“For all the stories buried in the skin I’ve crawled into, my body will be worked to the last phrase, and even in death my body will write,” said Berkeley High School sophomore Vivian Roston in the outro performance. The voices of BHS students echoed into the theater, leaving the audience at the edge of their seats.
The 2025 production of Our Monologues, directed by BHS senior Eloise Biddle-Gottesman and BHS senior Lenka Simon, occurred on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025 and Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. After a lengthy process of selection, casting, staging, and rehearsals — totaling up to five months — the show took place at Shotgun Players in front of a completely sold out theater, 120 seats filled, both nights. The two-hour production, consisting of 19 monologues, was a testament to passion, vulnerability, and student voices.
“It was really rewarding to be able to take the work that we had done as a cast over several months and then perform on stage together,” BHS junior and performer Avi Neta said.
A descendant of The Vagina Monologues, Our Monologues showcases performances of student stories — some written by cast members, some by other BHS community members, and some submitted anonymously. The show stretches across many themes — family, growing up, sexuality, misogyny, insecurity, empowerment — but the common thread seemed to be telling your own story and finding yourself.
“I could definitely resonate with some of the monologues and I couldn’t with others, and I think that was a pretty beautiful thing about it,” said Charlotte Briand, an audience member and BHS sophomore.
The show took audience members on an emotional rollercoaster — one moment filled with laughter, the next with tears. “Mullet Monologue,” written and performed by BHS senior Olivia Nguyen, used the analogy of getting a mullet to capture the confusing, awkward nature of becoming comfortable in yourself and your gender identity. Nguyen’s witty punchlines and comedic timing were impeccable and kept the audience cracking up throughout.
“Abue” written anonymously and performed by Paolo Rivera, delivered one of the show’s most emotionally devastating moments. Blending English and Spanish, “Abue” built a tender portrait of a student’s close relationship with their grandmother — only to reveal that when her work visa expired, the grandmother was forced to return to Mexico for 10 years. The monologue ends with the heartbreaking revelation that that was the last time the student saw their grandmother.
Another stand-out performance was “Ode to the Girl’s Bathroom” written by BHS senior Julia Segre and performed by BHS sophomore June Ruyle, BHS freshman Ellah Altman, BHS senior Olivia Nguyen, and BHS senior Vaiee-Talia Tu’ua.
“The cast had a really fun time, just being like: what are all those silly little things we do in the bathroom that we can do on stage?” Biddle-Gottesman said. With clever lines, hair-flips, lip-stick touch-ups, and warm embraces, the performance reframes the girl’s bathroom as both a battlefield and a sanctuary — a place where enemies are made and alliances forged, where we grow and make mistakes, and where we begin to find out who we are.
“It was so fun. The actors were phenomenal. The audience seemed to enjoy it. We sold out every show, which was very nice,” Biddle-Gottesman said, “Now we have enough money to rent the theater again next year, so (it went) better than I could have imagined.”