This week, SUNY Geneseo will be performing "The Vagina Monologues" as part of the annual V-Day campaign, with all proceeds going to Chances and Changes, a domestic violence shelter in Livingston County. The Odyssey decided to sit down with the show's directors, Junior Communication major, Olivia Knowlden, and junior theater and psychology double major, Emily Bantelman. Knowlden has previously directed "Scarcity," a play by Lucy Thurber, while Bantelman is making her directing debut.

What attracted you to this project?

Olivia Knowlden: I saw the show done by the college last year and I was thinking about auditioning for the show, but I got an email from [Women's Action Coalition] asking me to direct. I was talking to Emily, who said she got the same email and she said: "Wouldn't it be cool if we co-directed?" We also each have four girls in our family. I love talking about vaginas and I don't ever get to. Talking about all these other different kinds of vaginas is a treat.

Emily Bantelman: I saw the show for the first time when I was 12. I've seen it three times. Ever since the first time I saw it, I was absolutely in love. I come from a family of a lot of women. Just a lot of feminine energy, a lot of talk of vaginas, and it's never been something I have shied away from talking about. I've always been very open about it. This was definitely my kind of play. The beauty of co-directing is that you have someone to lean on and bounce ideas off when you run rehearsals when you are mentally or physically drained.

The "Vagina Monologues" has extremely diverse characters and your talent pool had to draw exclusively from college-aged women.

How did you go about connecting the women you were working with to roles that were so different from them in age, sexual orientation, and gender expression?

EB: Well, it's definitely always a challenge, especially because a lot of the women who are involved in this project are not actors. Sometimes they're members of WAC or just people who feel passionate about vaginas and about this piece. The first step is always finding something to relate to within your character. The emotion has to be there first.

We split up the monologues into individual rehearsal sessions with one of us and my first step was always, "What does this line mean to you? What is this woman thinking about? How would it feel to be asked these intimate questions?" [You have to] relate it to your own life or think about the role models in your life as if they were going through this.

OK: I think the starting point is you're all women. It doesn't matter if you've experienced this exact thing. The fact is, you are a woman, you have a vagina, and how often do you actually get to talk about your vagina. Everyone talks about periods and cramps and everyone talks about sex, but who gets to talk about actually getting up close with your vagina? That's a special connection to make with your actors. I ask my actors, "What were these women doing [in the 90s] that this wasn't a topic of conversation?"

What has been your biggest challenge in directing so far?

EB: Coordinating 20 students' schedules. But what has not been an issue at all is getting people to take it seriously. I can just feel the passion in these young women's voices, and in their eyes, I can see it that they're very invested.

OK: My biggest struggle has been in some of the women who aren't experienced in acting, my struggle was in getting them to open up and getting to that place where they can actually feel the words they're speaking.

One of the struggles Emily and I have faced together was on the topic of the transgender character monologue because we didn't have a transgender woman audition for this show. I was uncomfortable having a cisgendered person reading a monologue because I didn't want to trivialize it, I didn't want to seem like we were stereotyping, I didn't want it to feel like we weren't taking it seriously. So the hardest part was getting the girls doing that piece to do it in honor of transgender women instead of becoming a transgender woman.

EB: I would agree. That monologue was "They Beat the Girl Out of my Boy." And for the monologue, "I Was There in the Room," I saw my sister giving birth, so it wasn't a hard monologue for me to tap into, but when I think about my daughter going through that, it's just not a life experience that any of us, as 20-year-olds, can really understand.

What do you hope a viewer of this show is going to take away from it?

EB: I hope that women who have faced any of these issues or seen things that are similar to these monologues will take from it that it's OK to recognize your vagina as something very feminine, very powerful, and as a part of you in a way. Men aren't always the issue with sexism, a lot of times, sexism is committed by women, so I hope that there will be some feeling of power or unity. Of course, we're all different, you don't have to like every single woman, but you can respect what she's gone through and her struggle. You can take a step back and think about the fact that we all have vaginas.

OK: For me, I want them to walk away and realize that vaginas can be a conversation piece. I want whoever's at the show to walk away with the feeling that it's okay to talk about whatever they want to talk about when it comes to their vagina. There's more to it than just having babies and sex.

On the other hand, I especially want women to walk away knowing that there are all kinds of women out there and that there's not one right answer to what a feminist is. I want people to realize that there are all different flavors of feminists out there. You don't have to love [your vagina] right away and there's no correct way to think or feel about it. During the auditions, when we asked the actors these personal questions, we realized that not everyone has a great relationship with their vagina. I hope people realize that it's OK to not have an amicable relationship with your vagina and still be a feminist. Vagina love is great, but it doesn't always come easy.

EB: And you don't have to talk about it either.

OK: You can talk about your vagina, but it's always about choice.

And finally, what would your vagina say?

EB: "I'm here, I'm ready to live, let's go."

OK: "It's okay. Everything's okay."

Listen to the full, 20-minute interview below to hear the directors discuss being sexy, feminism, and their favorite monologues.

Performances of "The Vagina Monologues" will take place on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., Feb. 12 at 8 p.m., and Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. in the Knightspot.