A local organization will celebrate V-Day and its 25th anniversary with a fundraising performance of a popular play.

“The Vagina Monologues,” a skit once portrayed on Broadway, will be performed Friday at 8 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union as a fundraiser for the Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Service organization and Afghan women.

The play, along with a preceding dinner at 6:30 p.m., will celebrate SACIS’s anniversary as well as V-Day, an international day set to stop violence against women and girls, Jeanie Stenson, administrative assistant of SACIS, said.

Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues,” granted the use of her play to the V-Day organization, who began the anti-violence day, Stenson said. Since then, “The Vagina Monologues” has been performed worldwide in celebration of women.

“The play is absolutely hysterical,” she said. “It’s a realistic look at women, their whole being and self-esteem issues they face.

“(‘The Vagina Monologues’) is feminist without man bashing,” she said.

The play is based on interviews with a diverse group of women which explores sexually oriented questions “often pondered, yet seldom asked,” a press release said

Sixteen local women are set to present “The Vagina Monologues” on Friday.

“We have students, a professor, a doctor and other women with diverse occupations performing,” Stenson said.

She also said V-Day has never been celebrated in Charleston and she believes that honoring this day will create awareness to the organization’s cause locally.

“Hopefully, V-Day will make people aware of the violence issue,” Stenson said. “V-Day can also show people that there are agencies out there like us that help assaulted women.”

The event is sponsored by The Razorz Edge, Towne Square Jewelers, Atteberry and Marshall Heating and Air and the University Board.

Those interested in attending the play can purchase tickets at the door, Stenson said.

Tickets may be purchased in advance through SACIS (in the basement of Lawson Hall), The Razorz Edge or Towne Square Jewelers.

Admission to the show is $15 for Eastern, Lake Land College and high school students and $20 for the general public.