Playwright Robert Askins

On Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 7pm, APAC’s 15/20s Staged Readings of New Works continues with a bonus addition to the season, Robert Askins’s Hand to God.

In the following interview Askins shares some insights into his play…

HOW WAS HAND TO GOD BORN?

I was raised in a very close knit religious community.
Not like horse drawn buggys and shunning but like most social interaction took place through the church. It was a form of social organization brought down out of the panhandle of central Texas by the hard working german farm people that I come from.
My Mother started a puppet ministry when I was 13.
Around the time I entered puberty.

I was a choir boy. I was a sort of church star. Little old ladies would write me notes and give me gifts because they loved my voice so much.

I remember rolling around in the wet grass outside the church community center with a dark hair young girl after puppet practice. It was one of those pre-embarrassing sexually moments when you don’t feel weird until you hear your mother’s voice.

I felt divided down the middle.
I wanted to do things that were wrong.
I went further in the wrongness because I know there was no place for these things in the Kingdom of God.

When my father died the pendulum swings started to go farther on both sides.
I was skipping school and doing drugs on the week days and preaching to sweaty rooms on the Sunday.

I still to this day don’t know which one is the genuine me.

I think a lot of plays are about the divided self.
True West to name just one.

I don’t know the right way to be human.
I decided to fight it out in the cartoon past of my youth.

Throw in some jokes and boom.
Hand to God.

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE WRITING THIS PLAY?

Trying to keep Tyrone, the evil puppet, from taking over the play. I mean he says whatever he wants. He does what ever he wants. He’s impossible to control. He’s absolute anarchy to write. I love him so much, but if you don’t stop him from talking a scene will go completely off the rails out of sheer fun.

WHAT ROLE DOES THE APAC STAGED READING PLAY IN YOUR PROCESS?

The Audience is so much smarter than I am.

I sit in my little room and I giggle to myself about how fun my little themes are and how clever that word play is but if it doesn’t play it doesn’t play. Hearing folks hear a play is the great deflator. The great bullshit detector.

The first time an audience hears a new play is the most important part of the process. I don’t know what it is until they’ve heard it.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WORKING WITH APAC?

I came out to see Josh Conkel’s MilkMilkLemonade last year and I was blown away. That show needed to be done again. It needed to be done bigger and longer and loud enough for everyone to hear. To see that need and fill that need that is a rare brave beautiful thing and I want to be a part of a group that makes those kinds of choices.

I love Astoria. I love the folks. I love the space.

I feels right coming back to read a play about church people in a church.

That’s more than one favorite thing but I got a lot of love for APAC.

WHAT’S YOUR NEXT PROJECT? TELL US ABOUT IT.

I’m working on a political fantasia about the perfecting of children through ADD medication.

ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO ADD?

Come see this play.
I think you’ll love it.
But you may hate it.
Either way I promise you won’t be bored.

Join on us on Monday, May 23rd at 7pm. Admission is FREE.

Location: Good Shepherd United Methodist Church [Google Map], 30-44 Crescent Street (at 30th Road), Astoria, NY 11102

Limited Seating – RSVP: [email protected] or call 718-393-7505

Full details for Hand to God.