Horizons Theater Event:

That Takes Ovaries!

Empowering, Provocative, Vibrant

"You've finally come to visit me," says a woman in a brightly colored caftan, standing in the center of a mostly bare stage. The warm lighting creates a circle around her; she informs the audience, warmly, softly, proudly, that this space is like a womb, and we are about to witness acts of bravery, such as can only be accomplished by those who truly have ovaries.

This is the opening of "That Takes Ovaries!", a play adapted from the book edited by Rivka Solomon. The ensemble cast, Karin Abromaitis, Toni Rae Brotons, Nancy LeRoy, Janice Menifee, Oran Sandel, Colette Williams, and Miyuki Williams, take turns embodying various women and the people they encounter in moments when they take choices that, as they say, take ovaries. If you.re not sure what it means to do something that "takes ovaries," think about, as author Solomon characterizes them, acts that are bold, brazen, outrageous, or audacious. Better yet, think about people who are usually characterized as "having balls." Yeah, that's the idea.

"That Takes Ovaries!" is directed by Leslie Jacobson and Vanessa Thomas. Jacobson and Thomas also created the play, adapting the book into a script of 18 vignettes (the book has 60 stories, written by the women themselves). The actors work hard, moving the six black boxes, three chairs, and one table that make up their mobile set, singing, dancing and rapping, and generally having fun. Each actor is dressed in truly vibrant colors.bright blocks of yellow, blue, purple, pink, and green on their bodies add a lot of life to an otherwise bare stage. Japanese screens are set up as a background, and are made good use of for silhouetted actors in various scenes.

The various women in the cast take turns playing some of the women who submitted their stories to Solomon for the book: from a high school Chinese-American girl who defies her PTA to play the lead in "Oklahoma!" to a mother who leaves her children in El Salvador to come to the U. S. to earn money for them; from a fat grrl who dares to leave her house in a tank top to a woman who made a documentary about the girl victims of the sex trafficking or flesh trade in Bombay, these are women whose acts truly take guts. They defy conventions, purposefully, sometimes seeming almost timid, and sometimes acting downright audaciously.and at other times quite deliciously naughty. I felt in turn delighted, disgusted, mournful, and ecstatic. You will leave the theater feeling empowered, especially if you go on a Friday and take part in the open mike that follows the show. Solomon.s book has spawned a movement of open mike nights: where individual women can stand up and share with an audience their moments of acts and choices that truly take some ovaries, and audience members and speakers alike can donate to local women's shelters. Guidelines to hosting an open mike night, as well as more information about the book, are available at www.thattakesovaries.org.

"That Takes Ovaries!" is playing through March 30th, 2003. Adults: $22, Students and Seniors: $18, Groups over 12 people: $12 per person. www.horizonstheater.org

horizons@horizonstheater.org