The Goddess Diaries voices the true stories of real women

The Goddess Diaries shares the stories of real women in the NoVA community (photo by Amy Rose).

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Mason’s Women and Gender Studies department alongside the Theater Department are sponsoring the 4^th annual production of The Goddess Diaries compiled and written by Carol Lee Campbell.

“'The Goddess Diaries' are based on real women’s stories,” said Rebecca Wahls, the student director of ‘The Goddess Diaries.’ “The author’s name is Carol Campbell and she met with all of these women who were at various stages of their lives from an 11 year old girl all the way up to a 66 year old woman. They told her their stories and she put them into monologues.”

Female students will be able to relate to the women in the play because it does not just appeal to one age group.

“We start with college age girls and move up in age to two girls who are approximately 27 years old reflecting back on when they were young high school students engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a church counselor than a 30 something who is just getting married and then a mom dealing with being a mom without having her own mother around,” said Wahls. “Next, a 50 something who realizes she can still be young and have a good time and then we have a 66 year old woman who is reflecting back on being divorced for 33 years and how her life has changed since then and finally, we end with the 11 year old girl.”

Although this play has an all-female cast, Wahls is hoping they can still draw in a male audience.

“I do think women will enjoy it more than men but I think men also have things to gain from it in a different way,” Wahls said. “It’s not just about how you should respect us because we’re women but about what being a woman means.”

Most students are unaware of the popularity of this play but in fact, it does have a dedicated group of followers in the northern Virginia area.

“We’ve been reaching out to the general public of Fairfax,” Wahls said.”There’s a little bit of a fan based already established for this show because it’s performed at several universities. I think we are at about four now but ideally it will be at more as the years go on. There’s also a production of it at the Fringe Festival in DC every summer so that little core fan base will be here.”

Many students feel like “The Goddess Diaries” will discuss the same issues that were discussed in “The Vagina Monologues.” However, while there are some similarities, they are still quite different from each other.

“People are bound to compare the two but, actually, 'The Vagina Monologues' have a bit more shock value to it and ‘The Diaries’ focuses more on growing up as opposed to the sexual nature of it,” Wahls said. “This isn’t just about sex. It’s about the entirety of a life.”

“The Goddess Diaries” will be showcased on Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in TheaterSpace, located in the basement of the Performing Arts Building, next door to the Center for the Arts. All of the proceeds will go to a woman’s charitable fund.