Since its inception, Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center has transformed the ancient tradition of the ritual bath. Founded in 2001 and opened to the public in 2004, the center offers a full program of seminars, classes, meetings, art exhibits and community events, in addition to mikveh immersion. Mayyim Hayyim also encourages innovative immersion for reasons beyond the traditional conversion, pre-marriage and monthly niddah, such as for healing following illness or loss, or celebrating milestones. An in-house art gallery is currently showing “Everything Begins in the Water,” which features 23 New England artists.

Administrators, however, believe it is the participants themselves who deserve recognition. Last year, the play The Mikveh Monologues staged some of their fascinating stories to sold-out acclaim. Following this success, Mayyim Hayyim premiered The Mikveh Monologues II on Sunday at Temple Emmanuel in Newton.

The event, which featured a lavish chocolate and champagne reception and a silent auction juried by Judi Rotenberg and Abigail Ross, marked the center’s second anniversary. Program Director Kathy Bloomfield, Education Center Coordinator Lisa Berman and other Mayyim Hayyim staff kept every aspect flowing as smoothly as the chocolate fountain and the bubbling beverages. The play, witten by Mayyim Hayyim founder and author Anita Diamant and writer and director Janet Buchwald, showcased all-new stories, movingly set to life by a slate of accomplished actors who included Annette Miller, David Brezniak, Judith Black, Sheree Galpert, Yolanda Shoshana, Peri Smilow and Shira Kline. Original music, performed by music director Josh Nelson, Shira Kline, Marjorie Sokoll, Cantor Louise Treitman and other musicians, accompanied the production, both as segues between monologues and full-length performance pieces.

Community leaders and Mayyim Hayyim supporters Suzanne Offit, Marjorie and Rabbi Mark Sokoll and Rabbi Henry A. Zoob, who have all immersed, were also honored. “Because of their ceaseless commitment to this organization, more than 1300 people have been able to mark personal life transitions at Mayyim Hayyim,“ said event co-chair Beth Tishler.

Planning for the comprehensive event began a year ago on March 21, the day after The Mikveh Monologues I, explained Mayyim Hayyim Executive Director Aliza Kline. Diamant and Buchwald, as before, interviewed men, women and children who had immersed, and developed the interviews into monologues. Nelson began collecting new, appropriate music following the 2005 production as well. They, as well as the cast, have donated their efforts.

Kline explained that the stories represent only a fraction of those who have come through the mikveh’s doors, and said that the contributors are kept anonymous. “We have a database full of the people who have immersed and their reasons for immersion,“ she said. “This information remains private, and we also ask each person if he or she is willing to be interviewed before Anita or Janet makes the approach.” The ten characters portrayed on Sunday were all Jewish, or immersed as the last step before conversion. They were gay, straight, male and female and of varied religious denominations. The cast was also diverse: white, black, gay, young, older. And the situations varied widely: “One story includes a family whose three adopted children all immersed,” said Kline. “Another is of a 12 year-old girl who immersed prior to her Bat Mitzvah. There is another of a woman immersing for her 60th birthday and another of a man immersing to mark successful treatment of prostate cancer.“

“The experiences are at once so different,“ said Buchwald, “but also so similar, in the way they point out what a transformative and affirming experience immersion can be.”

Best-selling novelist Diamant said that the project allowed her to try a new format. “I've always wanted to attempt to write for the stage,“ she said, noting that it was profoundly satisfying to tell the stories, especially within the immediacy of live theatre. “The audience reaction - laughter, tears - often comes when the writer doesn't expect it,“ she said. Diamant also lauded the collaborative effort of working with Buchwald, Nelson and the cast.

Where Diamant’s apparent forte has been fiction based on nonfiction, this project is wholly nonfiction. But she says that it’s not a departure, because for many years, she was also a journalist. “Mikveh Monologues permits me to use my skills as a reporter,” she said, recalling her work for the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, New England Monthly, the Boston Phoenix and national magazines. “So interviewing people and shaping their stories is quite familiar to me,“ she said. A few of the stories, she said, were drafted by the "immerses." “Editing those is also a skill I know from journalism, but it requires a different eye for the stage,” she said.

“The writing process became an attempt to channel their voices and bring the stories to life for an audience,” said Buchwald. “Then, as director,” she said, “I was able to watch as talented actors re-ignited the stories with their own sparks.”

“This is a very exciting time for the community and for Mayyim Hayyim,“ said Judy Chudnofsky, co-chair of The Mikveh Monologues II host committee, and Mayyim Hayyim campaign chair.

Diamant and Buchwald plan to continue collecting stories as they work toward a theatrical production which may be taken on the road, said Kline. Diamant concurred: the versions presented thus far are both staged readings of a work-in-progress, she said. “I have always envisioned Mikveh Monologues as a fully produced play, someday, complete with lighting, sets, costumes, music and…water."