{"id":30322,"date":"2025-10-30T15:39:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30322\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:39:06","slug":"the-menopause-monologues-brings-puppet-powered-honesty-atwater-village-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30322\/","title":{"rendered":"The Menopause Monologues brings puppet-powered honesty | Atwater Village News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

Creator Carrie Vanhouten hams it up with her pink puppet outside the Atwater Village Theatre, where The Menopause Monologues is heating up the stage with humor, heart \u2014 and a touch of hot flash energy. \ud83d\udd25\ud83c\udfad<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of The Menopause Monologues<\/p>\n

Atwater Village\u2014Puppet shows are traditionally kids\u2019 entertainment, but Eastside producers and venues are increasingly offering options for adults. Highland Park\u2019s Bob Baker Marionette Theater is taking the stage at Coachella next spring, and last month, Freak Nature Puppets mounted its \u201cNosferatu\u2019s Sweet 16: 4D\u201d at The Elysian<\/a>. It was part musical, part haunted house experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now comes another unlikely creation: The Atwater Village Theatre<\/a> on Nov. 5 will debut \u201cThe Menopause Monologues.\u201d Created by Carrie Vanhouten, it brings the often-taboo subject of menopause into the spotlight\u2014with a bit of help from a puppet of Carrie\u2019s vagina.\u00a0<\/p>\n


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The show is inspired by Vanhouten\u2019s personal journey with menopause, and she believes that shining a light on the topic in a creative way can help others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get these stories on stage so that we can all share our stories and learn from one another,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the obvious question: Why puppets?\u00a0<\/p>\n


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\u201cThere\u2019s a part of me that felt a little safer on stage talking about my journey with a little extra layer of puppet,\u201d Vanhouten said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lulu Braunstein, the show\u2019s co-founder and producer, added, \u201cPeople connect with puppets, don\u2019t they? It makes it easier for audiences to hear some of the stuff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before each show, the creative team hosts workshops where women can share their experiences of menopause. Stories are chosen and then performed in whichever medium they prefer\u2014from monologue to live painting to dance. After all of the performances, including one from Vanhouten, an expert from The Menopause Society will host a Q&A.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While menopause and ancient vampires have little in common, Deanna \u201cDeedee\u201d Anderson, a founding member of Freak Nature Puppets, believes that in the post-COVID era, the puppet-to-person connection carries a unique appeal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something really engaging about seeing something that wows you in person,\u201d Anderson, who lives in Highland Park, said. \u201cI think in this technology era, after the pandemic of being on our phones and computers all the time, people really love to see something that feels so human-made and filled with spirit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Menopause Monologues<\/a>\u201d runs Nov. 5-9 at the Atwater Village Theatre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2014Jes\u00fas Sanchez, Publisher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Creator Carrie Vanhouten hams it up with her pink puppet outside the Atwater Village Theatre, where The Menopause…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[22349,22352,22354,22353,48,52,51,47,50,49,22350,22351,22355],"class_list":["post-30322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-atwater-village","tag-atwater-village-theatre","tag-bob-baker-marionette","tag-freak-nature-puppets","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-menopause","tag-menopause-monologues","tag-puppets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}