Call it the “Penis Monologues.” Call it the “Penis Project” or “PP” for short. You could even call it the “Penis Soliloquies.” One thing is for sure, tonight’s M-Shop performance will have plenty to do with the often-censored spot right below the male stomach.

After a trip to the American College Theater Festival in Sioux Falls, S.D., last year, English graduate student Greg Jerrett returned with a plan. After attending sessions on playwright critiquing and the importance of feedback and workshops, Jerrett realized that Iowa State was lacking such a program to help beginning playwrights.

“We have a [playwriting] class which is good,” Jerrett says. “But not all the people in the class are necessarily serious playwrights.”

“We were a little bit energized about what was going on [in Sioux Falls],” said Jon Cass, playwright and public relations for the project. “Greg thought it would be nice to start something like what they had.”

To get things going, Jerrett asked a few people if they wanted to participate in doing a workshop once a week. The group has never had ties with the theater department but recently received $500 from it for project funding.

“We’ll probably end up going independent,” Jerrett says. “This whole project proves that you don’t need a lot of people.”

The first portion will be, in essence, a reading of selected works about the male genitalia. Hence the miscellaneous titles. But maybe Cass puts it best when he calls it “a collection of plays about the penis.”

Cass originally joined the workshop as an adviser to help on the business side. He was originally going to help produce the plays; however, the group talked Cass into writing a play of his own which will be performed at tonight’s workshop. In fact, Jerrett motivated almost everyone on staff to write their own plays.

Katie Goldsmith, senior in journalism and mass communication wrote a piece for the penis portion of the workshop. She was originally asked by Jerrett to act for the club but ending up writing her own piece that will also be read tonight.

“I was kind of absorbed into the writing,” Goldsmith explains.

This is Goldsmith’s first playwriting experience and is also the first time anything of hers has been performed.

“There is great fear,” Goldsmith says. “I’m nervous and scared. I’m going to be covering my face and plugging my ears.”

Eve Himmelheber, assistant professor of theater, will also be active in tonight’s performance. One of her penis productions will be read, and she will also be acting in some of the night’s pieces. She also thought she would just help the workshop get off the ground but ending up writing a play.

“I got in at ground zero,” Himmelheber says. “I thought I’d be there to help in getting actors and also in direction. If you don’t hear them done, they don’t really get across.”

The group has downsized a bit since its inception last year, but the core of the group has remained strong with Jerrett, Cass, Himmelheber and David Byrd, ISU student in performing arts, helping out with direction.

The group meets every Friday in the afternoon to discuss the plays that they e-mail to each other throughout the week.

“It got to the point where they had no plays,” Himmelheber explains.

At this point Himmelheber came up with the idea of doing monologues. After some thought, the group had the idea to parody “The Vagina Monologues” with their own works about the “opposite” genital region.

“It’s something everybody shares in common,” Himmelheber explains. “Even if you are a man or woman.”

Tonight’s performance will be the first reading of the monologues which are “extremely preliminary,” Himmelheber says. The group’s eventual plan is to turn this into a more collaborative work by weaving the monologues together.

Jerrett has been called the “Yoda” of the group by Himmelheber.

“He gives us structure and experience from a playwright’s perspective,” Himmelheber says.

Jerrett’s play, “Coffeehouse of Blues,” is a 15-20 minute play of “community theater,” he says. It is the most completed of all the works that will be performed tonight.

“It’s more about people talking and not necessarily about penises,” Jerrett explains.

However the main purpose of going public with the workshop is to get feedback from the students and hopefully get more students involved in the project.

“Everybody thinks they can’t do it,” Jerrett says. “If they see how god awful we are, they might be encouraged to do it, because it’s really not that hard.”

The group would really like to get more people involved. Their plans are to perform more often at the M-Shop and possibly stage plays once a year. Already the upcoming first performance has exceeded Jerrett’s expectations for the project.

“It’s what we always intended, but we didn’t expect it would happen,” Jerrett says. “If it weren’t for Jon and Eve’s unbridled energy, it wouldn’t have happened.”

Tonight’s performance could provide a huge leap for those wanting to get involved outside of Iowa State’s theater program as well as in the art scene in Ames in general.

“We don’t live in an art-rich environment,” Jerrett says. “There is art here, but it’s not like art in big cities. People shy away from other people’s expressions. But everybody’s got something to say.”