New play offered as alternative to “Vagina Monologues”

“This is drama”

Denver, Colo., (CNA) -- A new play called “the VITAE Monologues” aims to portray the traumatic effects of abortion in “real-life” stories about women and men.

The two-person drama depicts “powerful stories of hope and healing and the triumphant beauty of human life within our broken and wounded culture,” according to its creators. It also aims at engaging audiences in “a powerful, non-political” way to help them think about the controversial subject of abortion from a new perspective.

“The VITAE Monologues” debuted at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota in early March.

“I walked out of the auditorium feeling like I'd been turned inside out,” said one audience member. “I was wiping away tears. This is a powerful play, but the word 'play' doesn't fit. This is drama. These are real stories from real people.”

Epiphany Studios Productions, a Catholic traveling theater company, created the play. “The VITAE Monologues'” original music score was written by composer and musician Nicholas Lemme and it stars Jeremy Stanbary and Sarah Preissner.

Stanbary founded Epiphany Studios in 2003 and has performed at World Youth Day in Australia and Germany. He claims the lives of the saints as well as Pope John Paul II’s “dramatic and artistic vision” as inspirations for his work.

Promoters bill the play as an alternative to the sexually explicit “Vagina Monologues,” which in 2003 was performed on 32 Catholic college campuses -- but in 2009 will be performed on only 15 campuses.

For more information about the VITAE Monologues, Click Here.