Born: 25 May 1953, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: V
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Playwright Eve Ensler, who would later go by V, debuted her ground-breaking The Vagina Monologues in 1996, the year she turned 43. Like many other women in this book, Ensler had been working in her field for almost two decades at that point and had moderate successes with works like The Depot, Scooncat, Ladies, Extraordinary Measures, and Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man. But it was The Vagina Monologues that would make her famous and secure her place in the history books, as well as winning her an Obie award in 1997. Based on interviews with more than 200 women, the collection of first-person vignettes has been performed around the globe and translated into 35 languages. Over the following decades, the book version would sell around a half million copies, and Ensler would also found V-Day, an international movement to stop violence against women and girls. Other accolades include a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, the Berrilla-Kerr Award for Playwriting, the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, and the Jury Award for Theater at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.