Lacey Mullett is the Programming Assistant for the QCentre’s Coming Out Monologues and she is quite happy with the growth that she has seen with the event since last year’s origins.
"It’ll be two acts, with eight different 2-5 minute monologues in each act, and at some point in the evening there will be a drag show of some kind," she explains. "And it’s two nights, now, instead of one. We’ll also use it as a form for the U of C’s It Gets Better videos, which we filmed in the fall."
During the event, there will be monologues presented by those who’ve personally hurdled and overcome the experience, while some are presenting others’ life moments. But the stories are all taken from real-life ruminations; people making the steps to accept their gender and sexual orientation wholly into their identity.
"It was actually the University of California at Riverside that started the (Coming Out Monologues) projects, and they collected a bunch of student stories and monologues, and it snowballed from there. I believe Texas A&M does them as well, and we got some scripts from there."
The program guide of the original Coming Out Monologues, April 2007, stated, "What you will be seeing tonight is the first in what we hope will become a UCR tradition. Inspired by Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, UCR’s The Coming Out Monologues is a community-based theatre project celebrating the diversity of experience and identity as a culmination to the Day of Silence. ... The Coming Out Monologues would represent the act of breaking the silence after sundown."
Lacey notes: "They’re original scripts submitted by the students that had that experience. They (UCR) post them on the website for other universities to borrow and have other people perform them.
"Last year one of the staff members of the Office of Student Experience learned about (the UC Riverside project) and decided that we should put something like that on. It turned out really well, so we’re taking it on for a second year."
Due to scheduling issues with the theatre on the U of C campus, Calgary’s Coming Out Monologues won’t be so closely aligned with the ending of The Day of Silence or Calgary’s Pride Week activities, but that won’t diminish the impact of the evening and it’s emotions.
It can be described as a live version of the It Gets Better series of videos, which also has a local contribution as mentioned prior: "The U of C decided to bring together a bunch of the queer community from the University and make some videos and post them to the website, as well as our own YouTube channel, just to show that the U of C is part of the fight, if you will."
"The fun thing about the Monologues is they’re so diverse: some are about (the coming out) trauma being a really horrible experience, while others are, I came out to my Mom, and she didn’t seem surprised, and I was sort of disappointed. Show me some emotion please, Mom! And there’s one about coming out kink. ...It’s good to open people’s minds about all of the things that people struggle with coming out, and that includes coming out straight."
And afterwards?
"We donate the money to Calgary Outlink, which is one of many LGBTQ identified organizations in the city. They hold groups and social groups for people across the spectrum. It’s a safe space for queer-identified individuals throughout the community, and currently our biggest group is our youth group, so it really identifies well with the University demographic."
Not every one of us has a vagina, but many of us have a coming out experience that we can identify with. That’s why the Coming Out Monologues promises to be an evening that everyone can enjoy.