Grand Valley State University students, faculty, staff and community members are getting gutsy in the Women’s Center presentation of “That Take Ovaries!: Bold Women, Brazen Acts,” a play about brave women and their courageous actions.

The two 7 p.m. showings, on Feb. 9 and 10, feature several stories from the play’s original script along with several submitted stories from the GVSU community.

“About 25 percent of the play is stories that were submitted from Grand Valley and the community, which is pretty cool that it will be a large component of our local community’s stories,” said Brittany Dernberger, assistant director of the Women’s Center.

The GVSU Women’s Center chose to present “That takes Ovaries!” this year instead of “The Vagina Monologues,” which they put on for 10 years, as part of their 10-year anniversary and to help diverse their audience range.

“It’s a lot more multicultural and diverse in terms of the stories that it portrays,” Dernberger said. “For ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ you had to identify as a woman to be on stage, where as ‘That Takes Ovaries!’ is open to anyone.”

She said the Women’s Center was very excited that both men and women are acting in this year’s production, unlike previous years when interested men were only able to direct.

Part of the Women’s Center’s mission is to teach gender justice and to empower woman students, which this play focuses on.

Along with GVSU student activists, there are several community members involved in the production.

“This is a community-wide performance,” said publicity chair Courtney Petersen. “With the Wealthy Street Theatre, that’s an audience that we normally wouldn’t reach if (we are) all the way in Allendale just holding two performances on campus. Hopefully it will bring in more community members.”

Getting the community involved with this production helps spread knowledge of gender equality, Dernberger said.

The play is an adaptation of the book “That Take Ovaries!: Bold Women, Brazen Acts,” which includes 64 stories of women who were courageous and brave.

Petersen said there are many different examples of what stories that “took ovaries” represent.

“It can be you standing up for somebody who is getting made fun of a little bit, or it can be something as brave as auditioning for a play when you’re not a theater person,” Petersen said. “It’s doing something you never would have seen yourself doing.”

Petersen got involved with “The Vagina Monologues” two years ago when she auditioned to be an activist, after never being on stage before and not knowing anyone involved.

She performed for two years in it and decided to apply for the publicity chair position of “That Takes Ovaries” this year because of her interest in the Women’s Center and as a public relations and women and gender studies student.

Something that takes ovaries doesn’t have to be life-changing or as big as Petersen’s example, but anything that breaks out of the typical societal norm, Dernberger said.

“It’s this really narrow box and so anything that’s bold and courageous and kind of stepping out, or being willing to step out of those cultural restrictions,” she said.

The Feb. 9 show is in the Grand River Room in the Kirkhof Center on GVSU’s Allendale Campus, and Feb. 10 will be held at the Wealthy Street Theatre, located at 1130 Wealthy St. in downtown Grand Rapids.

Tickets are $10 for students and $15 for community members.

Tickets are now available for both shows, but selling quickly, Dernberger said.

Proceeds from both showings go to several local charities, including the Center for Women and Children in Holland, Mich., and the YWCA in Grand Rapids.

Tickets can be purchased at the 20/20 desk in the Kirkhof Center for the GVSU show and online at www.wealthytheatre.org/ovaries or by calling 616-459-4788 for the Wealthy Street Theatre performance.

sallen@lanthorn.com