SPR News Today: How have audiences' ideas about 'The Vagina Monologues' changed 30 years since its premiere?

Today's headlines:

• Idaho cut back on paying for severely mentally ill patients. The resulting increase in emergency room visits costs local taxpayers hundreds of dollars each year.
• Idaho is one step closer to completely deregulating short-term rentals in cities across the state.
• Washington could soon allow one of its largest state pharmacies to sell misoprostol alongside mifepristone. It would even be allowed to give the abortion pills away for free.
• Five Spokane County school districts get initial results from their bond and levy proposals.
• Spokane Valley introduces its own kratom ban, just a couple months after Spokane started considering the idea.

And the ground-breaking play “The Vagina Monologues” turns 30 this year, and this week, it’ll be back on stage at Gonzaga University.
We’ll hear from the show’s director about audiences’ changing relationship to the play’s subject matter. You can find a longer version of the conversation here.

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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.

Reporting contributed by Rachel Sun, Eliza Billingham and Doug Nadvornick.

The show is hosted and produced by Owen Henderson.

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TRANSCRIPT

[THEME MUSIC]

OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.

I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Wednesday, February 11, 2026.

On today’s show, mental and behavioral health providers in Idaho are raising alarms about the difficulty of caring for severely ill patients after certain Medicaid funding cuts in the state.

And the first round of results are in for yesterday’s special elections. Voters across eastern Washington weighed in on school levy and bond issues, with mixed results.

Plus, the ground-breaking play “The Vagina Monologues” turns 30 this year, and this week, it’ll be back on stage at Gonzaga University.

We’ll hear from the show’s director about audiences’ changing relationship to the play’s subject matter.

Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.

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Mental health providers in Idaho say they’re having difficulty stabilizing severely ill patients after the state cut Medicaid funding for certain behavioral health programs.

Northwest Public Broadcasting’s Rachel Sun reports.

RACHEL SUN: For decades, Idaho used Medicaid funding for a program called Assertive Community Treatment, or ACT, to treat severely mentally ill patients where they’re at. But that is no longer paid for.

Sara Bennett, a clinician based in Lewiston, is one of the providers who had been contracted to run her region’s ACT program.

She says ACT funding also paid for a nurse to administer treatments such as monthly injectable anti-psychotics. Here’s Bennett talking about two clients who are now struggling.

SARA BENNETT: “He was three weeks late last month and he's already a week late this month … We have another individual who also hasn't had an injection in over a month.”

RS: Idaho made cuts to a number of behavioral health programs. Ric Boyce is another mental health clinician, and the co-director of the Idaho Association of Community Providers.

His organization estimates cuts to these programs could cost the state more than 150 million in local taxpayer dollars.

RIC BOYCE: “For local taxpayers footing the bill for increased emergency care, we are looking (at) between $200 and $800 per person, per year.”

RS: Providers say they’re hopeful that legislators will work to restore funding for those programs.

I’m Rachel Sun

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OH: Some Idaho resort cities are facing legal battles over their short-term rental restrictions.

As SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports, the state is now one step closer to completely eliminating any local regulations.

ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Coeur d’Alene representative Jordan Redman introduced House Bill 583 this week to the House Business Committee, which he usually chairs.

JORDAN REDMAN: “This bill ensures that property owners can utilize their homes for temporary lodging without undue regulation and burdens from local jurisdictions.”

EB: The bill would prohibit Idaho cities and counties from regulating short term rentals any differently than single family homes.

They wouldn’t be able to require owner occupancy, professional property management, additional insurance or more parking. Local government couldn’t cap the number of rentals or require conditional use permits.

Testifiers who opposed the bill claimed that short term rentals degrade neighborhoods, create more nuisance properties, and decrease affordable housing.

For supporters and legislators, it came down to whether or not the government should be able to limit what someone can do with something they own. Many pointed to Idaho’s long history of protecting personal property rights.

All but one member of the committee eventually voted to pass the bill on to the full House.

I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.

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OH: The Washington Senate has approved a bill expanding the Department of Corrections’ ability to distribute medications used to induce abortions.

The agency bought tens of thousands of doses of mifepristone in 2023 and 2025.

Seattle Democrat Noel Frame says state officials were concerned the drug would become less available for managing abortions and miscarriages.

NOEL FRAME: “This legislation is about women’s health, Mr. President. It is about the ability of women to control their own bodies and manage their own health care with medication that is safe.”

OH: The new legislation would allow the Department of Corrections to also sell a complementary drug, misoprostol—or even give it away.

That especially worries Spokane Valley Republican Leonard Christian, an abortion opponent.

LEONARD CHRISTIAN: “It doesn’t matter what side of the argument, you should not be, as a citizen of this state, paying for all the other states’ free abortion pills.”

OH: Yesterday’s Senate vote was largely along party lines, with two Republicans joining all Democrats to pass the bill.

It now goes to the House of Representatives.

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Voters in Spokane’s East Valley School District have apparently rejected a $220-million bond issue.

First ballot counts from yesterday’s special election show the measure won more than 54% support.

At least 60% approval is needed for a bond issue.

The district hoped to replace East Valley High School and Middle Schools and make improvements at other district facilities.

Most of the other school-related measures in eastern Washington are on their way to victory.

