Spring 2012 - Clarion University

Mel Michel, theatre faculty, spoke to Melissa’s intelligence and talents. “She was one of those rare
students whose light is so bright, whose talent and hunger to learn and grow is so deep, that you just wanted to
get out of her way.”
Of Melissa’s tenacious spirit, Dr. Deb said, “Though small in stature, there was steel in Melissa’s skeleton.
Her spirit swirled ferociously, like the force of the wind. I grew to adore her ‘I-am-so-not-a-woman-to-be-messedwith’
attitude.”
Each director brings her unique vision to the show, and each director leaves with lasting memories.
Carrie Arnold Thompson directed Clarion’s first reading of The Vagina Monologues after Mel Michel, who knew
Thompson was looking for a project, invited her to take on the role. The show changed Thompson.
“I grew up in a somewhat conservative home. It was a little bit racy for me to take on something so
risqué,” she said. “It was one of first times I pushed myself outside of my comfort box. I learned about women and
women’s experiences, and I learned there was a world outside of what I knew.”
Rebecca Weinheimer (’00) had graduated from Clarion University when she was invited to direct The
Vagina Monologues in 2002.
“I was excited, but I was intimidated. I hadn’t done a lot of directing,” Weinheimer said. “It gave me
another vantage point for a lifetime of perspectives.”
Alicia Shropshire, signed on as director in 2003 so she could put some of herself into The Vagina
Monologues.
“It helped me grow up and grow in the right direction,” Shropshire said. “It really inspired me – listening to
the many voices women do have and being a part of conveying them.”
The following two years, Melissa Lynch directed the show. It was among many theatrical productions in
which she was involved at Clarion University. Her acting career continued in Philadelphia after she graduated,
cut short by her death in 2010.
Sarah Ducko took the director’s chair in 2005 and 2006. Ducko said her favorite show was in 2006
when everyone sat on the stage to perform. She found it powerful and loved being surrounded by so many
women and men, all there for the same reasons.
In 2007 Ducko was student teaching and couldn’t direct, so she recruited her roommate, Emily Parroccini
Jeziorski.
“I had seen the show at Pitt when I was in high school, and I loved it,” Jeziorski said. “It made me a feminist
more so than I was before, and it gave me the experience of feeling part of a sisterhood.”
Jeziorski, in turn, recruited her roommate, Elizabeth Strasbaugh, to co-direct in 2008, and Strasbaugh
then co-directed with Carly Masiroff in 2009. Strasbaugh was involved with the show each of her four years at
Clarion.
“The Monologues opened my eyes and definitely made me more confident as a woman,” Strasbaugh
said. Mariah Yancey first saw The Vagina Monologues on HBO around age 13. As a sophomore at Clarion, she
she tried out.
“I got ‘The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could’ part,” Yancey said. “The reading made me more
comfortable with my sexuality and expressing myself. It’s allowed me to explore more of my liberal side, allowing
people to be who they are and allowing me to guide other people to embrace their differences.”
Yancey co-directed in 2010 with Carly Masiroff, who also co-directed in 2009 and directed in 2011.
Masiroff said. “I had never said the word ‘vagina,’ let alone tell other people to say it. But there was something
about the show that captivated me. Its ‘in your face’ honesty and message to change the world caused me
stay involved for three years.”
This year’s director, Tessa Gilles, took the challenge of directing as a learning experience.
“I wanted my cast to walk away from this experience and feel like they could handle anything, because that’s
what The Vagina Monologues did for me.”
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