Students at Grand Valley State University perform “The Vagina Monologues” every February, but this March one student is putting a fresh spin on the famous play.

Seeing a foreign perspective of “The Vagina Monologues” inspired GVSU student Anna Bennett to create a broader performance piece about gender, oppression and discrimination.

“I saw a slight variation of the Vagina Monologues when I was studying abroad in Egypt at the American university in Cairo where they had done a production of the Vagina Monologues in previous years,” she said. “The consensus from the community was that it was a cool idea but the stories didn’t really apply to them and so they had people from the community submit their own personal stories and made a show out of that.”

Bennett, who is double majoring in political science and women and gender studies, is doing the piece as her senior project for the Frederik Meijer Honors College.

For the project, Bennett is getting help from Kathleen Underwood, head of the WGS department and Bennett’s faculty adviser.

Underwood said that theater has played a big role in getting people to discuss difficult topics like gender and discrimination.

“What we’ve known for the past 25 years is that one of the best ways to discuss or bring to the forefront topics that aren’t part of the mainstream discussion, and to make people feel safe in discussing those, is through theater,” she said

Paul LeBlanc, president of the GVSU College Democrats, will be submitting a piece for the project and said that Bennett’s topic is important for people to learn about because people need to stop acting by certain gender roles.

“I think too many people are blind to the ways that gender roles can restrict our personal happiness and freedoms,” he said. “People automatically suppress parts of themselves for fear of acting against these roles, and as a result never can be full people.”

For her project, Bennett will be accepting creative submissions of her topic from students, faculty and community members. Submissions can be in any form and she has already received some, which have included monologues and dance numbers.

One of the submissions will be from LeBlanc, who said that his submission will be in written form.

“I have not chosen what I want to write about yet, but I am thinking about looking at the standards for young males in our society and the negative consequences those bring for young men and women,” he said

The deadline for anyone looking to submit a piece for Bennett’s project is Feb. 1. Once all the pieces are submitted, there will be a final performance of the project on March 25 at 7 p.m. in Cook-DeWitt.

She said that her project is important because of it will make people think twice about making judgments.

“I came up with this idea last year with the goal of raising consciousness on campus of the varied expressions and experiences of gender and, given the seven recent LGBT bullying related suicides, I think this consciousnes is even more important now,” Bennett said. “Awareness of difference by itself won’t solve a problem but by exposing people to stories outside the heteronormative experience, I hope to spark curiosity and conversation that will make people think twice before judging another person.”

To find out more about the project or to submit a piece, Bennett can be contacted at [email protected]. [email protected]