Idina Menzel

Monday, June 10, 2019
8pm


Eve Ensler
in conversation with Idina Menzel

discussing her book,
The Apology

Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$27 General Admission Seat + Book

From Eve Ensler, author of one of the most influential works of the twentieth century–The Vagina Monologues–and one of Newsweek‘s “150 Women Who Changed the World,” comes a powerful, life-changing examination of abuse and atonement.

Eve Ensler is a Tony Award-winning playwright, author, performer, and activist. Her international phenomenon The Vagina Monologues has been published in 48 languages and performed in more than 140 countries. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller I Am an Emotional Creature, the highly-praised In the Body of the World, and many more. She is the founder of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, and One Billion Rising, the largest global mass action to end gender-based violence in over 200 countries. She is a co-founder of the City of Joy, a revolutionary center for women survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with Christine Schuler Deschryver and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege. She is one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Changed the World” and the Guardian’s “100 Most Influential Women.” 

Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. The Apology, written by Eve from her father’s point of view in the words she longed to hear, attempts to transform the abuse she suffered with unflinching truthfulness, compassion, and an expansive vision for the future.

Through The Apology Eve has set out to provide a new way for herself and a possible road for others, so that survivors of abuse may finally envision how to be free. She grapples with questions she has sought answers to since she first realized the impact of her father’s abuse on her life: How do we offer a doorway rather than a locked cell? How do we move from humiliation to revelation, from curtailing behavior to changing it, from condemning perpetrators to calling them to reckoning? What will it take for abusers to genuinely apologize?

Remarkable and original, The Apology is an acutely transformational look at how, from the wounds of sexual abuse, we can begin to re-emerge and heal. It is revolutionary, asking everything of each of us: courage, honesty, and forgiveness.

Tony Award–winner Idina Menzel has a career that traverses stage, film, television, and music. Menzel’s voice can be heard as Elsa in Disney’s Oscar–winning Frozen.  The film’s song Let It Go, voiced by Menzel, won the Oscar for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Frozen 2 is slated for a November 2019 release. Soon Menzel can be seen opposite Adam Sandler in the upcoming Safdie Brothers’ film, Uncut Gems. A skillful songwriter, Menzel’s prolific recording career includes multiple cast recordings and solo albums. She was honored as Billboard’s Women in Music “Breakthrough Artist” in 2014. Garnering huge critical acclaim in her Tony– nominated role as Maureen in the Pulitzer Prize winning Rent, Menzel reached superstardom on Broadway with her Tony Award–winning performance as Elphaba, the misunderstood green girl in the blockbuster Wicked. Menzel was most recently seen on Broadway in the original production If/Then, for which she earned her third Tony nomination. Last season, she starred in Roundabout Theatre Company’s Off-Broadway production of the Joshua Harmon hit comedy, Skintight, and was the recipient of the Drama League Special Recognition Award for Achievement in Musical Theatre. Philanthropy is also important to Menzel, who co-founded the A BroaderWay Foundation in 2010. This organization is dedicated to offering girls from underserved communities an outlet for self-expression and creativity through arts-centered programs.