Laredo Theater Guild International’s production of Hand to God, a play written by Texan Robert Askins, opens Thursday, January 18 at Laredo College’s Shoebox Theater on the Fort McIntosh Campus.
The Broadway production of Askins’ dark Christian comedy, which is set in Cypress, Texas, received five Tony nominations and an Obie Award. Hand to God’s run on London’s West End was Olivier-nominated for Best New Comedy.
Damaris Guzmán directs the LTGI production, which is produced by Chris Morgan. Ray Cantu is the stage manager.
Catherine Avaritt plays the role of churchgoer Margery, recently widowed and recently recruited by minister Pastor Greg (Oscar O. Peña) to run the congregation’s Christian Puppet Ministry.
Catherine Avaritt
Oscar O. Peña
The puppeteers are Margery’s son Jason (Raul Ramos), neighborhood bully and troublemaker Timmy (Alex Moreno), and girl next door Jessica (Allyson Tellez). The club’s focus is to steer children to the Bible and away from Satan. That plan, however, goes awry in a performance before the congregation when Jason’s sock puppet, Tyrone, embraces irreverence with impunity, announces he is Satan, and leads the puppeteers into sin, revealing secrets better left secret.
Raul Ramos
Alex Moreno
Allyson Tellez
Performances continue through January 21 and resume again January 25 –January 28. Tickets, $20and $25, are available at laredotheaterguild.org. For further information contact (956) 319-8610 or laredotheaterguild@gmail.com
SIDEBAR: ROBERT ASKINS
Robert Askins was born in Cypress, Texas in 1985. He moved to New York City in 2005, bartending and taking odd jobs to make his rent.
Playbill pubIished Askins’ March 15, 2015 narrative on writing and inspiration in advance of the April 7, 2015 Broadway debut of Hand to God:
“I write this on a Sunday. It is very cold outside, but the snow has stopped falling. I’ve walked 30 minutes through the snow after working 10 AM to 5 PM at a bar. “This is the job that pays my bills. That job is not writing plays.
There was a man who grew up not far from me. He won an acting award in high school for playing a drug addict in a student production. His father wanted him to be a businessman, but he convinced his father to let him go to Los Angeles to study acting. After he finished his training he moved to New York City. He took a job operating an elevator at night so he could audition during the day. His auditioning did not go well. So he wrote a play. He wrote a play about his hometown. He wrote the play for himself and his friends to perform in. The play was called Wharton Dance. His name was Horton Foote. He wrote plays. Some of them appeared on Broadway. One of them won a Pulitzer Prize.
“I do not flatter myself. He was a great man. I’m just trying.
“I didn’t know how hard this life is when I set out to live it. How many no’s there would be. How many different jobs I would need to be able to do, but here I am. A week away from something that seems very much like a dream.
“All I can think about is Horton. Sitting in an elevator all night with a pencil and a piece of paper. Writing about his hometown. Writing about where he came from. Writing about people he hated and people he loved and people he knew. Writing for his friends. It is nice that while so much has changed, in the theatre and in New York, that a person from nowhere, writing while they work, a very, very lucky person, still has a chance to make something people want to see. As long as they do their best to tell the truth. As long as they write for their friends. As long as they do not give up. As long as when they finish their job, the job that pays the bills, they walk home through the snow and write.”
(Horton Foote won Academy Awards for the screenplays of To Kill A Mockingbird and Tender Mercies.)
SUPPORT LOCAL THEATER
Laredo Theater Guild International’s (LTGI) mission is to create exceptional theater that educates and inspires. LTGI is a 501c3 non-profit corporation in its 15th season of presenting quality theatrical productions at Texas A&M International University, Laredo College, and other venues. LTGI is a member in good standing of Texans for the Arts and the American Association of Community Theatre.
