WARREN - Playwright Eve Ensler created ''The Vagina Monologues'' by interviewing hundreds of women about their bodies.
The director of a production at Packard Music Hall on Saturday decided to incorporate the same technique into his presentation.
Along with a performance of Ensler's script, women were interviewed last week at Kent State University Trumbull Campus, and footage of those interviews will be woven into production.
Director Dan Parsons said a crew interviewed 29 women over three hours last week, asking them some of the same questions Ensler used for the interviews that inspired her monologues.
''They really went from being interviews into being stories,'' Parsons said. ''They do link back to the monologues.''
Parsons said most of the women who were approached were willing to answer the personal questions, even those who initially balked.
''One woman who came in didn't want her face shown at first, but she ended up coming back three times,'' Parsons said. ''She kept coming up with better answers. She said, 'If this is going to be about me and my vagina, this is how I want it represented.' She went from being shy to being one of our best interviews of the night.''
Parsons, who still was editing the video footage at the beginning of the week, said he expected to use about 15 minutes of interviews in each act.
Ensler's play remains the dominant part of the program. Since writing the play in 1996, Ensler has used it as the centerpiece of V-Day, a global campaign to raise awareness about violence against women and girls. According to the V-Day Web site - vday.org - last year more than 4,000 benefit events were staged, including productions of the play and screenings of the documentary ''Until the Violence Stops.''
The play first was performed at Packard Music Hall in 2007, and that show raised $5,000 for Someplace Safe, which provides temporary shelter and support for women and their dependent children who are victims of domestic violence.
Cherie Celedonia, assistant manager of the Music Hall, said, ''Because it was so well received and because we raised a nice amount of money, we decided to give it a rest and bring it back again this year.
''V-Day is a way to feel you are personally helping others in need, your friends, your neighbors, the people you see on the street.''
All of the performers and crew are donating their time, and a rental fee is being paid to Packard Music Hall for use of the building, Celedonia said. No city funds are being used to support the performance, which has sparked an outcry by some citizens who find the subject matter offensive.
Ensler's play does deal with with physiological and sexual subject matter, sometimes with humor and sometimes through heart-wrenching dramatic monologues.
Celedonia was part of one of the serious monologues in 2007, and she's going the opposite extreme this time, delivering a rant about gynecological exams, tampons and other indignities women must endure.
''It uses humor and a little shock value,'' Celedonia said. ''But sometimes a little shock value is good.''
Parsons worked on the crew in 2007, and he admitted he was a little scared to handle the directing chores this time.
''I'm 22, I'm a college student and I'm a guy - three things most people who direct 'The Vagina Monologues' aren't,'' he said. ''I was afraid of attaching something more male-oriented (to the play), but I just went back to the script and remembered what it is supposed to do.''
Parsons' parents divorced when he was young, he said, and being raised by his mother made him more sensitive to the issues she faced.
''If something was a concern for her, then it was something that was a concern with me,'' Parsons said. ''She was in the last production, and I was extremely proud seeing her up there. The show just supports everything that you could want it to. Every night when I leave rehearsal, it's always given me something different to think about.''
Parsons is using a larger cast than most productions, embracing Ensler's instructions that no one who is interested in being a part of the show should be turned away.
The cast - Lisa J. Bennett, Micky Burnsworth, Celedonia, Rosie DoCampo, Sasha Kai, Suzie Koltak, Melanie Montoya, Haley Jane Otto, Christian Ozimek, Donnagene Palmer, Barb Root and Mary Swan-Bell - features a mix from local stage veterans to first-time performers.
DoCampo said she is proud to be a part of the production because she believes in ''Encouraging strength in women and empowering them to be whoever they are, no matter what.''
Swan-Bell, who is making her stage debut, said, ''Since being cast in this play, I have tapped into a part of my soul that was previously undiscovered territory. I have found myself speaking up more, being more assertive ... I was raised a nice Catholic girl. We didn't talk about the things discussed in the monologues. But I'm raising two girls now, and while I want them to be 'nice,' I don't want them to do it at the expense of their souls.
''I want my girls to embrace their womanhood. I want them to demand respect as well as giving it. I want them to love their bodies just as they are and to know the proper names for their parts. I'm raising a little boy too, and I want him to grow up loving and respecting women, to treat them with kindness, to know that we are creatures of mystery and wonder worthy of the time and energy it takes to find out what we're all about.''
