PENIS PLAY
play
co-written by Brian Crano and Mikey Day
A comedic response and critique of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. A production of the Vagina Monologues had been performed by some theatre students at UCLA earlier in the year. Mikey and I, then juniors, saw the production together and were amazed by its inherent silliness. Not to mock those who are trying to prevent female circumcision and the abuse of women, but it's a silly play. Especially if you have a penis.
In a way, looking at it now, it might have been equally funny if we had, with our Penis Play cast, just performed The Vagina Monologues with the same earnestness and frenzy as the girls we saw do it. But alas, we chose to write our own version. We took our cues from humanist-slash-playwright, Ensler, doing thorough research, drawing on our own experiences, putting out a survey to all male members of the UCLA theatre department and doing numerous interviews. Then Mikey and I wrote and shaped, with our very able cast, a series of monologues and sketches that was Penis Play. Our production was sold out and wildly popular. Mikey and I were initially going to start the show completely naked on stage, either with raging erections or with three foot inflatable erections, but ended up cutting it in the dress. Jeff Parker however, did a whole sketch stark ballock naked and brought down the house.
Penis Play went on to win the 2002 UCLA Playwrights Competition and subsequently received a second production, that I was not involved in any way.
UCLA | June 2001
production team
producer Brian Crano
written by Brian Crano and Mikey Day
director Brian Crano and Katrina Coltun
designer Katrina Coltun
cast
Mikey Day
Brian Crano
Eliot Benjamin
Hunter Houston
Jeff Parker
Marc Fellner
Kiel Kennedy
Anne Burke
Justin Debuet