VIDEO: On This Day, October 3: THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES Opens Off-Broadway

Today we flash back to the groundbreaking off-Broadway opening night of Eve Enseler's feminist phenomenon, The Vagina Monologues.

The original Obie Award-winning production of The Vagina Monologues played 1381 performances at The Westside Theatre from 1999 to 2003. The show became a global phenomenon with productions in over 140 countries and in over 48 languages. A television version featuring Ensler was produced for HBO in 2002.

Ensler and others launched V-Day, a global non-profit movement that has raised over $100 million for women's anti-violence groups through benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works.

Actors who have performed in The Vagina Monologues in productions and at events around the world include Brooke Shields, Cate Blanchett, Claire Danes, Cynthia Nixon, Glenn Close, Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda, Jennifer Hudson, Kate Winslet, Kerry Washington, Lily Tomlin, Lucy Lawless, Marisa Tomei, Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Queen Latifah, Rosario Dawson, Rosie Perez, Salma Hayek, Susan Sarandon, Susie Essman, Thandie Newton, Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg and Winona Ryder.

Eve Ensler is the Tony Award winning playwright, activist and author of The Vagina Monologues. Eve's plays include Necessary Targets, The Treatment , The Good Body, and Emotional Creature. Her books include Insecure At Last: A Political Memoir; A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer, New York Times bestseller I Am An Emotional Creature, and her latest critically acclaimed memoir In the Body of the World. She is also the founder of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. Eve writes regularly for The Guardian, and her articles have appeared in International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post. Her new play O.P.C. will premiere at ART this November.