ONLINE PROGRAM
City on a Hill Arts presents a Staged Reading
Agnes of God
by John Pielmeier
CAST
Doctor Martha Livingstone - Bethany Johnson
Mother Miriam Ruth - Debbie Moylan
Agnes - Avery Columbus
CREW
Producer: Debbie Moylan
Director: Lorien Corbelletti
Costumes: Actors Wardrobe, Fitchburg, MA
Sound Recording and Mixing: Yeti (@prodyeti) and PhiVDice (@phivdicemusic)
Graphic Designer/Headshot Photographer: Bethany Johnson
Front-of-House Team: Tom Moylan, David Allen Prescott
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Congregation Agudat Achim
Doctor Martha Livingstone - Bethany Johnson
Mother Miriam Ruth - Debbie Moylan
Agnes - Avery Columbus
CREW
Producer: Debbie Moylan
Director: Lorien Corbelletti
Costumes: Actors Wardrobe, Fitchburg, MA
Sound Recording and Mixing: Yeti (@prodyeti) and PhiVDice (@phivdicemusic)
Graphic Designer/Headshot Photographer: Bethany Johnson
Front-of-House Team: Tom Moylan, David Allen Prescott
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Congregation Agudat Achim
AGNES OF GOD is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. (www.concordtheatricals.org)
THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR’S RIGHTS, AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: www.concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists.
THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR’S RIGHTS, AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: www.concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists.
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This production is supported in part by a grant from the Lancaster Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. It is also made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities through the Ashby Free Public Library.
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About City on a Hill Arts
City on a Hill Arts produces works of art that explore the intersection of faith, spirituality, and culture, fostering in each of us a more just and loving response. We are a community-focused, multidisciplinary group of artists who seek to foster critical engagement with our culture, inspire compassion and mutual understanding between all people, and share messages of hope.
Since 2015, City on a Hill Arts has been presenting theatrical productions across North Central Massachusetts, including Leominster, Fitchburg, Gardner, Ashburnham, Townsend, and Ashby. Since 2025, we have been in residence at Congregation Agudat Achim in Leominster. Check out our Past Shows page for information and photos from our history so far!
To ensure that all members of our local and regional community have access to our programming without an economic barrier, City on a Hill Arts never charges ticket prices for admission to our events. Instead, we invite audiences to join us free of charge, and we accept donations from anyone who has the means to offer support to our organization.
Since 2015, City on a Hill Arts has been presenting theatrical productions across North Central Massachusetts, including Leominster, Fitchburg, Gardner, Ashburnham, Townsend, and Ashby. Since 2025, we have been in residence at Congregation Agudat Achim in Leominster. Check out our Past Shows page for information and photos from our history so far!
To ensure that all members of our local and regional community have access to our programming without an economic barrier, City on a Hill Arts never charges ticket prices for admission to our events. Instead, we invite audiences to join us free of charge, and we accept donations from anyone who has the means to offer support to our organization.
Our Board
Debbie Moylan, Founder and President
Bethany Johnson
Sarah Arel, Treasurer
David Allen Prescott
Elsa Guerra
Bethany Johnson
Sarah Arel, Treasurer
David Allen Prescott
Elsa Guerra
About the Playwright
JOHN PIELMEIER is an actor and writer who began his career with the internationally acclaimed play and movie Agnes of God. Since then he has had three more plays mounted on Broadway and over 25 film, television movies and miniseries produced. Most recently he has written and acted in the internationally successful limited series The Pillars of the Earth(named the 5th Best Miniseries of All Time!) and premiered his stage adaptation of The Exorcist in London’s West End prior to its New York opening in 2019. His first novel, Hook’s Tale, has recently been published by Scribner to wonderful reviews and he is currently adapting it as a one-person show for the stage.
He has received the Humanitas Award (plus two nominations), five Writers’ Guild Award nominations, a Gemini nomination, an Edgar Award, the Camie Award, a Christopher Award, and his projects have won a Gemini Award and been nominated for the Emmy Award (three times) and the Golden Globe Award. He is married to writer Irene O’Garden and makes his home in upstate New York. If you want to know more, please visit his website: johnpielmeier.com.
He has received the Humanitas Award (plus two nominations), five Writers’ Guild Award nominations, a Gemini nomination, an Edgar Award, the Camie Award, a Christopher Award, and his projects have won a Gemini Award and been nominated for the Emmy Award (three times) and the Golden Globe Award. He is married to writer Irene O’Garden and makes his home in upstate New York. If you want to know more, please visit his website: johnpielmeier.com.
