ABOUT THE MONOLOGUE
I wrote a longer version of this monologue in 2021 after reading the obituary of Lidia Menapace, whom the N.Y. Times profiled in a series on people who died of covid. For years, I have been writing plays inspired by historic women for The 365 Women a Year Project and leapt at the chance to write about her. I was also looking for role models at a very dark period in time.
Menapace was a feminist, writer and a member of the Italian resistance who fought Mussolini. I found her story to be fascinating. I set the piece in a girl’s high school in Italy.
When I saw the call for plays and monologues about resisting fascism, I trimmed the work to be the required length of a single page, removed the references about covid and put the focus on her efforts to fight fascism, nazism and sexism. My hope is that learning about women like Lidia Menapace will instill appreciation and courage in others and maybe even inspire them to live as she did.
Have any of you had men say rude things to you, make catcalls, obscene gestures on the way to school today?
(looking around)
More than half. That’s how it all starts and it only gets worse! A woman in Italy is murdered every three days. The church does not protect us. Fascists like Trump and Berlusconi never have any respect for women. They show other men they can treat us like garbage and get away with it. When I was young, my teachers made me praise Il Duce. But at home, my mother had me destroy school papers claiming I was an “elite member of the Aryan race”.
(imitating her mom’s voice)
“We are not animals! Don’t let them turn you into an animal, Lidia!” ...
I hope all of you will think critically about what they teach you here. I was about your age when I joined the resistance. They could have arrested and tortured me at any moment, but that never stopped me.
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