The Coming Out Monologues
A Project of Queer Alliance of UC Riverside


Introduction Updated September 21, 2007

This web site (a work in progress!) is meant to be a resource for other campuses organizing a Coming Out Monologues event in 2007-2008. Please email nancy.tubbs@ucr.edu with suggestions for the web site. Student organizers of The Coming Out Monologues may be reached directly at at coming.out.ucr@gmail.com

If you use these resources in any way, please credit the creators of The Coming Out Monologues with this statement in your printed program or web publicity:

"UC Riverside students created the original Coming Out Monologues production in 2007."

Documents (*pdf)

Some Notes

  1. TCOM were presented the evening of The National Day of Silence (April 18, 2007) to BREAK THE SILENCE. However, campuses could choose to present TCOM at other times, such as National Coming Out Day (October 11), or even preview their Monologues and do a full performance at another date.
  2. TCOM were inspired by The Vagina Monologues. However, some important differences exist between the two projects.
    1. TVM script already exists (writtten by Eve Ensler), and student organizers work through The V-Day Campaign for permission to use the script and for guidance on the V-Day Campaign.
    2. TCOM suggests each campus create their own script. UCR students have made the 2007 script available for use (see PDF document link above), but each campus has the opportunity to empower their own community to share their own stories.
  3. The UCR production was led by students, and included undergraduates, graduates, staff, and community members as authors, performers, techies, etc.
  4. Roles in organizing the production included:
    1. Production Staff: Director, Stage Manager, Asst. Directors, Producers, Production Assistant, ASL Interpreter, Set Wrangler, Lead Tech, Make Up, House Managers, Logo Designer, and Program Designer
    2. Script Committee: Script Supervisor, Executive Editors, Editors
    3. Publicity Staff: Supervisors, Crew
  5. A Call for Submissions went out in Fall (see documents above) via email and the web. Authors were given the option of remaining anonymous. Confidentiality is important and also extends to whether scripts will be published on the web.
  6. A Script Supervisor edited the accepted Monologues, with authors given the chance to review the final script.
  7. All performers auditioned. Authors were invited to audition and were considered for their own monologues.
  8. The UCR production asked performers to memorize their lines, and some props were used. Another option is to allow performers to read from the script on stage (similar to TVM performances). The venue was a classroom, with minimal staging and no curtain (mainly because venues are limited right now on our campus). Performers provided their own costumes.
  9. The script was broken into 3 Acts with similar themes ("Hello World," "Hey Mom!," "My Name Here") with two 15-minute intermissions. A Narrator introduced each Act. Each act included 6 or 7 Monologues. We expected the performance to last 2 hours. It lasted 3 hours, incuding the intermissions.
  10. We hired an ASL Interpreter, who attended a rehearsal and interpreted during the performance. We highly recommend you include ASL interpretation. Not only do you include a wider audience, but the interpretation adds to the experience for the ENTIRE audience. The cost was $200 for a professional ASL interpreter.
  11. During the intermissions, we posted banner paper and asked folks to answer three questons (see answers in the document above):
    1. HOW DID PEOPLE REACT WHEN YOU CAME OUT TO THEM?
    2. HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY?
    3. WHAT’S YOUR STORY-IN ONE SENTENCE?
  12. Concessions and buttons were served during intermissions, and t-shirts sold at the end of the evening.
  13. Proceeds (almost $700) from a suggested donation of $5, concessions and t-shirt sales went to the Kalyn Smith-Tranquil'spn Memorial Fund. This fund assists UCR students who lose family support because of their involvement in the LGBT community.

Welcome from the April 2007 UCR Printed Program

What you will be seeing tonight is the first in what we hope will become a UCR tradition. Inspired by Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, UCR’s The Coming Out Monologues is a community-based theatre project celebrating the diversity of experience and identity as a culmination to the Day of Silence.

Brainchild of UCR Undergraduate Rodrigo Hernandez, The Coming Out Monologues began almost a year ago when the first notice was posted and the first few company members began to meet to discuss what it meant to come out as a personal and political statement.

The Day of Silence being a day of activism and protest, The Coming Out Monologues would represent the act of breaking the silence after sundown; with this in mind, the crew solicited, assembled, and edited a script from the personal narratives submitted to them, then selected and rehearsed a cast.

We hope you enjoy the show!

If you would like to submit a monologue for future performances, please email coming.out.ucr@gmail.com