NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Feb. 27.
SEQUIM — Alexandria Edouart is still laughing.
“Until I read it out loud, I had no idea how funny the play was,” said the actress, who will appear as one of three performers in “The Vagina Monologues,” the groundbreaking production Eve Ensler wrote some two decades ago.
The staged reading, presented in Olympic Theatre Arts’ Gathering Hall, will get going at 7:30 tonight and Saturday night and at 2 p.m. Sunday as well as next weekend, March 6-8.
Tickets are $10 at the playhouse, 414 N. Sequim Ave., while information awaits at Olympictheatrearts.org.
“There are a lot of assumptions made about this show,” said Jennifer Sies, another in the “Monologues” triumvirate. Many are misconceptions, so she’s up there to straighten things out. Sies has performed in two previous productions in her hometown of Chico, Calif., and has been waiting for “Monologues” to be staged here ever since she arrived in 2009.
The show is a collection of true stories about real women, Sies added. For her, they are full of grace: the story of a girl living in a war-torn country, one that sheds new light on a “bad” word and another of a woman who made it her mission to make other women happy.
Joining Sies and Edouart is Maggie McDougal, another actress with a set of tales to tell.
The title “The Vagina Monologues” is kind of a turnoff for some, McDougal figures, though it would be too bad if people stayed away because of the V-word.
“The men who come to the show will definitely be brave,” she quipped, but afterward, “they will know something other men don’t.”
These monologues are short and funny, angry, happy — “all emotions,” McDougal said, adding that her father and her boyfriend both plan to attend at least once.
This, added Edouart, is feminism without stridency, with characters who are all across the spectrum of age and experience.
“Everyone, man and woman, will find something in this play to make them laugh and think, if they allow themselves to do so,” Edouart said.
Sharon DelaBarre, director of the show, hailed the way “The Vagina Monologues” has raised awareness of women’s issues ever since its premiere in 1996. Ensler’s play has come to stages around the world, often in benefit performances for women’s advocacy groups.
In 2001, the play, starring Melissa Etheridge and Whoopi Goldberg, came to New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
To find out more about the Sequim production and other offerings at Olympic Theatre Arts, phone the office between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays at 360-683-7326.