She will write and perform an entire production alone, weaving 15 different characters into the same play. And, yes, she applies a unique posture, attitude and speech to each of those characters. But Sarah Jones does not have multiple personality disorder. She just knows how to listen.

A Tony and Obie-award winning playwright, Ms. Jones has been listening her whole life. She was raised in Queens, N.Y., where cultures from around the globe mingled. Her family is a mix of African, Caribbean, Irish and German descents. She attended the United Nations School in New York and then went to school in Pennsylvania, where she continued to befriend people of all different backgrounds. And Ms. Jones made sure to listen to each person she encountered.

“Acting is just listening. I just practice imitating what I hear,” she said during a conversation at the Vineyard Arts Project in Edgartown where she was taking a break from rehearsing for her one person show Sell/Buy/Date. The show will be performed by Ms. Jones on Wednesday, July 6.

Ms. Jones did not reveal much more about the play than to say she plays the roles of 15 characters, each with different accents, different stories and different personalities. Though the play focuses on the sex industry, she ensures that it is appropriate for all ages, because it is really about broader topics.

“This show is actually about women’s empowerment, sexuality and how we think about ourselves,” she said. “It’s a delicate conversation, but I think it’s one we ought to have, and we should have it with humor. When we get together in a theatre and laugh and think and feel the emotions that are underneath all these statistics and topics, when we get to the human reality of it, it can be a great start to a conversation.”

It is not the first conversation that Ms. Jones has started.

In 2005, she made her Broadway debut with a one-woman production called Bridge and Tunnel. That show was inspired by the many different characters she encountered on the streets of New York city. She has since performed at the White House and starred in three TED Talks, one of which is an early excerpt of Sell/Buy/Date. Just a few weeks ago she worked with designers Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, Tory Burch and others in a comedic short film for the CFDA Fashion Awards.

Ms. Jones considers herself an activist in addition to being a playwright and actress, and said she is hopeful about our current age. She even feels a shift in the direction of collaboration.

“We are at a moment in our country that is an opportunity like nothing I’ve seen in my lifetime,” she said. “We have people from all different backgrounds, and more traditional Americans partnering with new Americans on everything from businesses to improving communities.”

Ms. Jones said she feels embracing cultural diversity is a key to finding individual happiness.

“I want people to feel how much more they have in common with everyone else,” she said. “Underneath differences we’re all human, we all want to do the best that we can and be useful while we’re here.”

“We’re all culturally a salad bowl,” she added. “I love that I see so much more similarity between myself and others than I see differences, and that’s really important at a time like this.”

Sarah Jones will perform her one-woman show Sell/Buy/Date on Wednesday, July 6, at 7 p.m. at the Vineyard Arts Project, located at 215 Upper Main street, Edgartown. Tickets are sold at vineyardartsproject.org or at the door.