In Newport, however, voters seem to have said yes to the district’s operations levy, but no to a $46-million facilities bond issue.

The levy has 56% support, the bond only 46%.

In Twisp, voters have apparently OKed two propositions.

One would renew a sales tax to fund the town’s transportation improvement district. The other is an emergency medical services levy.

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Spokane Valley is proposing its own kratom ban, a couple months after the idea was introduced in Spokane.

Kratom isn’t regulated at the federal or state level, though the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has classified it as a drug of concern.

Kratom naturally contains certain psychoactive ingredients, including 7-OH, which can have opioid-like effects.

Washington state is considering putting an age limit and weighty tax on kratom sales.

Proponents of a citywide ban say kratom is especially harmful to youth, who can access it easily even though its long-term effects are largely unknown.

Spokane’s proposed kratom ban has been repeatedly deferred by its City Council.

Opponents of the ban say kratom has widespread harm reduction benefits.

Some public health experts say restricting it completely would put people struggling with addiction at higher risk.

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It’s been 30 years since The Vagina Monologues by V, formerly known as Eve Ensler, was first performed.

This week, it’ll be back on stage at Gonzaga University.

SPR’s Doug Nadvornick spoke with director and Gonzaga Theater chair Leslie Stamoolis.

LESLIE STAMOOLIS: The real power of the Vagina Monologues, I think, is in the fact that the word and the concept is spoken over and over and over again. There's so much power in giving something its proper name.

And so the reason that people got all up in arms about the Vagina Monologues early on was the fact that they were just saying the word vagina so many times.

And people thought to themselves, ‘Wait, is that a bad word?’ And had to have that thought process of ‘Why do I think that it's a problem to say an anatomical term of the human body?’

So I think the power lies in giving a name to a female body part that over the centuries and millennia has been legislated to death, has been debated over who owns it.

DOUG NADVORNICK: There doesn’t seem to be any uproar over this performance of The Vagina Monologues, but Stamoolis says Gonzaga’s relationship with the play is an uneasy one.

LS: In 2011 was the first time that The Vagina Monologues was performed on Gonzaga's campus, but it was not open to the public, and it was not advertised off campus or probably very much on campus.

A few years prior to that, maybe 2007, 2008, there was a group of students and some professors who wanted to produce it. The university would only let them produce it off campus, and they refused to let Gonzaga's name be affiliated with it.

In 2019, a student said to me, ‘Have you ever heard of The Vagina Monologues?’ And I said, yes. And she said, ‘I wish we could do that, but, you know, I'm a senior.’ And then I said to her, we should do it. And so we slipped it into our season in 2019.

At that time, we had our first female dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. We had a female academic vice president, which was Dr. Patricia Killen, and I spoke with both of them, and everyone was actually very supportive.

They just wanted to make sure they knew what we were getting into, but I didn't have to convince anyone of the importance of the piece or the value of it or anything like that.

So that led to our first public performance performed here on campus but open to the public, and we had a sold-out house, and all the proceeds from that event were donated to the Spokane YWCA, as was required by the V-Day Foundation when you produce the vagina monologues in February.

So at that time, I did not have to convince anyone, which was lovely. And this time around, I haven't even had any meetings.

So we put it on the season, and no one reached out or contacted me with any kinds of concerns. I think that our folks here at Gonzaga have always understood that this is a significant piece of social justice theater. There are some who have problems with some of the content of the pieces.

There are, of course, people who may have problems with just the celebration of the vagina. We're not interested in engaging with those folks. There are people who have concerns about some of the depictions in the monologues that might be seen as positive but could be problematic.

The key one is in a piece called The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could, and it is about a young girl's memories from the age of five through the age of 16. And there's some pretty disturbing things that she has experienced, physically, sexually, at far too young an age, things like that.

But then the final piece in that monologue is seen as a positive one, but it's a sexual encounter between a 16-year-old girl and a 24-year-old woman. So many people have problems with that, fully understandable.

However, what people sometimes fail to remember is that theater is not propaganda. It is, in fact, storytelling.

DN: So the fact that it's not the lightning rod that it used to be, does that, do you worry that's going to keep attendance down because it's not as quote-unquote sexy as it might have been in the past?

LS: I suppose we'll find out, and I certainly hope it doesn't keep attendance down because we are still donating proceeds from our production to the Spokane YWCA to promote their work.

But I think in some ways, it's always going to be a lightning rod, actually, because we always have new generations who are growing up either with a really positive idea of either the piece or just of the body part.

And we also have people who just want to be a little bit titillated and will come because they don't know exactly what they're going to hear, and they think, ‘Is it actually monologues about vaginas?’

And the answer is, yes, it is actually monologues about vaginas. I think that there will always be folks who have problems with women's voices being heard in such a straightforward way.

So I think that there will always be folks who have something to say about that for good or ill.

But I think it remains unique. I think it's still, it's always going to have significance.

OH: Leslie Stamoolis is the chair of Gonzaga Theater. The Vagina Monologues will be on stage February 12-14 at the Magnuson Theater.

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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.

Reporting today was contributed by Rachel Sun, Eliza Billingham and Doug Nadvornick.

I’m Owen Henderson, your host and producer.

Thanks for listening.

It’s SPR.