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May
20, 2002 (Lexington, Ky.) --
The Lexington Shakespeare Festival, with special support
from the Department of Theatre in the University of
Kentucky College of Fine Arts, will present the play
"Agnes of God" June 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23 in the
Briggs Theatre of the UK Fine Arts Building.
The production
will star Kathryn Brantley Todd, daughter of UK President
and Mrs. Lee T. Todd Jr. and; Martha Campbell, a consultant
to the Shakespeare Festival, and Patricia Clark, a
drama teacher at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
in Lexington and the artistic director for the Shakespeare
Festival. Campbell and Clark were students at UK at
the same time and both hold master's degrees in theatre
from UK. Clark recently played the role of Big Mama
in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" presented in Lexington's
new Downtown Arts Center.
In "Agnes
of God," Todd plays Agnes, a nun accused of murdering
her newborn baby. Campbell plays Miriam Ruth, a Mother
Superior, and Clark plays the psychiatrist Martha
Livingstone, who was appointed by the court to determine
if Sister Agnes is insane.
The play
by John Pielmeier was first staged in 1979 at the
O'Neill Theatre in New York. Pielmeier won the 1979
Great American Play Contest for his work.
Pielmeier,
who began his career at the Actors Theatre of Louisville,
also wrote the screenplay for the film version of
"Agnes of God." Among his later writings, Pielmeier
wrote a well known television movie "Choices of the
Heart" about a slain American missionary in El Salvador.
Clark said
she and Todd began talking about presenting "Agnes
of God" when Todd was Clark's student at Dunbar High
School three years ago.
"But we
were just overwhelmed that year," Clark said. "But
we made a promise to each other to do it when she
was back in town."
James W.
Rodgers, a UK theater professor who has taught at
UK for 24 years, is directing the play.
Todd attended
Boston University where she majored in international
relations. She was a student at UK during the spring
2002 semester in order to participate in her father's
inaugural activities.
Todd began
her serious stage work in New York City at the age
of eight in the national tour of "Annie." She played
the roles of Annie and Pepper. She has made several
commercials for television for such companies as AT&T,
Bell South and Tyco. She also studied voice and dance
for many years in Lexington, California and in New
York City. At Dunbar, Todd appeared as Elizabeth Proctor
in "The Crucible" and as Annie in "Annie Get Your
Gun."
The "Agnes
of God" production also signals another new town-gown
cooperative venture between UK and Lexington, said
Derik R. Mannon, general manager of Lexington Shakespeare
Festival Inc.
The Shakespeare
Festival offers Shakespeare plays in the UK/Lexington-Fayette
Urban County Government Arboretum during the summer.
Performances
of "Agnes of God" are set for 8 p.m. each night. A
2:30 p.m. Matinee performance is set for Sunday, June
23.
Tickets
are $12 for general admission, $10 for senior citizens
and UK faculty and staff members and $8 for students
of all ages. The tickets are available from the ticket
office in the Singletary Center for the Arts, (859)
257-4929.
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