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March 20, 2006
The “Words of Choice” cast (from left to right): Carl H. Jaynes, Christa Victoria, Rebecca Mills.

A nurse is blinded in one eye by an Alabama abortion-clinic bombing. A U.S. Supreme Court justice enters history by writing the court’s opinion in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion. A father grapples with the gang rape of his daughter during Fourth of July festivities. And on the lighter side, a publicist hawks a unique, edible birth-control method in the online faux newspaper, The Onion.

All different experiences — but linked by the common thread of reproductive rights. These stories and others make up the pro-choice theater production, “Words of Choice,” which will be performed at the Carrboro Century Center on Sunday, March 26.

A coalition of local organizations and retailers, including Ipas, are sponsoring the event. Partners include the Orange County Commission for Women, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina and the Orange County Rape Crisis Center.

For the play, New York resident and former Center for Reproductive Rights staffer Cindy Cooper adapted writings or interviews from such people as Justice Harry Blackmun, actress Kathy Najimy and Emily Lyons, a survivor of a 1998 clinic attack.

In a January interview with the Fund for Women Artists, Cooper said that theater can ensure that women’s voices are included in the perpetual debate about reproductive freedom. Individuals’ stories bring the often abstract and divisive arguments surrounding abortion to a personal level.

Talking about why she developed “Words of Choice,” Cooper said: “Politicians blathered about reproductive rights, but completely ignored women’s lives. Activist groups responded with fact sheets. I wanted to reach people in their hearts. Theater is especially good at doing that; there is a magic in theater where people can begin to reflect upon their own experiences while watching well-told stories unfold in front of them. … I became convinced that reproductive freedom, under steady attack, needed the breathing space that theater provides.”

Cooper told Ipas that “Words of Choice,” first performed in 2000, speaks to audiences now more than ever — when anti-choice voices often dictate the debate.

“There is a need on the part of the pro-choice movement to tell the stories of women’s reproductive-health experiences imaginatively and creatively. Everyone has a story. At the same time, these need to be connected to the ‘big picture.’ The messaging has become so insider-oriented and so laden with policy wonk that the average person gets lost.”

But Cooper believes that people are becoming more concerned about the erosion of reproductive rights in the United States.

“‘Words of Choice’ began to have more resonance after [President George W.] Bush was elected. At that point, a solid group of people became aware that women’s choices were imperiled. The resonance continues, and the new Supreme Court justices and bans have, I think, further drawn people’s attention.”

Tickets are $20 and on sale now at both Weaver Street Market locations and Cameron’s gift shop at University Mall. For more information, call (919) 960-3876.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258