The final production of Renegade Theatre Experiment's 2005-06 season is also the world premiere of the play written by Erica Hemenway. It opens Feb. 2 at Historic Hoover Theatre.

Whitney Quinn Stebbins, a founding member of Renegade and director of this production, says the five women "are in purgatory, and the only way they can move on to whatever is next, which is undefined, is they have to go through a journey together from self-deception to truth.

"Each has to deal with their own 'crimes' in life in order to be able to move on. It's about their journey as individuals and as a collective of the five of them together."

The script "really piqued my interest," Stebbins says.

She submitted her concepts for directing it to Sean Murphy, Renegade's artistic director, and landed the assignment.

The five women in the play, as well as the male narrator, are all making their debuts with the company.

While three of the characters are black, Stebbins says racial issues are not a theme.

"We find out that the more prominent theme is sexuality," she says. "Each of them is there based on a sexual crime."

Hemenway, the Monterey playwright, says the roots of Waiting to Dance started while she was taking classes at the American Musical and Dramatics Academy in New York in 1998.

As an acting class exercise, Hemenway had to choose a character and assume her identity for a day, interacting with others.

"I chose a character from one of my short stories--Janis. She's an intense, hard kind of person. She's not what I am at all, and I wanted to see if I could pull it off," Hemenway recalls.

"It was a great experience, so I started looking at other stories I'd written and finding main female characters and thinking what would happen if all these characters met?

"Their stories and personalities are all very different. Who would get along with whom? Who would try and start a fight? What would happen?"

Hemenway says she knew she had to construct a situation where characters couldn't simply walk away.

"Janis wouldn't stick around," she says.

So purgatory became the locale.

Waiting to Dance is the second of Hemenway's plays to be produced.

Her senior thesis at Cal State Monterey Bay, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 2004, was The Tale of Tam.

Hemenway produced and directed the full-length children's play that she describes as a Vietnamese version of Cinderella.

While Hemenway attended the auditions for Waiting to Dance and regularly exchanges emails with Stebbins, she hasn't attended any of the rehearsals.

"I've been so closely involved through the evolution of this, I was interested in stepping away and letting it blossom and bloom on its own," Hemenway says.

However, she says, "I'm definitely heading up to see it."

Stebbins says directing the production has been "very exciting.

"We have a unique opportunity in casting a show for the first time with absolutely no foundation. Most shows have been done 100 times before and you know what's successful, so this is a unique opportunity."

As for audience appeal, Stebbins says the play "fits the Renegade vision and falls into our mission statement to further exposure for new and local playwrights."

Describing the play as "a pretty intense journey," Stebbins says, "every woman is going to relate to these five characters in one way or another because they have distinct humanity. Everyone is faulted in one way or another, but Erica has done a wonderful job of keeping them human and connected."

Renegade Theatre Experiment's production of "Waiting to Dance" opens on Feb. 2 at Historic Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave. Performances are Feb. 3-5, 9-12 and 16-18 at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $18 general admission and $13 for students, educators and seniors on Thursday and Sundays. Friday and Saturday performances are $20 general and $15 for students, educators and seniors. Tickets are sold online at www.renegadetheatre.com and at the door.