Eve Ensler's award winning one-woman show, The Vagina Monologues, subtitled "An Anthropological Exploration," will play at Washington DC's Studio Theatre, Nov. 28-Dec. 20.

Vagina reveals a series of different women's stories and experiences involving their genitalia. The piece was born when playwright Ensler realized that her work, mostly about women, was missing a physiological connection. Ensler told PBOL,"I couldn't be thinking about [liberating women] without thinking about vaginas. I wanted to know about what women were feeling about their vaginas. As I talked to women, I was so awed and amazed by what people were telling me that I began to think, 'there's a [theatre] piece here.'"

Ensler told PBOL, "The reaction to it has been really positive and not in a typical way. People have responded personally to it. They examine issues. . . when I traveled we did Q&A's afterwards, it amazed me how vulnerable people were willing to be. People have been really fantastic."

In a benefit to fight breast cancer, Vagina was performed this past Valentine's Day as V-Day 1998, starring Hollywood faves Winona Ryder, Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn, Calista Flockhart, Kathy Najimy, Rosie Perez, Susan Sarandon, Lois Smith, Phoebe Snow, Gloria Steinem, Marisa Tomei, and Lily Tomlin. V-Day 1999 will concentrate on colleges across the country in a special "College Initiative." Also, The Feb. 14, 1999 event will reach across the Atlantic to the UK, where actresses at the Old Vic will read Ensler's play.

The Vagina Monologues was originally produced in New York at downtown's HERE. Starring Ensler, the piece is based on hundreds of interviews with women who talked freely and in detail about their lives. The Vagina Monologues will play at Washington D.C.'s Studio Theatre, Nov. 28 - Dec. 20. For tickets ($19.50-$36.50) or more information call (202) 332-3300.

-- By Sean McGrath and Blair Glaser and David Lefkowitz