Woman Takes on Heavenly Role for the First Time in AN ACT OF GOD, Starting Tonight in AZ

God isn't happy and She (that's right....She) is coming to Arizona to set the record straight in no uncertain terms about Her thinking and Her works in Emmy-winner David Javerbaum's irreverent, sinfully funny new comedy, An Act of God.

Directed by four-time Oscar nominee and two-time Golden Globe winner Marsha Mason, the Arizona Theatre Company production plays tonight, Oct. 22, through Nov. 12 at the Temple of Music and Art, 333 S. Scott Ave. in Tucson and Nov. 17-Dec. 4 at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe in Phoenix. Arizona Theatre Company's 2016-17 season is sponsored by I. Michael and Beth Kasser.

Originally played on Broadway by Jim Parsons and Sean Hayes, God is a woman for the first time when Broadway and TV star Paige Davis arrives in Arizona with her devoted angels to answer some of the deepest questions that have plagued humankind since the Creation. Davis, who starred on Broadway as Roxie Hart in Chicago, Charity in Sweet Charity and hosted the landmark home-renovation TV show Trading Spaces takes on the heavenly role of God, the first time a woman has been cast in the role.

Director Mason was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Only When I Laugh, Chapter Two, The Goodbye Girl and Cinderella Liberty.

Javerbaum, the 13-time Emmy-winning head writer of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, also is the mastermind behind the popular Twitter account God (@TheTweetofGod) and the book, "The Last Testament: A Memoir by God."

God will be joined by two loyal angels, James Gleason (Modern Family, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd) and Max Lawrence.

Ticket prices are $25-$100 and are available in-person in Tucson at the Temple of Music and Art box office or by calling (520) 622-2823. Tickets are available in-person in Phoenix at the Herberger Theater Center, or by calling (602) 256-6995 or online for performances in both cities at www.arizonatheatre.org.

An Act of God will be followed by Fiddler on the Roof (Dec. 3-31 in Tucson, Jan. 6-29, 2017 in Phoenix).

David Javerbaum (Playwright) was the former Executive Producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His work for that program, including four years as Head Writer, has earned him 11 Emmy Awards, two additional Emmy nominations, two Peabody Awards, and Television Critics Awards for both Best Comedy and Best News Show. He was also Emmy-nominated for his work as a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman. He spent three years writing for the satirical newspaper and website The Onion. In 2011, his book The Last Testament: A Memoir by God was published by Simon & Schuster, and his affiliated Twitter account @TheTweetOfGod has over 1 million followers. Mr. Javerbaum and his frequent collaborator Adam Schlesinger have won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for their songs featured in the 2011 and 2012 Tony Awards, both performed by Neil Patrick Harris. They also received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Original Lyrics and Music for A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!. Mr. Javerbaum and Mr. Schlesinger earned a 2008 Tony Award nomination for their songs in Cry-Baby. Mr. Javerbaum is a winner of the prestigious Kleban Award for Lyrics, and was the lyricist and co-librettist of Suburb, which won the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater, as well as Best Off-Broadway Musical nominations from the Outer Critics Circle, the Lucille Lortel Awards, and the Drama League.

Marsha Mason (Director) has received Academy Award nominations for her roles in the films The Goodbye Girl, Cinderella Liberty, Only When I Laugh, and Chapter Two. She has also received two Golden Globe Awards for her roles in film. On television, her credits include The Good Wife, Madam Secretary, Grace & Frankie, the wildly popular Frasier, for which she received an Emmy Award nomination, and the biopic Life with Judy Garland. She also appears in a recurring role in the ABC hit comedy The Middle. While most well-known for her roles on film, Mason has starred in a number of Broadway productions, including Impressionism (withJeremy Irons), Steel Magnolias, The Night of the Iguana, The Good Doctor, King Richard III and Cactus Flower, as well as Off-Broadway productions of I Never Sang for My Father, A Feminine Ending, Wintertime, Amazing Grace, and Old Times. Some of Mason's regional credits include starring in Arms and the Man at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego, All's Well That Ends Well at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, American Conservatory Theatre's A Doll's House, You Can't Take it With You, The Crucible, Cyrano de Bergerac, Hecuba for Chicago Shakespeare Co and Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Neil Simon's Chapter Two, Deathtrap and Steel Magnolias at the Bucks County Playhouse. Internationally, she has performed in Prisoner of Second Avenue in London. Mason has written her memoir, Journey: A Personal Odyssey. Marsha was very proud to have served for two years on the Tony Awards Nominating Committee.