The Backstory of Agnes of God (courtesy of John Pielmeier)
Amanda Plummer as Agnes, NY, 1982
I had been writing for several years, not taking it seriously and supporting myself by my acting work, when I got an acting job at the 1977 Eugene O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference. I was so swept away by the work done there that I returned to New York City determined to go back to the O’Neill as a playwright. I wrote a play which made the semi-finals but not the final cut for the summer of ’78, and during that summer I did most of the initial work on Agnes. For a good while I had been looking for an idea upon which to hang a play about questions of faith – looking, essentially, for a plot clothesline. About a year earlier I had seen a headline in the Post or the News shouting “Nun Kills Baby!” I didn’t read the actual story, but something like nine months later I woke up in the middle of the night with an “Aha!” moment. The title was obvious – a bad liturgical pun – and the cast was kept to a minimum because I felt small, simple plays worked best at the O’Neill. I wanted to challenge myself to write full, rich women’s roles, and so the psychiatrist, who at first thought was a man, became a woman. I submitted the play to the O’Neill, as well as to Jon Jory at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where I had worked a lot as an actor.
On May 1, 1979, I got a call from my wife while I was visiting my sister in Florida – I had received a telegram informing me that my play had been accepted for the 1979 O’Neill Conference. At that moment I knew my life had changed. The play was workshopped at the O’Neill (Dianne Weist played the title role) and subsequently received an amateur production in Kingston, Jamaica, a production I went to see a week after my father passed away in October. Jon Jory, in the meantime, accepted the play for the 1980 Humana Festival, where it premiered professionally. As a result of that production, the play received something like six regional productions the following year, although no New York producers saw it in Louisville.
The second of these regional productions, at Center Stage in Baltimore, was attended by many producers, and I was put in the enviable position of having to choose between six offers for a New York production. I chose correctly, and Ken Waissman produced the play, opening it at the Music Box Theatre on March 31, 1982. It received rather mixed reviews (I have never been a darling of the critics, to put it mildly) but word-of-mouth spread, and once Amanda Plummer won a Tony for her performance, its future was assured.
On May 1, 1979, I got a call from my wife while I was visiting my sister in Florida – I had received a telegram informing me that my play had been accepted for the 1979 O’Neill Conference. At that moment I knew my life had changed. The play was workshopped at the O’Neill (Dianne Weist played the title role) and subsequently received an amateur production in Kingston, Jamaica, a production I went to see a week after my father passed away in October. Jon Jory, in the meantime, accepted the play for the 1980 Humana Festival, where it premiered professionally. As a result of that production, the play received something like six regional productions the following year, although no New York producers saw it in Louisville.
The second of these regional productions, at Center Stage in Baltimore, was attended by many producers, and I was put in the enviable position of having to choose between six offers for a New York production. I chose correctly, and Ken Waissman produced the play, opening it at the Music Box Theatre on March 31, 1982. It received rather mixed reviews (I have never been a darling of the critics, to put it mildly) but word-of-mouth spread, and once Amanda Plummer won a Tony for her performance, its future was assured.
Meet the Cast and Director
AVERY COLUMBUS (Agnes) is thrilled to perform with City on a Hill Arts again. Previously, Avery was a part of the featured ensemble in City on a Hill’s production of Wit, she played Simon in Lord of the Flies, assisted directed for The Secretary, and received an EMACT DASH Award as Best Youth Performer in a Play or Musical for her performance as Anne Frank in City on a Hill’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Currently, Avery attends Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina as a Health Sciences major. Avery is grateful for the City on a Hill family!
BETHANY JOHNSON (Doctor) has been directing, producing, and performing for more than 25 years. Most recently, she directed Wit with City on a Hill Arts and previously appeared in An Act of God. Bethany has performed with City on a Hill Arts, Theatre at the Mount, and New Players Theatre Guild. She is a proud member of the City on a Hill Arts Board and passionately supports its mission of bringing accessible, meaningful, soul-inspiring theatre to all. Bethany would like to thank her greatest loves — Bob, Bella, and Dante — for always supporting her wonderfully chaotic schedule.
DEBBIE MOYLAN (Mother) has been on both sides of the stage, from director to actor. She played Vivian Bearing in Wit last winter, directed right before I go, had some crazy fun as an angel in An Act of God, directed The Crucible, and appeared as Sr. Aloysius in Doubt. She has also appeared in productions locally with Theatre at the Mount and New Players Theatre Guild. She is committed to the economic mission of City on a Hill and hopes that many theatre companies will find ways to make the arts more economically accessible. Debbie is a pastor and author in addition to a theatre artist. She is grateful to her hubby Tom, who supports her many exploits far and wide.
LORIEN CORBELLETTI (Director) returns to City On A Hill for the first time as a director. She has previously been seen onstage in Wit, The Secretary, right before i go, and The Crucible. She is thankful for the opportunity and the patience from her cast as she directs a staged reading for the first time!
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