The Vagina Monologues Performance to Benefit

CSUN's Valley Trauma Center

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Feb. 5, 2001) - Actress Charlene Tilton is among the performers set to star in a one-time only presentation of Eve Ensler's Obie Award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues, at Cal State Northridge on Friday, Feb. 16.

The performance is a benefit for the Valley Trauma Center, the only rape crisis center offering comprehensive sexual assault services in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. The non-profit center is sponsored by CSUN's Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling.

"The performance is part of the 'V-Day College Initiative,' an international grassroots public education campaign to end violence against women," said Patti Dengler, executive director of the center. "The benefit performance is a major fundraiser for the Valley Trauma Center. It is also an opportunity to raise awareness about sexual violence against women."

The performance is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., followed by a silent auction and coffee and desert reception at 8:30 p.m.

Tickets for the show are $50 for general admission and $30 for students or seniors. Tickets are available through CSUN's Performing Arts Center box office at (818) 677-2488. Ensler created The Vagina Monologues after interviewing women from around the world about a fundamental, but taboo subject - the vagina. The provocative play has been hailed by critics as a unique testimony to womanhood that is hilarious and heartbreaking all at once.

The CSUN cast includes Tilton, star of the television series Dallas for 11 years; Sherry Mattson, who recently appeared in Antioch at the Los Angeles Theatre Center; Pamela Richards; a former Orange County news anchor and now actress who has appeared in television's The Practice; and veteran actress Helen Jordan.

Also performing are Jan Bartlett, who has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Angel, Tracey Takes On and The Young and the Restless; Shannon Conlon; Elizabeth Liang, who has appeared in Felicity on television and the films Hole, Aizea: City of the Wind and Vigilance; and Hannah Rose Vainstein, who is the youngest member of the cast at 16.

Other actors include Jennifer Laux; Fanny Garcia; Johanna Torell, who has appeared in the films One Night Stand and The Loss of Sexual Innocence; and Patricia Tallman, who is best known for starring in Night of the Living Dead, a remake of the George Romero classic, and her role as Tyta Alexander on the Hugo Award-winning series Babylon 5.