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Rehearsal time was almost up for director Beth Ann Mastromarino and something wasn't right. Yes, the cast run
 had through the lines over and over and over again, but Mastromarino wanted to make sure of every last detail
 in advance of today's performances.

One actress, though, was mumbling a key line.

"You really need to shout out the word 'erections,'" Mastromarino told her.

A lot of actresses will be heeding that advice, as public readings of the ancient Greek satire "Lysistrata" are
 going to be almost inescapable all day today. 

For that, you can thank two New York actresses, Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower, who organized a revival of
 Aristophenes' classic last month when they found themselves opposing the war in Iraq but had no way of telling
 anyone (don't you hate it when that happens?).

Blume and Bower put together tonight's star-studded performance at Brooklyn Academy of Music featuring F.
 Murray Abraham, Kevin Bacon, Bill Irwin, Mercedes Ruehl, Kyra Sedgwick and David Strathairn -- but once the
 word got out, other actors set up their own readings.

At last count, "The Lysistrata Project" was up to 919 readings in 56 countries. 

Almost 60 of them are in New York City, from Grand Central Station to Union Square to Staten Island.
 Mastromarino's group will be at Brooklyn Borough Hall. One reading will take place on a moving subway. And
 there'll even be a reading tonight at Siberia Bar, every journalist's favorite watering hole.

Why "Lysistrata"? Because we're about to go to war and "Lysistrata" is one of the greatest anti-war satires.
 Written 2,400 years before "Sex and the City," it tells how the women of Greece put an end to war by
 withholding sex until their men sign a peace treaty (call it "No Sex and the City-State"). Thus motivated, the
 men declare peace faster than you can say, "Can I buy you a drink?"

Best of all, it's a bawdy romp filled with scantily clad women, men with six-foot penises and dialogue that
 would make Dick Cheney blush! And that's the point.

"We organized this so the world would know that President Bush is not speaking for all Americans," Bowers said.
 "If we have to use humor and sex to make that point, then I say bring out the six-foot phalluses!"

Funny, that's what I always say.

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