Today may be Valentine's Day, but, for many on campus, even more important "V" events will be taking place.

The Vagina Monologues and V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women, are being celebrated on campus.

The Vagina Monologues, a play telling the stories of real women, will be performed at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow in the HUB-Robeson Center's Alumni Hall. Admission is free.

After interviewing over 200 women between the ages of 6 to 76, Eve Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues and initially performed it by herself.

It includes stories of many different types of women who talk about their vaginas in a variety of ways.

"There's so much darkness and secrecy surrounding them — like the Bermuda Triangle," Ensler said. "Nobody ever reports back from there."

Men and women of all races and ethnicity have called The Vagina Monologues "funny, moving and wrenching."

The Village Voice awarded Ensler an Obie, which acknowledges off-Broadway plays, for excellent playwriting in 1996.

The monologues have been performed all over the world and across 190 college campuses.

In 1998, they spurred the creation of V-Day, an attempt to end violence against girls and women.

On Saturday, the monologues were performed at Madison Square Garden in New York, with over 70 famous actresses and musicians.

The list of celebrities included Oprah Winfrey, Glenn Close, Claire Danes, Winona Ryder, Melissa Etheridge and Alanis Morissette.

This is the third year that The Vagina Monologues have been performed at Penn State.

With 26 women performing this year, the cast is the largest yet for the university's renditions.

"I went to see it two years ago," said Megan Shepherd (senior-art). "It changed my life. It gave me a different outlook on being a woman and my body. I want to give something back, that's why I auditioned for it."

Those that plan on attending are recommended to at be at Alumni Hall at least 15 minutes before the show, because a large audience is expected, said director Michelle Yates (junior-women's studies).

"Thousands of people from the Penn State community and all around the area have shown interest. People from as far as Harrisburg have been calling for information," Yates said.

Ensler's play is available in book-form. She also wrote, Necessary Targets, a book about women and war.

Physically and sexually abused by her father, Ensler wrote the monologues after battling alcoholism.

They address a variety of topics such as mutilation, what a vagina would wear and what types of things it might say.

While there has been some dispute about the monologues at Penn State in the past, it decreases each year, Yates said.

"People will go — it's not offensive. It's honest and funny and moving and sad," Shepherd said. "It's nothing people should try and censor."

Despite controversy over the past few weeks about the Sex Faire, where State Rep. John Lawless brought a video camera to film events like Orgasm Bingo, few problems are expected at the performance of the monologues.

"If Lawless knew, he would probably try to stir controversy, but I don't think it would work," Yates said.