“We won an artistic grant for
$5,000 from the city of Sedona when
The MENding was first getting
started. We used that funding to put
on a series of shows where both men
and women worked together and
wrote pieces about these issues,” said
Dujardin. Today, 20 percent of the
pieces are written by and for women,
or other gender identifications, and
some shows are split evenly as men
and women. Dujardin says the work
is moving away from monologues to
dialogues.
Last year, the script was used as
an interdisciplinary teaching tool
for a writing curriculum at Hostos
Community College in the Bronx,
NY, which was part of City Univer-
sity New York (CUNY). Students not
only watched performances of The
MENding, they also analyzes pieces
and wrote essays about the work, and
were challenged to write their own
monologues. “That really blew me
away,” said Dujardin. “I was like ‘Re-
ally, you’re going to study this work,
like literature, for a whole quarter?’
It was highly validating and to be
honest, a little intimidating. I never
intended for it to become literature,
just an outlet for the truth.”
Another landmark show was
performed in Nairobi, Kenya using
prominent film and stage actors from
Kenya in 2015. The director Mbeki
Mwalimu, said at one point during the
performance, the entire cast was cry-
ing together on stage. After that show,
the cast was invited to perform at U.S.
Embassy in Kenya. That same year,
The MENding Monologues made its
European premier at Maynooth Uni-
Monologues at USC San Diego.
versity in Ireland, thanks to the help
of an exchange student who had been
part of a co-ed production at Califor-
nia State University Monterey Bay.
In the United States, InnerMis-
sions Productions in San Diego, CA
will mark their eleventh year staging
The MENding Monologues. Director
and producer Carla Nell and Kym
Pappas were among the first outside
of Sedona to recognize the potential
of the show to harness voices of men
to speak out against gender violence
as part of San Diego’s annual V-
Day and One Billion Rising events.
“There’s an entire community that
has grown around The MENding
and The Vagina Monologues in San
Diego,” said Dujardin. “The men sup-
port the women and women sup-
port the men. I even know of at least
one couple that met through this
work and later married.” In 2017, the
veteran writers and directors from
InnerMission production volun-
teered to mentor a new MENding
One of the favorite and most
often performed pieces is called
“Tantra.” Written by Derek Dujardin
and based his own experience with
sexual shame and tantric practices,
it explores how concept of merging
sexuality and spirituality together is
a completely foreign concept for most
Western men and women. Yet, that
union between, what he calls, “the
hot and the holy” may be one of those
key ingredients missing for more
healthy sexual identity. By adding
a spiritual component to sex during
their upbringing, boys could develop
into men who have a more positive
attitude towards sex, and perhaps
counter both the sexual shame and
“pornification” of sex that pervades
our masculine culture today.
While The MENding Monologues
does have a social agenda, each piece
has enough artistic merit to stand
on its own two feet in the theatrical
world. Even without the cause behind
it, these are simply great stories, ex-
pertly written and told.
While no MENding Monologues
productions are schedule for Se-
dona, AZ this year, you can watch
past shows and clips online at www.
themending.org or by visiting You-
Tube and searching “Derek Dujardin”
or “The MENding Monologues.”
As a writer, speaker and performer, Derek Dujar-
din is on the forefront of a new theater movement
that helps men find their voice and speak out
against violence. In the process, he is helping
countless men and women heal by getting in
touch with what the true cost of violence is to
their relationships. Visit: themending.org
IMAGINE
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