“Agnes of God” ran from Feb. 18 through 22 in the Center for the Arts Theatre featuring the talent of Rachael Lester, Emily Cooksey and Emma Wilson under the direction of David Schuler.
“[The play is] a story about an argument between science and religion where the prize is Agnes,” Schuler said. “It’s also a feminine story; three women who are thrown together in this awful situation and it forces each of them to reexamine their connection to the Catholic faith.”
According to the director’s notes; John Pielmeier, author of the play drew his inspiration from the true events that happened in Rochester, New York in April of 1976 when a nun was accused of murdering a baby. Pielmeier’s story follows Dr. Martha Livingstone, played by Lester, a junior business major, who was court assigned to examine Agnes. Agnes, played by Wilson, a sophomore theater major, was a young nun who was accused of murdering her newborn baby. The final character was Mother Miriam Ruth, played by Cooksey, a senior psychology major, looking after Agnes’ case.
Dr. Martha Livingstone was a chain smoker and had strong negative views of the Roman Catholic Church. Lester said that the most stressful part was smoking “cigarettes.” After the cast list was announced she started smoking herbal cigarettes to get used to them and to help her connect with her character.
Agnes was a young nun who was being examined to determine if she was mentally able to handle a trial. The character had a rough childhood with an abusive, alcoholic mother. She denied being the mother of the baby but through hypnosis treatments, the truth came out. Wilson said that the birthing scene had the most difficult lines to memorize because they were fast, back and forth lines. The scene occurred while Agnes was under hypnosis and she was reliving the birth of the baby, screaming lines about the pain and God.
Some rehearsals were stressful on the actresses.
“Agnes had so much going on with her,” Wilson said.  “One minute I’m singing, the next minute I’m screaming, and the next minute I’m bleeding.”
Mother Miriam Ruth was the Mother Superior at the convent housing Agnes. The character was very protective of Agnes because she didn’t believe that Agnes needed the examination, all she needed was to be back at the convent with her faith and God. Cooksey, a psychology major, said she sided with the doctor more because she recognized the different conditions Agnes had.
After reading through the story for the first time Cooksey said the play was “going to be a ride.”
“It was really hard because she was a 50 year old woman who was divorced and whose children won’t talk to her and she’s a nun,” Cooksey said. “I had to do a lot of searching on how I could find ways to connect with her.”
The story ended with Dr. Livingston in her office reflecting on the experience. She said that Mother Ruth went back to the convent and left Agnes to go through with the trial. At the trials conclusion, Agnes was sent to a hospital for the mentally ill where she stopped singing and died shortly after. As for Livingston, she went on with her career.