Grayslake actress evolves with show

Grayslake resident Robin Hughes has been performing on and off in various productions of Eve Ensler's “The Vagina Monologues” since 2005. But each time she appears in the show, she notices differences.

“I have been playing the same monologues over the years,” Hughes says. “It has been great, great to have the material a part of who you are, great because you feel really free. You are communicating to the audience on a different level. You are there as a full human being connecting with the audiences.”

These days, she's aiming to connect at the Copley Theatre in Aurora, where the show opened Thursday for a 12-week run.

Part of Hughes' growth clearly comes with a deeper familiarity with the popular play, which was created by hours of interviews on female sexuality.

“There are some real gems in the show,” Hughes says. “And some of these gems you understand differently as you get to know the show. Or these gems play differently on different nights, or with different audiences.”

Hughes first stepped into the play six years ago, when it was produced at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre.

At the time, there was fear that the show was too raw for Arlington Heights. After all, Ensler packed the play with material based on the most private — and sometimes most vulnerable — aspects of a woman's life: her sexuality and her often-ambivalent relationship to her body.

Instead, the show was a surprise hit for the theater.

“It ran in extensions over a year,” Hughes says.

When the show was revived last winter, Hughes stepped into the production again, reprising the monologues she performed before. This time the show felt different.

“I realized I was growing as an individual,” Hughes says. “Growing and getting older as a woman. As you get older your understanding of things changes. I have a son now. And there is a monologue in the show about childbirth that is a lot more resonant.

“I could understand before the idea of childbirth,” she adds. “But I now realize I was looking at the painting instead of being in the painting.”

“The Vagina Monologues”

Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday through May 1

Location: Copley Theatre, Paramount Arts Centre, 23 East Galena Blvd., Aurora, (630) 896-6666 or paramountarts.com

Tickets: ($28.50