LTGI’s ‘Agnes of God’ Now Showing at TAMIU

Laredo Theatre Guild International (LTGI,) in cooperation with Texas A&M International University, presents John Pielmeier's gripping murder mystery at the TAMIU Center for the Fine and Performing Arts' Sam Johnson Experimental Theatre this weekend.

Shows are scheduled Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 3 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission and $10 for students with valid ID and senior citizens. Advance tickets can be purchased at the TAMIU Bookstore; Foster's, located at 1202 Del Mar Boulevard, Suite 101; Blue Top, located at 101 Hillside Road, No. 11 and at the box office prior to each show.

Agnes of God  is directed by Vernon Carroll, stage managed by Laurence Wensel, and produced by Linda L. Howland.  It is the second play in LTGI's second season and its first to be presented in the 100-seat intimate venue.

Director Carroll said the setting affords a special theatre experience.

"This wonderful and important theater space lets us grab the audience by the throat, metaphorically speaking only, of course," Carroll explained.  "I have played in this venue as an actor (in 2008's The Best Man,) and directed (2009's Doubt) in it. The actors are at times mere feet from the audience, and we are so close to them they can hear, see, and feel every nuance and thought that we have, as we do it.  It is a special way to experience theater for everyone," he noted.

Agnes of God features a trio of very different women thrown together in circumstances that challenge their individual perceptions and beliefs. Portraying Doctor Martha Livingstone will be Carllyn Walker. Dee Dee Diaz is cast as the Mother Superior while Mara Lorena Lopez, making her LTGI debut,  is cast in the title role as the enigmatic and ethereal Agnes.”

The drama focuses on the tensions that evolve as court psychiatrist Doctor Martha Livingstone explores the murder of a newborn believed committed by the mother, Agnes, a young novice nun who insists that the birth was the result of a virgin conception. Doctor Livingstone, assigned to determine Agnes' sanity, runs into strong and curious conflict from Mother Miriam Ruth, the Mother Superior of the convent. Is Agnes a murderer, guilty of infanticide? Is she a victim? Or is she something else entirely?

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