Cries of laughter filled the air Friday in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Grand Ballroom as local women performed “The Vagina Monologues.”

Damp, mildewy, smelly and clammy – words often used to describe an unfinished basement – is how a 72-year-old performer described her vagina, which she said she had not seen in more than 50 years. In the monologue titled “The Flood,” the woman refers to her body as an old house and her vagina as the cellar whose door has not been opened in years.

The audience couldn’t compose themselves during another monologue performed by Theresa Sapple Kincade titled “The Woman who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy.” Throughout the monologue, Kincade gave the audience lessons on over 10 different orgasmic yells, what they mean and how to identify them.

“The Vagina Monologues,” written by Eve Ensler, is a compilation of interviews of over 2,000 women from all around the world with different lifestyles, religions and ethnicities. The interviews are about the issues and consequences that come along with the one thing they all have in common, their vaginas.

Justin Newell, a junior social science major, said he came to the show because his girlfriend asked him to come, but he left with much more than he expected.

“I learned a lot about women,” Newell said Friday night. “I never thought that a show could be this funny and educational. I enjoyed myself tremendously.”

Some of the monologues were comical and many touched on serious issues affecting women in today’s society such as abuse, rape, homosexuality, ageism, low self-esteem, self-expression and child birth.

In the middle of the play a speaker would come out and tell the audience a couple “vagina facts.” One of the facts stated that there are five states in the United States where the selling of dildos is illegal but selling guns is legal in the same five states.

To make light of the issue the speaker told the audience, “I have never heard of anyone being killed by an assault with a deadly dildo!”

Linda Bagger, a Lakeland College professor and monologue performer, said she hopes people walk away from the show with a more open mind and a willingness to talk about their bodies and life without feeling embarrassed and ashamed.

“This show let us all know that we don’t have to be so serious about these things. I hope that everyone got as much out of it as we did performing it,” Bagger said.

Bagger said the women, which were all from the area, performed this show after only one rehearsal. The performers wore all black with a red boa draped around their necks or shoulders as they made their monologues come to life.

“The Vagina Monologues” was sponsored by the Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Service which was celebrating its 25th anniversary. SACIS was also celebrating V-Day, which is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Ten percent of the funds raised that evening will be donated to the Fund for Afghan Women.

Ensler interviewed women from Afghanistan in 2000, and they described their life to her and the pain that they go through everyday, which is a picture painted in the monologue, “My Vagina Was My Village.”

The monologue held the most serious tone of all the evening’s presentations. In one of the lines of the monologue, the Afghan women said they were not able to distinguish living from dying. The women referred to their vaginas as their village that was invaded and even destroyed.

Ensler wrote this monologue to bring awareness to the struggle and strength of the women of Afghanistan.