In a church basement in a small Texas town, the teens of Christian puppetry Ministry gather to bring the Word to the Flock. But one puppet takes on a foul-mouthed, demonic life of its own—unleashing the community’s barely repressed lust and rage. Like nothing you've seen before, this blasphemous Broadway hit is a ruthless comedy about sex, sinners, and sock puppets.
Runtime: 1 hour and 45 minutes with one intermission.
Hand to God is generously underwritten
by Virginia A. McArthur and E.C. Michael Higgins.
Robert Askins was born in Cypress, Texas. His Tony-nominated, Obie Award-winning play Hand to God opened on Broadway in April 2015, following two critically acclaimed runs at Ensemble Studio Theatre and MCC Theater, where it was named a New York Times Critics’ Pick and called “the most entertaining show of 2014.” His newest play Permission made its world premiere Off Broadway in spring 2015 at MCC Theater. His play Fish Display was part of the 2012 Ojai Playwrights Conference and Permission was part of the 2014 conference. Askins has received two EST/Sloan grants, the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, and an Arch and Bruce Davis Award for Playwriting. He is an I-73 and Youngblood alum and a graduate of Baylor University and is currently at work on two feature film projects.
Joanie Schultz last directed Hand to God at Studio Theatre and is a member of the Studio Theatre Cabinet. Schultz currently serves as Artistic Director at WaterTower Theatre, recently named the best theatre in Dallas by the Dallas Observer. Recent work includes directing and adapting A Doll's House and directing Hand to God, Pride and Prejudice, and Hit the Wall at WaterTower Theatre; Queen, Cocked, Rest, and The Whale at Victory Gardens Theater; Sex with Strangers at the Cleveland Playhouse; Lot's Wife at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Venus in Fur at The Goodman Theatre; fml: or how Carson McCullers Saved my Life at Steppenwolf Theatre; and other plays at various Chicago theatres. Schultz holds an MFA in directing from Northwestern University, had the TCG Leadership U Fellowship, was a Drama League Fellow, The Goodman Theatre’s the SDCF Denham Fellow, a Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab participant, and was 2013 Co-Artistic Curator for Theater on the Lake. Her work has garnered Helen Hayes Awards, Joseph Jefferson Awards, and DFW Theatre Critics Forum awards.
(As of November 2018)
Liam Forde returns to Studio Theatre for Hand To God after receiving a Helen Hayes nomination for his performance in Jumpers for Goalposts. Off Broadway credits include Much Ado About Nothing at Theatre for a New Audience and Big and Six Wives at the York Theatre Company. Regional and tour credits include Peter and the Starcatcher at Pioneer Theatre Company, Amazing Grace at Goodspeed, and the TheatreWorks USA tour of Seussical. Mr. Forde is an active member of the concert/cabaret world in NYC and beyond, with performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Gaslight Theater (St. Louis), the Venetian Room (Dallas), and in Paris at L’Auguste Théâtre, Club Rayé, and Café Universel. He is a recipient of the 2014 Julie Wilson and Nightlife Awards and a 2013 Bistro Award. Mr. Forde is a member of the Noel Coward Society and a graduate of The Boston Conservatory.
(As of July 2016)
Susan Rome recently appeared in Studio’s production of Hand To God. Other theatre credits include Roz and Ray, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Brighton Beach Memoirs (Helen Hayes Award), The Sisters Rosensweig, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide..., The Argument, After the Revolution (Helen Hayes nomination), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, and The Last Seder; The Great Society and All the Way at Arena Stage; The Diary of Anne Frank at Olney Theatre Center; After the Revolution, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, The Enemy of the People, and the world premiere of Mud Blue Sky at Baltimore Center Stage; The Whale, Las Meninas, and A Shayna Maidel at Rep Stage; Richard III, Macbeth, and All’s Well That Ends Well at Baltimore Shakespeare Festival; The Substance of Fire at the Mark Taper Forum; and The Legacy at Seattle Center Stage. Television and film credits include John Waters’ A Dirty Shame, My One and Only, House of Cards, NYPD Blue, and four seasons as on The Wire.
(As of August 2018)
Helen Cox was recently seen as Constantine V in Byzantine Choral Project in the New Ohio’s Ice Factory Festival. She appeared on Broadway in Sideman. Off Broadway credits include Tail! Spin!; The Shanghai Gesture; Beauty on the Vine; Bug; As Bees in Honey Drown; Love; Janis; and World of Mirth. Other New York credits include Verano Place at the Fringe NYC (Best Ensemble Award), There’s a Light on Yonder Mountain at Amios Theatre Company, and In the Middle of the Night and Coda & Tennessee at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Ms. Coxe’s Regional credits include Good People at Pittsburgh Public Theater, Anchors at LIA, Silence at Roundtable Theatre, The Gabriels and Training Wisteria at Summer Play Festival, Mouthful of Birds and {wish} with rUDE mECHANICALS, and Blythe Spirit at the Public Theatre in Maine. Her television and film credits include The Blacklist; The Knick; Black Box; Elementary; Person of Interest; The News Room; 30 Rock; Neon Joe Werewolf Hunger; Law & Order; A Woman; A Part; Julie and Julia; The Housetaurant; Sherrybaby; Knots; Backseat; and Red Rover. Ms. Coxe is also a member of The Actors Center, and received an MFA from the American Conservatory Theatre.
