Eve Ensler facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Eve Ensler
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V in March 2011
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Eve Ensler
May 25, 1953 New York City, U.S.
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Richard McDermott
(m. 1978; div. 1988) |
V, formerly Eve Ensler (/ˈɛnslər/; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, author, performer, feminist, and activist.
In 2011, V was awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards, which recognizes an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations. V was given this award for her creation of the non-profit V-Day movement which raises money and educates the public about violence against women and efforts to stop it.
She writes for The Guardian and has been featured in films including V-Day's Until the Violence Stops, the PBS documentary What I Want My Words to Do to You, and the Netflix documentary City of Joy, among others. She regularly appears in print, radio, podcast, and television interviews including on CNN, Democracy Now, TODAY, Real Time with Bill Maher and Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.
Contents
Personal life
V was born in New York City, the second of three children of Arthur Ensler, an executive in the food industry, and Chris Ensler. She was raised in the northern suburb of Scarsdale. Her father was Jewish and her mother Christian, and she grew up in a predominantly Jewish community; however, V identifies herself as a Nichiren Buddhist and says that her spiritual practice includes chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō and doing yoga.
V attended Middlebury College in Vermont, where she became known as a militant feminist. In 1978, she married Richard Dylan McDermott, a 34-year-old bartender. When she was 23, she adopted Mark Anthony McDermott, her husband's 16-year-old son from his first marriage. Their relationship came to be a close one, and V said that it taught her "how to be a loving human being". V and Dylan's father separated in 1988.
A June 2010 article by V in The Guardian said that she was receiving treatment for cancer. She wrote about her experience with cancer in her memoir, In The Body of the World. In an interview with Democracy Now! in 2012, V stated that she was two and a half years cancer free.
Subsequent work
V's memoir In the Body of the World was released on April 30, 2013. Booklist reviewed the book, saying, "This is a ravishing book of revelation and healing, lashing truths and deep emotion, courage and perseverance, compassion and generosity. Warm, funny, furious, and astute, as well as poetic, passionate, and heroic, Ensler harnesses all that she lost and learned to articulate a galvanizing vision of the essence of life: 'The only salvation is kindness.'". On February 6, 2018, she premiered a theatrical version of her memoir, which she performs as a solo monologue, directed by Diane Paulus, at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City.
She contributed the piece "Theater: A Sacred Home for Women" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited by Robin Morgan.
V provided uncredited contributions to the book for Wicked, the fourth-longest running Broadway show in history.
From October 2005 to April 2006, V toured twenty North American cities with her play The Good Body, following engagements on Broadway, at ACT in San Francisco, and in a workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre. The Good Body addresses why women of many cultures and backgrounds perceive pressure to change the way they look in order to be accepted in the eyes of society.
V's play, The Treatment debuted on September 12, 2006, at the Culture Project in New York City. This play explores the moral and psychological trauma that are the result of participation in military conflicts. It stars her adoptive son, Dylan McDermott.
In 2006, V released her first major work written exclusively for the printed page. Insecure at Last: Losing It In Our Security-Obsessed World (Villard; Hardcover; October 3, 2006). In Insecure at Last, she explores how people live today, the measures people take to keep themselves safe, and how people can experience freedom by letting go of the deceptive notion of "protection". In 2006 V also co-edited A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer, an anthology of writings about violence against women.
V's work I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around The World, a collection of original monologues about and for girls that aims to inspire girls to take agency over their minds, hearts and curiosities, was released February 2010 in book form by Villard/Random House and made The New York Times Best Seller list. The book was workshopped in July 2010 at New York Stage and Film and Vassar College, moving toward an Off-Broadway production. The theatrical production of the piece, titled Emotional Creature, had its United States debut at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, CA in June 2012. In February 2012, The South African production of Emotional Creature was nominated for a 2011 Naledi Theatre Award for Best Ensemble Production/Cutting Edge Production.
V was a consultant on feminism and women's issues for the 2015 action film Mad Max: Fury Road.
Activism
V is an activist addressing issues of violence against women and girls. In 1998, she created V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. In 2010, more than 5,400 V-Day events took place in over 1,500 locations in the U.S. and around the world. As of 2014, the V-Day movement had raised over $100 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.
V is a supporter of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and went to Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. She supports Afghan women and has organized many programs for them. She organized one event named the "Afghani Women's Summit For Democracy".
V has led a writing group since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, which was portrayed in What I Want My Words To Do To You. Judy Clark, Kathy Boudin, and Pamela Smart were among the writing group's participants featured in the film.
In 2012, along with the V-Day movement, V created One Billion Rising, a global protest campaign to end violence, and promote justice and gender equality for women. On February 14, 2013, V-Day's 15th anniversary, women and men in countries around the world held dance actions to demand an end to violence against women and girls.
In 2020, V endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States in the 2020 election.
Selected awards and honors
V has received numerous awards for her artistic and humanitarian work:
- Tony Award – In 2011, V was awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards, which recognizes an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations.
- Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, 1999
- Lion of Judah by the United Jewish Communities, 2002
Selected works
Plays
- Conviction
- Lemonade
- The Depot
- Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man
- Extraordinary Measures
- The Good Body
- Necessary Targets
- The Treatment
- Emotional Creature
- O.P.C.
- In the Body of the World
- Wild (book)
Books
- Necessary Targets New York, NY: Dramatists Play Service, 2003. ISBN: 9780822218951,
- The Good Body New York: Villard, 2004. ISBN: 9780375502842,
- Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security Obsessed World New York: Villard, 2006. ISBN: 9781400063345,
- The treatment, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2007. ISBN: 9780822222026,
- A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer New York: Villard, 2007. ISBN: 9780345497918,
- I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World New York: Villard Trade Paperbacks, 2010. ISBN: 9780812970166,
- In the Body of the World: A Memoir New York: Metropolitan Books, 2013. ISBN: 9780805095180,
- The Apology Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019. ISBN: 9781635574388,
- Reckoning Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2023. ISBN: {{{1}}}
Selected filmography
- City of Joy (2016)
- Until the Violence Stops (2004)
- What I Want My Words to Do to You: Voices From Inside a Women's Maximum Security Prison (2003)
- Fear No More: Stop Violence Against Women (2002) – interviewee
