What do you do when Eve Ensler comes to town? You rent the biggest venue you can find and put the word out. The word is that the TMI Project’s first annual “Voices in Action Award” will be presented to Ensler at the Community Outreach Showcase of 2016, to be held at Backstage Studio Productions on Saturday, September 17. The event will include readings performed by participants of the various workshops offered through the TMI Project’s Community Outreach Initiative this past year.
The lineup will include women from workshops at the Bottomless Closet, a New York City-based organization that helps women move beyond domestic violence, drug abuse, homelessness, incarceration and poverty; adults from a workshop at the Mental Health Association of Ulster County; and at-risk teens from a workshop at the Hudson Valley Pathways Academy (P-Tech) High School. Stories written and performed by real people reveal our shared humanity.
It’s a transformational formula that Ensler tapped into, and has inspired others to do so, too. As creator of The Vagina Monologues and founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising, she has helped awaken a sense of individual and collective empowerment in women. Indeed, TMI’s co-founder and executive director Eva Tenuto credits her own experience of producing The Vagina Monologues for the idea of TMI: “too much information.”
After the show, a VIP reception with Ensler, the TMI Project staff and the performers will include a champagne toast and dessert. Proceeds from the evening support the Community Outreach Initiative.
TMI: Community Outreach Showcase, Saturday, September 17, 7:30 p.m., $25/$40/$75/$100, Backstage Studio Productions, 323 Wall Street, Kingston; www.tmiproject.org.
Join the family! 
