A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
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2022 Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play
A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
by Samuel D. Hunter is Dezart Performs’ third production of the season from March 1 – 10, 2024
9 January 2024 – Palm Springs, CA: A philosopher once posited that “God is everywhere: sometimes you can even find him in church.” In playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s “must-see heartbreaker of a play” (The New York Times), A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, Divine compassion is found in a work-a-day back office in Idaho near the Canadian border where two broken men “find what connects us all and Holiness in humanity” (The Observer). The 2022 Drama Critics’ Circle Award Winner for Best Play is the third production in Dezart Performs’ landmark 16th Season, running March 1 – 10 at the Pearl McManus Theater (at the historic Palm Springs Woman’s Club) 314 S Cahuilla Road, Downtown Palm Springs. The play runs 90 minutes without intermission. Playwright Samuel D. Hunter is scheduled to attend the opening night performance and will hold a “talk back” following the first Saturday evening performance, March 2.
“Samuel D. Hunter is very much a playwright for this moment in our world,” says Dezart Performs’ founding artistic director Michael Shaw who directed Hunter’s A BRIGHT NEW BOISE last season for Dezart Performs as he is directing this year’s production. Hunter’s film, THE WHALE, garnered an Academy Award for actor Brendan Fraser. “In language both sparse but eloquent, he manages to convey the full range of human emotions, good and bad, from two people doing nothing but sit and talk in a small room. It’s like a literary miracle what such passion in a confined space can produce.”
A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD unfolds in a cubicle where two seated people unexpectedly choose to bring one another into their fragile worlds. Keith (Dennis Renard), a mortgage broker and Ryan (Jacob Alden Roa), a yogurt plant worker seeking to buy a plot of land that belonged to his family many decades ago, realize they share a “specific kind of sadness.” At this desk in the middle of America, loan talk opens up into a discussion about the chokehold of financial insecurity and a bond over the precariousness of parenthood. With humor, empathy and wrenching honesty, Hunter commingles two lives and deftly bridges disparate experiences of marginality. As Keith sums up in one of the play’s most simple, yet wrenching moments: “Things happen every day that aren’t right.”
Renard was the winner last year of Desert Theatre League’s Award for his performance in CHOIR BOY and Roa, a nominee for his performance in THE GARBOLOGISTS.
All performances of A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD take place at the Pearl McManus Theater (at the historic Palm Springs Woman’s Club) 314 S Cahuilla Road, Downtown Palm Springs. Ticket prices are $48 – $55 and may be purchased online at www.dezartperforms.org , or by calling (760) 322-0179. Showtimes are Fridays at 7:30pm; Saturdays at 2pm and 7:30pm; Sundays at 2pm and 7pm.
Dezart Performs, one of the Coachella Valley’s preeminent theatre companies recognizes that the performing arts enrich the life and culture of a community, promote greater understanding and provoke insightful discussion. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit theatre company, its mission is to provide an artistic home for bold and cutting–edge plays, creating an atmosphere of artistic growth for actors, writers, and directors who uniquely contribute to the diverse theatrical environment in the Coachella Valley.
Last month, Dezart Performs announced plans for a new space to be called the Dezart Playhouse, located in Cathedral City. The new Dezart Playhouse will have versatile, movable seating for up to 125, including the flexibility for proscenium, thrust, theatre in-the-round, or cabaret-style formats. A modern, warm and inviting lobby with a full bar and patio area will be available for use both during performances, and for other non-theatrical events. Full expanded dressings rooms, backstage areas and a designated box office are all part of the design. Besides use by Dezart Performs, the venue will also welcome other businesses and non-profit organizations in the community to make use of the space. Based on the current plan, the Dezart Playhouse will be ready for the 2025 / 2026 Season. The campaign has been in the silent phase for over a year, with the goal to raise $ 2,200,000 to convert the former retail space into a state-of-the-art Equity Theater. In addition, the campaign seeks another $200,000 per year over five years to help sustain program and operation costs.
16th Dezart Performs’ Season Listing
A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
A drama written by Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Michael Shaw
March 1-3; 8-10
2022 Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play
A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD unfolds in a cubicle where two seated people unexpectedly choose to bring one another into their fragile worlds. Keith, a mortgage broker, and Ryan, a yogurt plant worker seeking to buy a plot of land that belonged to his family many decades ago, realize they share a “specific kind of sadness.” At this desk in the middle of America, loan talk opens up into a discussion about the chokehold of financial insecurity and a bond over the precariousness of parenthood. With humor, empathy and wrenching honesty, Hunter commingles two lives and deftly bridges disparate experiences of marginality.
“Must-see heartbreaker of a play!”
– The New York Times
“Another extraordinary play by Samuel D. Hunter!”
– New York Stage Review
“Easily one of the best of the year!”
– The Wall Street Journal
“…one of the most moving new plays of the year!”
– TheatreMania
“‘A Case for the Existence of God’ Finds What Connects Us All and Holiness in Humanity.”
– The Observer
* * *
MR. PARKER
A drama written by Michael McKeever
Directed by Randy Brenner
April 12 – 14; 19 — 21
At 54 years old, Terry Parker finds himself at a crossroads in his life. After the loss of his partner of 30 years, he finds himself suddenly single and unable to adjust to a world that has moved on without him. After a night of heavy drinking, he wakes up with a 28-year-old bartender-slash-Uber-driver. These two very different people begin a tentative relationship, and what starts out as a one-night stand becomes a journey of self-discovery for a man trying to let go of the past and move forward, while dealing with the pressures of being middle-aged, gay and alone in the ever-changing landscape of today’s America.
“A very intelligent, absorbing look at contemporary relationships and the conflicts that keep us all from aging with joy and peace of mind. This play is a real discovery!”
– Rex Reed
“The protagonist of this new play by Michael McKeever steps gingerly out of grief’s stasis and into the unknown.”
–The New York Times