If you are looking for a charitable event this month, Oct. 9 begins the performance of Carol Campbell's “The Goddess Diaries” at GMU's Harris Theater. The performance will highlight the personal stories of eight different women of all ages and different stages of life, and features music performance by The Ruins.
The format attempts to weave together a series of monologues into a single narrative of life. “It takes us through the calendar of the year and [is symbolic of] the different stages of a woman's life,” said director and playwright Carol Campbell. She explains how each set of monologues is represented by the change of seasons, spring for youth, summer for motherhood, and so forth.
“Every woman's story can have a place in the monologue,” said Campbell. But it is not only on stage that Campbell wants to benefit the community, she also wants to raise awareness for local women's causes in substantial ways.
“We are bringing the ‘Diaries’ for the first time to the beautiful Harris Theater at George Mason University,” said Campbell. “It's going to benefit [GMU's] sexual assault office [and their] victims of violence fund.”
“The Diaries” has come out strongly for local women's causes, last winter's performance raised money for the Duffy House, a shelter for abused women and children, and a later performance on Oct. 22 will go to benefit Courtney's House, a safe house for teen victims of sex trafficking.
“I think it's important to have opportunities to present information to the community at large about women [and] about our journey,” said Misti McCloud, an actress performing at the “Goddess Diaries.” “it's been difficult and rewarding all at the same time, it's been very healing, not only from preparing my own monologue but from others as well.”
Campbell said she hopes the work pioneers a whole new format for performance. “It is my hope that the diaries will grow beyond our community into a movement that inspires others to produce the show in its current form and as a template for developing more stories later on,” she said. “One of the ways I see this developing if this becomes a regular college show [would be to allow any woman to be able to submit their own stories via the Internet].”
The first performance is on Oct. 9 at George Mason University's Harris Theater, beginning at 7:30 p.m. An encore performance will be performed Oct. 22 at the River Road Universalist Congregation, 6301 River Road, Bethesda, Md. at 7:30 pm. Visit http://goddessdiariesmonologues.com/ for more information.