Jann Arden sees nothing wrong with talking about vaginas.
Being embarrassed about it might make it a little harder for her to get through the dozens of media interviews she's had to endure while promoting Eve Ensler's witty and candid play, The Vagina Monologues.
The show explores the different ideas women have about their sexuality and talks frankly about perceptions and misconceptions of the vagina in 17 distinctive monologues.
The locally based singer has appeared in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto productions of the play and is getting ready to star in the Calgary one, which runs Aug. 28-Sept. 1 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall.
"It's funny how some people get so freaked out about the word vagina," says Arden, who will perform alongside Amy Love and New York actress Tracy A. Leigh.
"I think I've been saying it for the past 35 years."
Once a completely taboo subject, the vagina is still an uncomfortable topic for some women.
"I think it has been buried for years by women who feel embarrassed about discussing it," says Arden.
"Women think they'll save themselves a lot of grief by not talking about it. It's because we were taught at a young age that girls should be proper and never ever offend.
"It's a release to do this ... It's sort of like streaking through a football game."
While some people might think the play to be highly controversial, Arden explains that it's really not that outrageous at all. "It's a really fun play," she says. "It's funny and never shocking. I think people expect it to be shocking. But it's nothing people haven't heard before."
When it debuted in New York in 1997, The Vagina Monologues was hailed as a neo-feminist masterpiece, attracting a long list of celebrities who almost begged to appear in the show.
Oprah Winfrey, Lily Tomlin, Winona Ryder, Calista Flockhart, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Alanis Morissette, Whoopi Goldberg, Chantal Kreviazuk and Rosie Perez are only a few of the actresses who have stood at the music stand, donning the crisp black costume, to read from Ensler's provocative script.
Though the play does have a strong feminist following, Arden doesn't consider it a feminist show.
"It's not the kind of feminism I was raised in," she says.
"I think feminism is a little more angry toward men. There are militant feminist lesbians who think men should be castrated ... There isn't any man-bashing in The Vagina Monologues. No one is left out.
"It's a fair and equal picture of different lifestyles ... It's just a fantastic and powerful show."
The Vagina Monologues is not Arden's first foray into theatre or acting. Earlier this year, she shot a small cameo role in the locally produced film, Snowbound.
But her acting roots go back almost 20 years. She attended Mount Royal College's drama program for a short while because her parents were "desperate" to get her to some form of secondary education.
"I ended up smoking cigarettes, drinking and hanging out with the more sophisticated 19 year olds who read Hedda Gabler."
In the early 1980s, Arden also co-starred in the Theatre Calgary production Country Hearts.
"It was terrible," she admits.
"It didn't make any sense. When I asked the director about something he was like, 'Never mind, just do it.'
"The only reason I was in it was because they needed someone who could sing and play guitar."
