HAND TO GOD Opens at Phoenix Theatre Today

Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis opens the Regional Premiere of HAND TO GOD today, June 16, 2016 on the Livia and Steve Russell Stage. This production runs through July 17, with Mark Routhier serving as director. Phoenix Theatre will produce the first U.S. production outside New York.

Winner of the 2014 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Play and a critical hit on Broadway, this Tony Award nominee follows shy student Jason as he discovers an outlet for his burgeoning creativity at the Christian Puppet Ministry...until his hand puppet Tyrone -- once soft-spoken -- takes on a shockingly irreverent and dangerous personality all its own. As Tyrone's influence over Jason grows, HAND TO GOD explores the startlingly fragile nature of faith, morality, and the ties that bind us. The show was nominated for five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best New Play.

"I chose this play to fill our TBA slot not simply because it was a surprise hit in New York -- commercially as well as artistically -- but because it is a reflection of a dark and disturbing time in America," said Bryan Fonseca, Phoenix Theatre Producing Director. "Random violence is at an all-time high. Presidential politics are reduced to schoolyard behavior and language. For the first time in American history, non-believers and non-practitioners of religion are the majority. A loss of faith and civility dominate the social landscape. Some believe that we are heading to hell in a hand basket. The play ponders: 'Is the devil real?'"

Mark Routhier (director) was the Director of New Play Development at Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with University of Central Florida, where he was a tenure-tracked Assistant Professor in Directing and Acting. He directed productions for them, including Bad Dog, The Best of Enemies, Pluto, The Cortez Method, and Sense and Sensibility. In New Orleans, Mark's NOLA Project directing credits include David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and a co-production of Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead with The Nola Project and Cripple Creek Theatre Co. Other New Orleans credits include Orange Flower Water at the Elm Theatre, Cat's-Paw, and The Santaland Diaries. He was Associate Artistic Director at Southern Rep in New Orleans where he directed The Piano Teacher, Opus, and The Seafarer. He directed the world premieres of John Biguenet's Mold, the third installation of his Rising Water Trilogy, and Freedom by Joyce Pulitzer, Sean Patterson, David Seelig and Kitty Greenberg at Southern Rep. Mark served as the Literary Chair and Vice President on the Executive Committee of the National New Play Network for over five years. He helped oversee and directed five NNPN MFA Playwright Workshops at the Kennedy Center. He was the Literary Manager and then the Director of Artistic Development at Magic Theatre in San Francisco. He received an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and presently lives in Washington, DC as a freelance theatre artist.

Robert Askins (playwright) was born in Cypress, Texas and moved to New York in 2005. In 2009 his play Princes of Waco was produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST)/Youngblood. His one act play Matthew and the Pastor's Wife was a part of Marathon 2010 at EST and the Love Song of the Albanian Sous Chef won a Dallas Outer Circle Critics award in 2011. Most recently Askins' Obie Award-winning play HAND TO GOD enjoyed three sold out runs at EST in 2011-12 followed by a 2014 engagement of the play at MCC Theater. Mr. Askins is proud to be an alumnus of I-73, Youngblood, and a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. He has received two E.S.T./Sloan Grants, an Arch and Bruce Davis Award and is one of the 2012 recipients of the Helen Merrill Award for emerging playwrights. His most recent play, Permission, premiered Off-Broadway at MCC Theatre in Spring 2015.

Tickets for HAND TO GOD are on sale now. Tickets are $27.00 per person on Thursdays and Sundays, $33.00 per person on Fridays and Saturdays, and $20.00 for anyone 21 & under. During CheapSeats Weekend, June 16-19, all tickets are $20. Tickets for HAND TO GOD may be purchased by calling the box office at 317.635.7529 or visiting phoenixtheatre.org. Curtain times for the production are: Thursdays at 7 pm, Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm.

The Phoenix Theatre is Indiana's only professional contemporary theatre, and has presented productions to challenge and entertain the Indianapolis community for over 32 years. An Equity house, the Phoenix presents the Midwest and Indiana premieres of many popular Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and has presented more than 91 world premieres. The Phoenix operates the 130-seat proscenium Livia and Steve Russell Stage as well as the 75-seat cabaret-style black box Frank and Katrina Basile Stage. Both venues are housed along with administrative offices in a renovated 1907 church in downtown Indianapolis' historic Chatham Arch neighborhood, part of the Mass Ave Arts and Culture District. The Phoenix Theatre is a founding member of the National New Play Network and the League of Indianapolis Theatres, and is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as local corporate and foundation funders and more than 400 individual donors.

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