Paige Davis (God) is making her ATC debut. Broadway: Boeing-Boeing (Gloria), Chicago (Roxie Hart). National tours: Sweet Charity (Charity), Chicago (Roxie), The Vagina Monologues, Beauty and the Beast (Babette). International tour: Chicago. Regional: Senga in the world premiere of Dancing Lessons at Barrington Stage Co., and again at TheaterWorks in Hartford, Connecticut, Maria in The Sound of Music at Pittsburgh CLO, April in Company at Missouri Repertory Theater, Val in A Chorus Line at Austin Music Theater, and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Chicago Cultural Center, and many others. Cabaret: Taking a Chance. Television: Hosted a new series for the Hallmark Channel, Home and Family, and she is the Emmy Award-nominated host of Home Made Simple on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Audiences know her best as the effervescent star of Trading Spaces, TV's Emmy-nominated groundbreaking design-reality show. Ms. Davis' book, Paige by Paige, A Year of Trading Spaces, spent several weeks at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list. Paige lives in Manhattan with her husband, Patrick Page, and their adorable Maltese, Georgie. Visit www.paigedavis.com.

James Gleason (Gabriel) is making his ATC debut. Broadway: An Act of God, Guys in the Truck, The Miser. Off-Broadway: Curse of the Starving Class, The Battle for the Pentagon Papers. Los Angeles Theatre: Stuff Happens (U.S. Premiere), History of American Film (Mark Taper Forum); The Weir (Geffen Playhouse). Regional: Streamers, Speed-the-Plow, Bedroom Farce, Snoopy (Original Cast and Cast Recording), Counselor-At-Law, State of the Union, Raisin in the Sun, Broadway Bound. National and International Tours: The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (LA Theatre Works). Television: Modern Family, Men of a Certain Age, Frasier, ER, First Monday, Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Brooklyn Bridge, among others. Film: Mother, Revenge of the Nerds, The World's Greatest Lover, American Dreamz, The Warren Beatty Project. Starred in and wrote the play Actor Under Fire. Member of the Groundlings (1977-1981).

Max Lawrence (Michael) is making his ATC debut, and is a proud company member and artist educator with Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, CA. His Theatricum credits include To Kill a Mockingbird (Tom Robinson), A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Imaginary Invalid, All's Well That Ends Well, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Other notable Los Angeles area credits include The Winter's Tale (Mine Is Yours Theatre Company), Twelfth Night (A Noise Within), Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse (Lewis Family Playhouse), and Hamlet (Knightsbridge Theatre). D.C. area credits include The Neverending Story and The Borrowers (Imagination Stage). He has also appeared in numerous short films and commercials.

CREATIVE TEAM

Scenic Design: Lauren Helpern

Lighting Design: David Lee Cuthbert

Costume Design: Kish Finnegan

Sound Design: Brian Jerome Peterson

Production Stage Manager: Glenn Bruner

Tickets for An Act of God start at $25 and are subject to change depending on time, date and section, and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the box office at (520) 622-2823 in Tucson or (602) 256-6995 in Phoenix. Discounts are available for seniors and active military. A $10 student ticket pricing is now available for all performances. Half-price rush tickets are available for balcony seating for all performances one hour prior to curtain at the ATC box office (subject to availability). Pay What You Can performance is Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Tucson and Sunday Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. in Phoenix. Tickets are available for a suggested $10 donation. (Tickets must be purchased at the Temple of Music and Art or Herberger Theater Center starting one hour prior to curtain. Tickets are first-come, first served. Cash only. Two tickets maximum per person.) For discounts for groups of 10 or more, call (520) 622-2823 in Tucson or (602) 256-6995 in Phoenix.

Arizona Theatre Company offers accessibility services for patrons with disabilities for select performances. Audio Description provides patrons with vision loss a running audio description of the movement and activities onstage through an infrared broadcast system. An Audio-Described performance is offered in Tucson on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. and in Phoenix on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Thursday, Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. Interested patrons with vision loss may request a tactile tour one hour prior to curtain. American Sign Language Interpretation is presented by professional, theatrically-trained ASL-interpreters for people who have deafness or hearing impairment. An ASL-interpreted performance is offered in Tucson on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. and in Phoenix on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 4 p.m. Open captioning allows patrons to read the play's dialogue on an LED screen as the play progresses. An open captioned performance is offered in Tucson on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 2 p.m. and in Phoenix on Sunday, Nov. 27 at 6 p.m. For open-captioned or ASL-interpreted performances, patrons should request seats best suited to ASL interpretation or captioning when purchasing tickets. Large print and Braille playbills and infrared listening amplification devices are also available at every ATC performance with reservation. TTY access for the box office is available in Tucson at (520) 884-9723 or via Arizona Relay at (800) 367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).

Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) is the preeminent fully professional theatre in the state of Arizona committed to inspiring, engaging, and entertaining - one moment, one production, and one audience at a time. Boasting the largest seasonal subscriber base in the performing arts in Arizona, ATC is the only resident company in the U.S. that is fully based in two cities providing its wide array of programming and community outreach across the region. Now in its 50th season, more than 130,000 people a year attend our performances at the historic Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, and the elegant Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. Each season of home-grown productions reflects the rich variety of world drama-from classics to contemporary plays, from musicals to new works-along with a wide array of community outreach programs, educational opportunities, access initiatives and new play programs. Designated The State Theatre of Arizona, ATC is led by Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein and a dedicated Board of Trustees.