Health and art will collide with a new all-women showcase serving up song, prose and comedy on a subject women in their 30s to 50s can appreciate: perimenopause.
Perimenopause is a sneaky, hormonal and often nuanced transitional phase all women go through with varying degrees of difficulty. And a new theatrical experience called “Pass the Mic for Perimenopause” is coming to remind women they are not alone in their health journeys.
The show takes place on Oct. 14 at Pure Theatre, 134 Cannon St. After nearly selling out the 7 p.m. production, a second performance at 8:30 p.m. was recently added.
Audience members at the “Midlife Monologues” showcase last year at Charleston Music Hall. The show’s creator is back with a new concept called “Pass the Mic for Perimenopause.”
That evening there also will be a special gallery installation from Meyer Vogl Gallery and Redux Contemporary Art Center highlighting artists whose works express a woman’s journey.
A cast of 15 authors, actors, comedians and musicians will take the stage that night, including New York City comedian and podcaster Casey Balsham, comedian and creator of “Funny Women of a Certain Age” Carole Montgomery, and award-winning author Mary Laura Philpott.
An array of Charleston women round out the cast, including singer-songwriters Kanika Moore, Jenna Desmond and Zandrina Dunning, as well as memoirist Jaclyn Michelle Smith, and novelists Gervais Hagerty and Melissa Falcon Field.
“Pass the Mic for Perimenopause” comes from the mind of award-winning essayist Kerri Devine, who founded the midlife community Hot in Charleston and partnered with Pure Theatre in 2023 to produce the speaker series “Midlife Monologues.”
“Pass the Mic for Perimenopause” comes from the mind of essayist Kerri Devine, who founded the midlife community Hot in Charleston and partnered with Pure Theatre in 2023 to produce the speaker series “Midlife Monologues” — a multi-genre showcase about the arc of a woman’s life.
Now, Devine is back with another ensemble of women discussing everything from motherhood and the consuming search for perfection to finding new rhythms with aging.
“It’s been a perfect storm which women have been drowning in for decades, and finally I believe our generation is changing that,” Devine said.
The showcase will hone in on the emotional and relational changes and challenges that affect women who are in the physical and emotional onslaught of perimenopause, meeting life’s inevitable ruptures like divorce, the empty nest and aging parents.
“Our whole generation of women in midlife are taking up the mantle,” Devine said. “This is our bully pulpit. These showcases are proving the power of storytelling as medicine.”
The timely performances take place on World Menopause Day, on the heels of Perimenopause Awareness Month (September).
In March 2025, “Midlife Monologues” came to the Charleston Music Hall as a multi-genre showcase on the arc of a woman’s life featuring a 21-woman cast. Now, the show’s creator is back with another ensemble of women discussing the challenges of perimenopause.
“There is a tremendous power in seeing your life reflected in other people’s stories, whether it’s a neighbor or one of America’s best poets,” Devine said. “We can build tremendous amounts of empathy and understanding within our families and communities by sharing these stories.”
After performing in “Midlife Monologues” last spring, Charleston vocalist Tonya Nicole will take the stage as a cast member of “Pass the Mic for Perimenopause” in addition to serving as music director behind-the-scenes.
“These gatherings remind me I’m not losing my mind,” Nicole said. “For so long no one really talked about what happens when you hit your 40s, so I had no idea what was coming my way.
“That’s why I love events like this,” she continued. “Women of all ages get to come together to laugh, cry, swap stories and celebrate this wild, beautiful rollercoaster ride we’re all on.”
This show, Devine added, is for the next generation of women who deserve to be empowered with the knowledge of what’s coming and the confidence to meet it.