HAND TO GOD Opens At Coachella Valley Repertory This Month

HAND TO GOD, Robert Askin's irreverent and hilarious five-time Tony Award nominee and winner of Best New Play, opens at Coachella Valley Repertory in an all new production March 28-April 9.

Audiences will laugh and, perhaps, wonder if they shouldn't be quite so totally entertained. It is truly a wild and wonderful ride! Craig Wells returns to CVRep to direct HAND TO GOD. Set design is by Jimmy Cuomo, lighting design by Moira Wilke and the stage manager is John M. Galo.

Performances of HAND TO GOD are Tuesdays through Sundays, March 28-April 3, 2023 and March 4-9, 2023. Curtain time for Wednesdays through Saturday evening performances is 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. Audiences Free Talkback Thursdays are held after every Thursday performance, offering audience members the opportunity to discuss the plays with the directors and casts.

Single tickets for HAND TO GOD are on sale now and are $58, $63 and $73. They may be ordered online at www.cvrep.org, by calling (760) 296-2966, ext. 115, or at the CVRep box office located at 68510 East Palm Canyon Dr., Cathedral City. Box office hours are Monday-Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and two hours prior to performances. Group tickets are available and can be arranged by calling the box office. In order to better serve audiences, patrons requesting accessibility assistance are encouraged to contact the box office at least 24 hours prior to their ticketed performance.

Audience members should note that this dark comedy contains sexualized scenes, violence, profanity, and puppet nudity.

In the tiny, decidedly conservative town of Cypress, Texas, shy, mild-mannered (albeit lust-filled) teenaged Jason is just trying to be a good son. His mother, Margery, is struggling with the recent loss of her husband. Jason's only solace is the Christian Puppet Ministry that his mother has established in the basement of the town's Lutheran church, led by Pastor Greg. Her pupils are nerdy hot girl Jessica, juvenile delinquent Timothy, and Jason. Jason discovers that he has a talent for puppetry, and it seems like all will be well following his father's death. And then, along comes Tyrone, Jason's puppet, who has other plans. He is foul-mouthed, disruptive, and full of the devil. Jason begins to feel that he is possessed by Tyrone. Under the influence of the puppet, Jason confronts bully Timothy, hits on Jessica, and confronts his mother about her bad life choices. Decidedly inappropriate and hysterically funny, Hand To God does explore ideas of faith, morality, and human nature in an original and irresistible way.

However - things get slightly out of hand before. Tackling the nature of good and evil, HAND TO GOD is a metaphor for getting to the crux of matters.

Robert Askins was born in Cypress, Texas, eventually relocating to New York City. He has received two Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan grants, and an Arch and Bruce Davis Award for Playwriting. He has received commissions from Divercity Theatre and Baylor University. His play Princes of Waco was produced and developed by Youngblood. Askin's one act play, Matthew and the Pastor's Wife, was part of Marathon 2010 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Another play, Doll Parts, was read with the Write Club sponsored by Arlene Dahl. He has also part of the 52nd Streets Heads or Tail: The Chancey Plays. His work, The Love Song of the Albanian Sous Chef, won a Dallas Outer Circle Critics award. Hand to God opened on Broadway in 2015, and received five Tony Award nominations, winning Best New Play. For television, Askins wrote and produced "The Umbrella Academy," and was the editor for another series, "The Son." He also appeared in the TV series "Unicornland," as Benjamin Franklin in "Here's What I Like: Our Forefathers. And Now I'll Tell You Why," and in the comedy TV movie, The Share.

Actor, singer, director, teacher Craig Wells was a professional actor in New York for 20 years, making his Broadway debut in 1988 in the musical Chess (original cast recording). A few years later he joined the Broadway cast of LES MISERABLES. Off-Broadway, Wells performed in Forbidden Broadway (original cast recording of Forbidden Broadway Vol. 3), Closer Than Ever, Colette Collage, and Balancing Act (original cast recording). Across the country, he toured for a year in LES MISERABLES and performed with Arena Stage, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, St. Louis MUNY, and internationally in China, Japan, France, Spain, Italy, Sicily, Bermuda, the Caribbean, and Hawaii. Wells His television credits include "Reading Rainbow," "All My Children," and "Another World". Now living in Vermont, Wells has performed lead roles in in The Drowsy Chaperone, Unnecessary Farce, and Rumors at Saint Michael's Playhouse. He recently co-directed and portrayed Pontius Pilate in the University of Vermont concert production of Jesus Christ Superstar at Royall Tyler Theatre. He also directed the UVM Department of Theatre and Dance's production of A Grand Night for Singing, Stupid F#@king Bird, Hand to God, and Shakespeare in Love. He also teaches Introduction to Acting, Improvisation Workshop, Musical Theatre Performance, Acting III: Voice and Speech, and The Business of Show Business at UVM as well as CVRep's Conservatory.

To post a comment, you must register and login.