My Body No Choice
My Body No Choice is a 2022 American stage drama made up of eight collected monologues. The show was created and directed by Molly Smith, the Artistic Director of Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Each of the monologues that make up the play were commissioned from eight different female playwrights. The play was created in opposition of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding Dobbs v. Jackson [Women's Health Organization], which effectively overturned the constitutional right to abortion that had been established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. During the same time that it was being shown at Arena Stage, twenty other venues across the United States put on a production of the play.
Background
In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its judgement in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization,. The Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade on the grounds that the substantive right to abortion was not "deeply rooted in this Nation's history or tradition", nor considered a right when the Due Process Clause was ratified in 1868. The court said this "right" was unknown in U.S. law until Roe v. Wade. The court held that the constitution did not include an individual's right to abortion. This decision also overruled Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and upended more than two decades of federal policy and medical practice. The ruling returned to individual states the power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal law.Molly Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Stage, commissioned eight playwrights to write monologues in response to this action. The works were to be produced together under the title No Body No Choice.
The stage show was premiered in an October to early November run in 2022 at the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle in Washington, D.C., part of the Arena Stage complex. More than twenty readings and productions were also held in various universities and colleges|universities] and theaters across the country, in an artists' response to the ruling.
Monologues
The short pieces consist of both fiction and non-fiction monologues that address issues of women's sexuality, autonomy, and freedom of choice. Several address decisions related to their bodies and having abortions.Authors include established and rising writers: Lee Cataluna, Fatima Dyfan, Dale Orlandersmith, Sarah Ruhl, Mary Hall Surface, V presents her sexual awakening and successful effort to avoid getting pregnant. In Lee Cataluna's “Things My Mother Told Me”, an older woman dwells on her mother's unexpected decision to stop her doctor-recommended chemotherapy.
Lisa Loomer's “Roxy” is played as the last monologue in the sequence.
| Monologue name | Playwright | Actress playing the role @ Arena Stage's Kogod Cradle Washington D.C. | Topic |
| An Uplifting High School Graduation Speech | Sarah Ruhl | Jennifer Mendenhall | a student at a Catholic school makes a speech on behalf of abortion rights, which the Church opposes |
| Chance | Mary Hall Surface | Shanara Gabrielle | a middle-aged woman suffers a miscarriage |
| A Rest Stop | Fatima Dyfan | Deidre Staples | coming-of-age and sexual awakening |
| The Circumstances of My Birth | Anon | Joy Jones | A successful woman reflects on learning that her mother had sought an abortion long before she was born. |
| Battered Baby | V (formerly Eve Ensler) | Dani Stoller | Survivor of child abuse and domestic violence, gains autonomy with abortion. |
| Gravitas | Dael Orlandersmith | Felicia P. Fields | body shaming |
| Things My Mother Told Me | Lee Cataluna | Toni Rae Salmi | End of life; a woman decides to end chemotherapy to concentrate on quality of life |
| Roxy | Lisa Loomer | Tori Gomez | Anger about the bind that state laws can create after the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade |