change,” senior cast member Lexa Lemieux said.