Peace from the ancients

The LAFCO event will take place almost directly across the street from a previously scheduled "Lysistrata" event at Pacific Resident Theatre. "The more the merrier," said Valerie Dillman, the Pacific Resident Theatre event organizer. Her theater seats only 99 (tickets: $10). The LAFCO space seats 150 (tickets: $15), with a large-screen simulcast and an additional 100 chairs set up outside the LAFCO site to accommodate those who can't get in.

The other L.A. event with star participants is the Company Rep reading at the 99-seat American Renegade Theatre in North Hollywood, where Charles Durning and Charlotte Rae are expected (suggested donation: $10 or $20).

But will George W. Bush or Saddam Hussein be affected by readings of a 24-century-old play? Or is just raising awareness enough?

"I don't think 'Lysistrata' will change minds," Bower said. "We're hardly expecting Laura Bush or Hussein's wives to enact the tactics of the women in the play. But it will help get the message across that Bush is not speaking for all Americans. And it may open up conversations that wouldn't otherwise have happened. We're using the only thing we have -- as poor, unemployed actors -- in the same way that the women in the play used the only means available to them."

Woodard, discussing her participation in the LAFCO event, said, "I'm a black woman. If I did things only because I thought people would listen and react, I'd be up a tree. Changes may not take place in my lifetime, but I'm part of a continuum. It's important for my children to see that we are all in this together."

Is it "preaching to the choir"? "Sometimes the choir needs to hear a good hymn," Woodard said. "You can pray at home, but you go to church because it's a community. It's a way of expressing a common idea."

Veteran playwright and screenwriter Larry Gelbart, whose own adaptation of "Lysistrata" was pulled from a production in Massachusetts last year -- because, he said, the leading lady found it too racy -- is more skeptical about preaching to the choir. "We need converts," he said.

Gelbart is allowing part of his "Lysistrata" adaptation to be read in New York Monday, and he said adaptations of Aristophanes' play are certainly appropriate for the occasion.

"It's a cry from the heart of women: Don't take the men out of our lives and waste them. If you insist on doing that, we'll remove your ability to come up with replacements." However, he said, "I don't think the bunch in Washington hears cries of the heart. You have to have one to hear one."

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The 'Lysistrata' list

A sampling of the scheduled readings of "Lysistrata" or adaptations of Aristophanes' play in Southern California on Monday; further information is available at www.lysistrataproject.com.