"Theatre is a tool for social change. It makes you happy and is therapy for the soul. A lot of people don't realize that theatre can tap into a place where people need to do something for themselves. I provide that outlet."

-Lilly Lips, theatre producer, director, and activist for _gaia

Let me introduce you to Lillian Ribeiro (a.k.a. Lilly Lips), true vagina warrior princess, activist, and my bohemian artist hero. I met Lillian while auditioning for her production of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues for V-Day 2006 in Union City, New Jersey. It had been over a year since I had auditioned for anything. The last audition I had gone to was for Dracula on Broadway, which had gone disastrous as I nervously piped Frank Wildhorn's No One Knows Who I Am out of tune live, in front of Frank Wildhorn himself.

The first thing Lillian said to me as I walked into the room was "How is your vagina feeling today?" If that didn't break the ice, I don't know what would have. Next, I had to audibly produce the best orgasm I possible could. I felt like Meg Ryan in that famous scene from When Harry Met Sally.

Lastly, Lillian asked me why I wanted to be involved with the Vagina Monologues.  My reason was more real than the fake orgasm I had just produced. I was just coming out of a very dark period in my life, where I had been subject to years of abusive relationships with men. Somehow, theatre has always behaved like my deus ex machina. My theatre god has appeared numerous times and lifted me out of my fiery pit of low self-esteem and dysfunctional chaos. I wanted to help and educate women so they wouldn't have to go through the same thing. Within a few days, the casting director called me and told me I got the part! I was to recite two monologues about the clitoris. But, what was I to do? I still couldn't say vagina without cracking up.

Lillian is a very giving director. Our rehearsals consisted of belly dancing and self-empowerment workshops. Most of the actors themselves were victims of abuse. We could all attest that this production was a very healing experience.

This past Sunday, I met with Lillian and asked her why she does what she does. "Theatre gives people a voice to express themselves, using characters as an outlet. You're walking in someone else's shoes to understand what their life is like. We've lost a bit of that—really understanding humanity. Actors fulfill [things] within themselves." 

Lillian has directed the Vagina Monologues for the past five years for V-Day. At the end of our production, she asked members of the cast and audience to raise their hands if they or someone they knew had been the victim of abuse. She boldly said she would continue to participate in V-Day until the day came when no one raised their hand.

This year, Lillian Ribeiro and _gaia are producing A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer: Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls (edited by Eve Ensler and Mollie Doyle), presented by Art House Productions on Saturday, April 4 for V-Day 2009 in Jersey City, New Jersey. She will also be hosting Lunafest: Short Films By, For, About Women on April 19 at LITM in Jersey City as part of the V-Day festivities. If you're in the area, stop by. Who knows, you may even experience the healing power of a true vagina warrior princess, just like I did.

Marisol Tirelli Rivera

A few months ago, I watched from my office window as US Airways pilot Chelsey Sullenberger landed his Airbus A320 on the surface of the Hudson River.  

Of course this in itself was an amazing feat, but what I found the most remarkable was the response of the New York Waterway ferries (12 in all). Quite literally within seconds, commuter ferries from both the New York and New Jersey sides of the river mobilized to locate survivors.

It is that quick action borne from gut instinct that impresses me. In such situations I, a person who weighs every possible outcome, every nuance of every angle, would probably stand stock still gawking and pointing until someone else offered up a viable plan. You could say all of this second-guessing is due to a lack of trust in my intuition, but really that comes from a failure to live in the Now. In fact, author and illustrator Florence Scovel Shinn wrote that intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way. 

Superb athletes, battlefield soldiers, and pilots about to crash often describe the "zone" of intuition when they are completely entranced in what they are doing in that moment. Using their training, they simply react. Make that superb athletes, battlefield soldiers, pilots about to crash, and one Chad Lindsey, an actor/proofreader.

Chad was waiting on the Penn Station C platform yesterday afternoon when a man took a swan dive onto the tracks. He hit his head on the rail and passed out. Our hero's (although he is very uncomfortable with that term) intuition kicked in and he didn't hesitate. "I dropped my bag and jumped down there. I tried to wake him up," Chad said. "He probably had a massive concussion at that point…He just wouldn't wake up, and he was bleeding all over the place."
 
Chad saw the glow of the train's headlights reflecting on the tracks as it approached the station. Did he panic? No way. Chad was in the zone. And his current role in an Off Broadway show that requires him to repeatedly lift another character who can't walk didn't hurt either. He grabbed the man under the armpits and hoisted him toward the platform. "It's kind of higher than you think it is." Some men on the platform pulled the man up and then Chad hopped up himself with 10 to 15 seconds to spare before the train barreled in.
 
The EMTs arrived and whisked the man to the hospital. Chad hopped on the next arriving train and went about his business. "It was quite a New York day," he told a New York Times reporter who tracked Chad down only after his friends saw this post and outed him. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm weighing the difficult options of taking the 2 express or staying on the 1 local.

Jacquelin Cangro