IN the vein of the hugely-acclaimed Vagina Monologues, an African-American woman's personal tale as a victim of violence and sexual assault, and her subsequent survival, comes to the Bermuda stage next month.

Reanae McNeal (pictured), an international speaker, story-teller, playwright and performer, will deliver two dramatic performances and a series of lectures highlighting V-Day and Women's History Month.

The presentation marks the first by Healing Stage Productions, a non-profit group now in the process of gaining charity status, that is hoping to raise the awareness of violence in the community through drama.

"We're dedicated to producing quality performance art programmes that bring to the forefront delicate topics surrounding human rights, health, family and relationship issues," explained its founder and artistic director, Denise Whitter.

"Our mission is three-fold - to use drama as a means of raising the community's awareness to violence, its causes and effects; to use drama as a basis for human development by helping audiences to work through personal issues with role-playing, practice and acting out real-life situations within the safe context of drama and to raise the local community's awareness of women's health and relationships issues."

The idea, she added, was born through the experience she had performing in American playwright Eve Ensler's internationally acclaimed Vagina Monologues.

"It was the most empowering experience for me. Laura Gorham and I talked after it was all over and agreed that there should be more serious theatre in Bermuda but we (didn't get any further than that)."

It was after she came across Ms McNeal's web site on the internet, Ms Whitter said, that the plans took on a more definite form.

"She sounded exciting and I thought she presented a perfect opportunity to bring somebody in," she explained. "I flew up to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she was conducting a workshop and was so impressed with her. Her performances were so powerful and fit right in with what we wanted to do."

A published poet, playwright and cultural activist, Ms McNeal's accomplishments have earned her several awards including an NAACP appreciation award. While in Bermuda, the 33 year old will deliver two lectures - And She Survived and The Face of Violence. She will also deliver three dramatic performances based on her own experiences, those of her ancestors and other women of colour.

"There are statistics that show that one in every three women in the world have experienced violence - whether they've been beaten, raped or forced into sex or physically abused in some way - usually by someone they know," she explained.

"Violence against women doesn't just affect that person. It really affects her family and the whole community. My lectures are centred around violence against women. In the first, I tell my own story of becoming a survivor of sexual and domestic violence and why it's so important to have laws to protect women against such acts as well as sexual and racial harassment.

"In my second lecture, I speak about violence against women, and especially women of colour, and how cultures around the world have a tendency to perpetuate rape and violence."

Ms McNeal said she decided to begin performing eight years ago, while working at a centre for domestic violence, rape and sexual assault.

"I'd decided to take some time off before law school to 'find myself'," she explained. "I am a sexual assault survivor and I'd always loved to write and convey stories. I started writing and began to win awards and decided (there was a way) I could combine everything I loved.

"I was 25 years old. Since, I've travelled across the United States and all types of countries spreading the word of these issues that affect women, families and the community. And for me, it really has been a labour of love."

Her message, Ms McNeal said, is similar to that of the Vagina Monologues - an explicit play which celebrates and explores women's sexuality while drawing attention to abuse - presented on stage at City Hall last year. Ms Ensler wrote the show after interviewing diverse people, mixes humour, pain, outrage and sexuality in a bid to break taboos and encourage open discussion.

"The Vagina Monologues are very powerful and has a very similar thrust to what I do," she said. "My plays are centred around social issues, in particular those affecting African-American women, but deal with a host of issues that affect women in general. The second play, for example, deals with breast cancer which is a killer of so many women around the world.

"I think it's powerful to convey stories; to let women know that no matter what social class they're from, what race they are or what neighbourhood they live in, they could become victims of violence. I try to convey to them that I am present; that I survived; that it is possible to heal and go on with your life after, and that there are ways they can make it through and cope with (their experience).

"I try and show them how it's possible to go from victim to survivor to becoming an activist in the community so that (their experience) doesn't happen to their sisters, to their mothers, to their grandmothers or daughters."

Though often shared with many coming from more urban backgrounds, women in small communities like Bermuda had found her tales just as comforting and her information just as valuable, Ms McNeal said. The killing of Chena Trott - stabbed to death in broad daylight at the Esso Tiger Market in Crawl Hill last year by a suspect with whom she is understood to have had a relationship - was such an example of need, she added, although the abuse did not necessarily have to be that severe.

"I've heard horror stories from places that are similar to Bermuda," she said. "Because they are smaller and the community is so connected, many women keep silent and so the secrets (in such places) run deeper especially because the women are most often abused by people they know and love.

"There's shame that goes along with that. No one wants to be known in a small community as someone who has been abused. Many women feel that if they're not being hit, they're not being abused; many feel it's their fault and, oftentimes, the public puts them on trial instead of (the abuser).

"I read a newspaper article from Bermuda about a woman who was murdered at a gas station. Perhaps such situations aren't common in Bermuda but when incidents like that happen it brings the issue to the forefront of community awareness."

Ms McNeal's lecture, entitled And She Survived, will be held at the Bermuda National Gallery on Tuesday, March 4 at 12.30 p.m. A second lecture, The Face of Violence, will be held in the same location at 1.15 p.m. Tickets costing $5 are available at the door.

Three dramatic performances - Blue Women Don't Wear No Shoes, And Still I Fly and Don't Speak My Mother's Name in Vain - will be held in the Gazebo Lounge of the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel, on March 6 at 7.30 p.m. and March 7 and 8 at 8 p.m., respectively. Tickets, at $25, are available from the Bermuda National Gallery beginning on Monday.

n For more information on any of the scheduled events or Healing Stage Productions, visit its web site at www.healingstage.com