It's the dawn of patriarchy. It's the beginning of monotheism. Luminous Genesis retells Genesis 18-21, revisiting the troubled household of Sarah, Abraham, and Hagar, along with some invented additions, like Ash Pash, Abraham's first wife, and Sinus, a time traveller from the contemporary Upper West Side. Circumcision is discovered, miracles unfold, and Sodom and Gomorrah burn through a long night of wonders.
Luminous Genesis, the newest work by playwright Monica Raymond, was selected as a 2025 Jewish Plays Project semifinalist, and now you can see a staged reading at The Vilna. Starring Annette Miller, the reading will be followed by dessert and discussion.
Come early when doors open to see our current gallery exhibit, American Chutzpah.
Read time: 2 hours
Doors Open: 6:30 PM
Reading: 7:00 PM
Dessert & Conversation: 9:00 PM
Monica Raymond
Monica Raymond is a poet, playwright and theater artist who has taught writing and interdisciplinary arts at CUNY, Harvard, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Born and raised on the upper West Side of Manhattan, she graduated from the University of Chicago, taught second grade in Harlem, studied literature at Columbia and holds an MFA in Theater/Playwriting from Smith. She’s had over 70 staged readings and productions of her work, and received recognition from the Jerome Foundation, the Mass Cultural Council, O’Neill Playwrights Conference and the MacDowell Colony. THE OWL GIRL, a magical realist play about two families in the Middle East who both have keys to the same house and attempt to live in it together, was a Jewish Plays Project finalist, and received the Clauder Gold Medal, the Castillo Theater Award for Political Playwriting, and the Peacewriting Award. Other full-length plays include TOWN MEETING, a surreal look at climate change in a coastal New England city; FOUR RIFFS FOR A SAILOR, the Odyssey told through the voices of four women in it; and A TO Z, which follows two women through forty years of US history and all the letters of the alphabet. Her most recent short play, REMEMBRANCE, was featured at the RiffRaff Festival in NYC.
Annette Miller
Annette Miller has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in Boston, Regional Theaters, and in Film and Television. She has been a leading actor at Shakespeare and Co for 20 seasons. She received the 2024 Elliot Norton special citation Award from the Boston Theater Critics Association for a legacy of defining performances of strong women, and was acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as best actor of the 2020 season in regional theater for her performance as Gladys Green in Waverly Gallery. She received the 2018 Berkshire Theater Critic’s Association Award For Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Katherine in “Mothers and Sons”. Annette originated the role of Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony before it went to Broadway for which she received both Boston’s Elliot Norton Best Actor Award and the Independent Reviewers of New England Best Actor Award. In Florida, she received the Carbonell Best Actor Award nomination for her portrayal of Vi in “August Osage County” and the Elliot Norton Best Actor Nomination for her role as Martha Mitchell in “Martha Mitchell Calling.” On TV, Annette had a recurring role on As The World Turns and Ryan’s Hope. She is an Affiliate Scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center where she wrote “Now is Our Time,” a theatrical collage on the pleasures and perils of our third chapter.
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