It’s Women’s Turn to Be or Not to Be : Theater: This Shakespeare company is breaking new ground--and bringing affirmative action to the state of Denmark--by having females play all the roles.

Laurel Moglen is happy to play the role of a man--Guildenstern--in the Women’s Shakespeare Company’s production of “Hamlet,” which opened Wednesday at Gascon Center Theatre in Culver City. But she was having a hard time explaining the situation to her rear end.

Whereas Moglen was quite comfortable immersing herself in a male role, “trying not to have a butt and hips” presented quite another problem. At a recent dress rehearsal for the show, every time she took a manly leap onto the stage, her bottom insisted on reverting to its habitual feminine sway on the way up.

Such peculiar challenges are common in the 3-year-old Women’s Shakespeare Company, says artistic director Lisa Wolpe, who is co-director of “Hamlet” with Natsuko Ohama, and alternates with Ohama in the title role of the play, which runs through May 28.

“There are just things specific to our process that might not come up elsewhere,” Wolpe said--with massive understatement--in a recent pre-rehearsal conversation at the Gascon Center Theatre, in Culver City’s historic Helms Bakery building on Washington Boulevard.

She was joined by Ohama, who said that sometimes an actress can have a sterling “male” performance rendered unbelievable by one moment of too-feminine physicality. “We work on things like how you are seated, and how you hold a sword,” Ohama said. “And sometimes we say: ‘You just turned into a girl !’ ”

In Shakespeare’s day, all stage roles, male and female, were played by men. In the 1990s, the Women’s Shakespeare Company has turned the tables by having roles of both genders played by women. Although some Shakespeare productions have had female Hamlets--in the tradition of having women portray young men and boys like Peter Pan--this company breaks new ground by having women assume all the roles (lighting and sets are also designed by women).

And it’s not just a one-time stunt, Wolpe said. “We are dedicated to preserving that, and we are going to continue to do that--so women will know there is one company that exists where they can actually get a stretch.”

Wolpe said she founded the company based on a longtime passion for Shakespeare, and “of what Shakespeare wrote, the greater roles go to the men. Most of the women’s roles are of the victim.”

Wolpe said that the actresses are not attempting to be male impersonators; nor, however, are they trying to turn male characters into women.

“No matter what your skill level is, it will challenge you . . . you just have to stand quietly and let the strength of a male presence, or the authority of a soldier, pass through you. It is a rather unique opportunity.”

Wolpe and Ohama say the task is easier with Shakespeare than contemporary drama.

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“So much has been done with Shakespeare, there is sort of an acceptance level, you can do almost anything,” Ohama said. “With Tennessee Williams it might seem more strange--a woman playing Stanley Kowalski (in “Streetcar Named Desire”)? But Shakespeare is universal.”

And, added Wolpe, Shakespeare’s men exhibit qualities that might be considered feminine in this era. “Shakespeare is so expressive; all the men speak so voluminously about their feelings and thoughts,” she said. “Now, things are much more terse . . . the Clint Eastwood style of being a man--the clenched jaw, the long-suffering quality, the external strength and the emotional passivity . . . it doesn’t really serve you to play Shakespeare that way.”

While Wolpe said the performers opt for seeming too feminine over becoming macho cartoons, she added: “If you go to a level of vulnerability that results in tears . . . or if a hug reads strangely, we cut the hug. We are not interested in doing a scene where father-son looks like mother-daughter--just shake hands and go . It’s not about fear, either--it’s about, ‘Oh, that reads as two women, how can we change that?’ ”

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They do not, however, cut or alter romantic scenes, and have done a successful production of “Romeo and Juliet.” “A lot of the love poetry is said over the expanse of balconies, there’s the actual distance there,” Wolpe said. “It’s not like the modern love story where you get naked over the sink. . . . It is a passionate revelation of self that is accessible to anybody who is listening.”

And when it doesn’t happen over a balcony, and maybe even involves a kiss? “On an individual basis for an actress, coming to this work, I think it’s awkward, because it breaks a lot of taboos,” Wolpe said. “But on a basic level, it’s absolutely accessible, and all the more of a miracle when you achieve it, and an audience gets it.”

Are the women who end up with women’s roles disappointed--say, when cast as wistful Ophelia instead of brooding Prince Hamlet? New cast members feel differently than Women’s Shakespeare veterans, the two Hamlets said. “(New cast members) say, ‘Oh, Ophelia, what a great role’--because we are trained to think that is a great role,” Ohama said. “But when you have worked in this way, you say: ‘I would never want to play Ophelia again.’ ”

* “Hamlet” continues through May 28 at the Gascon Center Theatre, 8735 Washington Blvd., Culver City. 8 p.m . Wed.-Sat.; Sun. 7 p.m. Tickets $15; April 23 is Shakespeare’s 431st Birthday Bash gala and benefit ($50). Information: (213) 466-1767.