Academy Theatre Presents AGNES OF GOD

Academy Theatre's leading ladies Fracena Byrd, Brenda Porter, and Lynna Schmidt are teaming up to bring a powerful story to the stage! With Fracena Byrd in the director's chair, Porter and Schmidt are taking to the stage, joined by Sarah Craig!

Agnes (Sarah Craig), a young nun, has given birth in a convent. Agnes claims no memory or knowledge of the event. Her mother superior, Mother Miriam Ruth (Lynna Schmidt), insists that Agnes does not understand what happened. Dr. Martha Livingstone (Brenda Porter), the court-appointed psychiatrist, wants to discover the truth of the matter hidden behind Agnes's veiled and cloistered mind. A psychological war ensues between Dr. Livingstone and Mother Miriam Ruth over Agnes's mental and spiritual health, and the play becomes a collection of contrasts between science and religion, between the temporal and spiritual, and between facts and faith.

"There is an intense human longing to believe in something more than ourselves," says director Fracena Byrd. "C.S. Lewis wrote of a God-shaped hole in the human heart. This play puts a magnifying glass on that longing. At the same time, it looks at how we can be led astray by even the best of intentions." Fracena has been onstage under Brenda Porter's direction in Yellowman, with Lynna Schmidt in Steel Magnolias and Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, and she has also directed for Academy's Tapas festival of short plays.

Academy Theatre's Artistic Director Robert Drake adds, "Ms. Porter and Ms. Schmidt are both terrific actresses, but together their explosive! Under Ms. Byrd's most sincere and expert direction, the audience is in for a barn burner of a show!"

The late actress Anne Bancroft played the Mother Superior in the 1985 film version. "I would like people who believe in God to think again, Bancroft said. "And people who don't believe in God to think again."

Tickets: $25 at the door, $20 at http://agnesofgod.bpt.me

For more information please call the Academy Theatre at 404-474-8332 or visit www.academytheatre.org

The Academy Theatre is supported by generous gifts from foundations, corporations, and individuals. This program is supported in part by Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding for this program is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. The City of Hapeville and the Academy Theatre have entered into a public / private partnership to serve the citizens of Hapeville. The City of Hapeville is the official sponsor of the Academy Theatre's programming in Hapeville.

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