The Performing Arts Center at Georgia Southern  University was filled with students, faculty and residents from the Statesboro community as the play The Vagina Monologues” made its return to the spotlight.

Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” is a play  set out on a mission to change the perception of the female anatomy.

Actress from the play and graduate student, Zulema Ibarra, said, “Bringing such untalked about subjects to the light is important.” “There’s so many,” she said.

For “The Vagina Monologues’’, one by one, women came up on stage to portray characters and tell the stories of others. Some stories brought roars of laughter from the audience while others brought a tear to the eye.

“It was so cool to hear about the different women’s personal stories, “Danielle Comer, sophomore child and family development major, said.

The women’s stories had a great variety about self-discovery, secrets, sexuality, repressed memories, men and even rape.

“People shy away from talking and getting to know themselves as a woman with a vagina,” Ogonna Ifeadike, actress from the play and junior biology major, said.

These monologues are meant to get people thinking about female sexuality and women’s will and need to express it.

The monologues were not only about literal female anatomy but about the female behind that vagina. It was almost a form of female empowerment that took the form of a vagina. The monologues brought suppressed feelings from the uterus to life.

“It makes it more than just words on a paper,” Ibarra said.

Director and monologue participant, Emily Abrams came out on stage with a few thank you’s and recognitions for the audience to hear.

This year’s cast had some of the old with some of the new. Newer performers blended with previous performers and blended well into the spotlight.

When the lights came on in each scene, that’s when the monologue began. Each character was brought to life through the actress.

“Each set of actors bring their own interpretations,” said Ibarra. “They took on characters as something very intimate”.

“I understood her pain,” Neisha Williams, first time monologue performer and sophomore biology major,said.

Audience members felt the mood and dynamics of the characters changed with the talented actresses.

“They were very lively and captured the essence of the people they were portraying,” Comer said.

Many in the audience walked away with a different perspective not only on just vaginas but also on the many emotions and feelings of joy and hurt that are behind each and every female and her anatomy. The more “The Vagina Monologues” gets the word out about the story behind the private area, the more difference it will make in the expression of sexuality in women.