Women on top monologues
On 8th March 2012, International Women’s Day, a group of nervous women gave a show-stopping performance at Warwick University of a series of monologues representing different aspects of womanhood.
These monologues were written and performed by a group of women from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds as part of a collaborative project between Casteaway Arts and Kairos WWT (‘Women On Top’).
The performance was a culmination of 8 weeks work where the women spent time exploring what it means to be a woman and some of the issues women face. They took one of these ideas and crafted their own monologue, which they then practiced, refined and finally performed.
Just as women have many different talents and ways of expressing themselves, so the monologues were wonderfully varied and diverse. The women chose to express themselves through acting, singing and poetry covering a range of subjects such as overcoming lost love, gender identification, making moral life decisions, arranged marriage and many more. All of these subjects were conveyed in a way which had the audience falling off their seats with laughter one minute and weeping into a Kleenex the next.
Following the performance the women received rapturous applause from an audience numbering about a hundred and since then there have also been numerous requests for further performances. One audience member said: “I just wanted to say I really enjoyed the WOT Monologues show!!! It was so uplifting and moving on so many levels…This show has inspired me to do something for good for a change”. We are grateful to all those in the audience, who showed such fantastic support and which enabled us to raise £240, which will be put towards the on-going work that Kairos does.
By way of recognition for all their hard work and the contribution they made to promoting women’s issues, the Women on Top girls received the annual Women of Achievement Award from the Coventry Women’s Forum. The award and certificates were presented by Chairwomen of the Forum, Pru Poretta. We join in congratulating and celebrating with the girls for this fantastic achievement.
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures” and this was really encapsulated in the Monologues project. It was a great opportunity to celebrate some of the amazing gifts and talents women have and it provided a platform to speak about issues that really affect women today.