(As of August 2016)
Caitlin Collins makes her Studio Theatre debut in Hand To God. A Chicago-based actor, her credits include Magnolia at the Goodman Theatre, The Crucible at Indiana Repertory Theatre, The Metal Children at Next Theatre, A Christmas Carol at The Palace Theater, The Little Mermaid at Drury Lane Theatre, Bachelorette with Cardinal Stage Company, Frindle with Griffin Theatre Company, Pink Milk with Oracle Theatre/White Elephant, The Beecher Sisters with Awkward Pause Theater, and As You Like It with Two Pence Theatre Company. Television credits include Chicago Fire (NBC) and Empire (FOX). She is a graduate of Northwestern University.
(As of July 2016)
Ryan McBride makes his Studio Theatre debut. A Chicago-based actor, some of his credits include West Side Story (Paramount Theatre), Julius Caesar (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chicago Shakespeare Theater with Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Brilliant Adventures and Fallow (Steep Theatre), Sita Ram (Lookingglass with Chicago Children’s Choir), Ghosts of War and Letter’s Home (Griffin Theatre), Damn Yankees (Light Opera Works). He was cast in the first National Tour of Evil Dead the Musical. He has also worked with Chicago Dramatists, FWD Theatre Project, and Shakespeare Project Chicago. Mr. McBride received his BFA from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.
(As of July 2016)
Matthew Russell makes his Studio Theatre debut in Hand to God. He is a New York City based actor and musician. His film work includes The Spine of Night and Some Freaks, which premiered in July 2016 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Stage credits include Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Much Ado About Nothing (The Public Theater), and The Grapes of Wrath (Trinity Rep). He has performed as a singer and musician for Shakespeare Theatre Company, Workshop Theatre Company, Trinity Rep, and others, and is currently developing a new musical about the Shakespeare Authorship Question. Mr. Russell has taught acting and directing at Brown University, Manhattan Class Company, Trinity Rep, and Citadel Theatre. He is a member of Actor’s Equity Association and SAGAFTRA. He received an MFA in Acting from Brown/Trinity Rep and a BA in Economics and Theatre from Vanderbilt University.
(As of August 2016)
Tim Getman returns to Studio having appeared in Kit Marlowe, The Real Thing, and Water by the Spoonful. He has worked onstage for over 15 years in the Washington/Baltimore area, recently seen in Father Comes Home from the Wars at Round House and Outside Mullingar at Everyman Theatre. He has also been seen at Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Rep Stage, Signature Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Theater J, and Center Stage, among others. Mr. Getman is a Woolly Mammoth company member, seen in The Unmentionables, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Detroit, Appropriate, Zombie: The American, and The Nether. Recent television credits include The Men Who Built America and Veep.
(As of July 2016)
Tim Barker makes his Studio Theatre debut in Hand to God. He recently shot the pilot Starting Out in Brooklyn. As a voice-over artist, he can be heard promoting Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical on Broadway this October. He has been seen Off Broadway at The Acting Company, with whom he has also toured. Mr. Barker’s regional credits include work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Festival, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Ogunquit/Gateway Playhouse, Two River Theatre Company, St. Louis Repertory, and Children's Theatre Company Minneapolis. Film credits include Meadowland and Newlyweeds. His television credits include The Blacklist, 30 Rock, Law & Order, Royal Pains, and Unforgettable.
(As of August 2016)
Daniel Conway has designed more than two dozen plays for Studio Theatre including Three Sisters and No Sisters, The Aliens, and his Helen Hayes Award-winning design for Hand to God. His recent work on Macbeth for Chicago Shakespeare Theater and The Scottsboro Boys for Signature Theatre was featured in the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of World Stage Design and Performance Art. He is currently designing Singin’ in the Rain for Olney Theatre Center. Other regional credits include work for Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Cleveland Play House, Shakespeare Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Milwaukee Rep, A.R.T., The Kennedy Center, and Boston Lyric Opera. Daniel is the designer for the performance artists/magicians Penn and Teller. Awards include 14 Helen Hayes nominations and four awards for Outstanding Set Design, nominations for the Los Angeles and Boston Critics Awards, and The Anderson-Hopkins Award for Sustained Contributions to Theatre in Washington, DC.
(As of August 2019)
Keith Parham returns to Studio Theatre, where he previously designed Hand to God and The Father. He designed Therese Raquin on Broadway for Roundabout Theatre Company. His Off Broadway credits include Man From Nebraska at Second Stage; The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois and Between Riverside and Crazy at Atlantic Theater Company; The Model Apartment at Primary Stages; Tribes, Mistakes Were Made, and Red Light Winter at Barrow Street Theatre; Stop the Virgens with Karen O at St. Ann's Warehouse and Sydney Opera House; Ivanov and Three Sisters at CSC; A Minister's Wife at Lincoln Center Theatre; and Adding Machine: A Musical at Minetta Lane. Recent regional credits include Father Comes Home from the Wars, The Wolves, and Uncle Vanya at the Goodman Theatre; Wild Goose Dreams at La Jolla Playhouse; Carousel at Arena Stage; and The Edge of Our Bodies, Gentle, Music Hall, and The Anyway Cabaret at TUTA Theatre. International work includes Homebody/Kabul at National Theatre of Belgrade in Serbia. He is the recipient of an Obie Award and a Lucille Lortel Award.
(As of March 2018)
Matthew M. Nielson recently designed and composed original music for Occupied Territories at 59E59 and Where Words Once Were at Lincoln Center. Other recent designs include the world premiere of Astoria, Parts I and II with Portland Center Stage; The Magic Play at Olney Theatre Center, Portland Center Stage, and Actor’s Theatre of Louisville; The Book of Will at Round House Theatre; Nina Simone: Four Women at Arena Stage; Shakespeare In Love at Baltimore Center Stage; and Treasure Island at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Film and television credits include The Magicians, Stranger Things, Those Who Wait, NBC Sports, UFC on FOX, The Hero Effect, Epic Drive-In, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and Delivery.com. Mr. Nielson has received several Helen Hayes and film festival awards.
(As of April 2018)
Chelsea M. Warren is a theatre artist with a focus on scenic design, puppetry, and devised theatre, newly based in the Twin Cities. Puppet design credits include Hand to God at Studio Theatre, WaterTower Theatre, and Jungle Theater; Shrek the Musical and The Little Mermaid at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Scenic design credits include Kate Hamill’s Little Women and Hand to God at Jungle Theater, A Doll’s House and Kate Hamill’s Pride & Prejudice at WaterTower Theatre, Cocked and The Whale at Victory Gardens Theatre, and fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life at Steppenwolf Theatre. Warren received her MFA from Northwestern University and is an Assistant Professor of Scenic Design at the University of Minnesota.
(As of November 2018)
Robb Hunter has directed violence for more than 20 Studio productions including Vietgone, The Effect, Hand to God, Bad Jews, Belleville, The Motherfucker with the Hat, Reasons to be Pretty, Invisible Man, Superior Donuts, American Buffalo, Red Speedo (Helen Hayes nomination for choreography) and The Walworth Farce (Helen Hayes nomination). He also directs movement/violence for the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth (where he received a Helen Hayes Award for HIR and nomination for An Octoroon), Signature Theatre, and many others. He is a member of SDC, AEA, SAG/AFTRA, and is a Certified Fight Director for the Society of American Fight Directors. He is on faculty at The Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for Classical Acting, is the Choreographer in Residence at American University and is a teaching artist for the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
(As of February 2019)
Zach Campion is a freelance voice, speech and dialect coach originally from San Antonio, TX. Recent credits at Studio include coaching dialect for P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, Kings, The Remains, Vietgone, Hand to God, and Terminus. Other DC credits include the world premiere of Kleptocracy, Indecent, Sovereignty, The Price, and Smart People at Arena Stage; The Wiz at Ford’s Theatre; Matilda, Tiger Style, Oil, Labour of Love, The Invisible Hand, Aubergine, Annie, My Fair Lady, Sweeney Todd, and Angels in America (Parts 1 & 2) at Olney Theatre Center; and the world premiere of The Gulf and Heisenberg at Signature Theatre. Zach is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework ® and is a member of the Studio Acting Conservatory faculty. He holds MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA in Performance and Production from Texas State University.
(As of August 2019)
Hope Villanueva recently made her New York debut as Production Stage Manager of Off Broadway’s Who’s Your Baghdaddy? or How I Started the Iraq War (New York Times Critics’ Pick and Off-Broadway Alliance nominee for Best New Musical) and followed it with Once Upon A Pastime at WPPAC. DC credits include Production Stage Manager on The Gospel of Lovingkindness (Mosaic Theatre Company), A House of Glass (Arena Stage), Lights Rise on Grace (Woolly Mammoth workshop), and Awake and Sing (Olney Theatre Center), The Big Meal (Studio Theatre), and the National Tours of Rock of Ages, My Fair Lady, and Young Frankenstein. She was Resident Stage Manager for Honolulu Theatre for Youth and Associate Production Manager on Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey’s Bellobration.
(As of July 2016)
Keri Schultz returns to Studio for Three Sisters after stage managing Hand to God, The Pillowman, and Red Light Winter, and serving as Assistant Stage Manager for Take Me Out. Recent local stage management credits include Hunting and Gathering, Circle Mirror Transformation, and Venus In Fur at Rep Stage, and Bad Dog, The Price, and Avenue Q at Olney Theatre. Ms. Schultz has also stage managed at theatres including Mosaic Theatre, Imagination Stage, Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences, and Round House Theatre. Additionally, she has been an assistant stage manager at theatres including Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, and Center Stage. Regionally, she has worked with Trinity Rep, the Chester Theatre Company, and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and spent three summers as the prop master for the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center.
(As of March 2017)
