The Christians
- Written by Lucas Hnath
- Directed by Les Waters
Playwrights: The Christians (Obie Award for Playwriting). Lucas received a 2017 Tony Award nomination for Best Play for A Doll’s House, Part 2. Lucas’s other plays include Dana H., Hillary and Clinton, Red Speedo, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, Isaac’s Eye, and Death Tax. He has been produced on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep., and Ensemble Studio Theatre. His plays have also been premiered at Center Theatre Group, the Goodman, Humana Festival of New Plays, South Coast Repertory, and Victory Gardens. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, and an alumnus of New Dramatists. Awards: Whiting Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Kesselring Prize, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Steinberg Playwright Award, and the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize.
Updated 11/14/19
Les Waters is a Tony nominated and multi Obie Award winning director. Previous PH shows include The Christians and The Thin Place. Most recent NY credits are Dana H (Broadway), Grief Camp (Atlantic Theatre), and the revival of Eurydice (Signature). His work has been seen on Broadway, Off Broadway and many regional theaters.
Photo by Sarah Ruhl.
Ten years ago, Pastor Paul’s church was a modest storefront. Now it houses thousands, with a coffee shop in the lobby and a baptismal font as big as a swimming pool. But Paul is about to preach a sermon that will shake the foundation of his congregation’s beliefs. Backed by a live choir, The Christians is both epic and unexpectedly intimate, an unflinching look at faith in America — and its power to unite or divide.
Featuring
Emily Donahoe
Jenny, a church congregantAndrew Garman
Paul, a pastorPhilip Kerr
Jay, a church elderLarry Powell
Joshua, the associate pastorLinda Powell
Elizabeth, the pastor's wifePlaywrights Horizons debut. Broadway: 33 Variations. Off-Broadway: Deathbed, Queens Boulevard-the musical, The Attic, Great Expectations, Apparition, The Hasty Heart. Regional: The Christians (world premiere), Other Desert Cities, Maple and Vine, The Glass Menagerie, Honour and Shakespeare in Hollywood (world premiere, Helen Hayes Award). TV: “Homeland,” “Law & Order: SVU.”
Andrew Garman (Man 3, he/him). Playwrights Horizons: The Christians (Drama Desk, Lortel Award nom). Broadway: Salomé (The Actor’s Studio). Select Off-Broadway premieres: Greater Clements, Admissions (Lincoln Center), Stargazers (Page 73), The Glory of the World (BAM), Ashville (Cherry Lane/Rattlestick), The Ugly One (Soho Rep), Burning (New Group), A Bright New Boise, The Bereaved, After (The Wild Project/Partial Comfort). Most recent tv/film appearances: the upcoming season of “The Gilded Age” as Mr. Delancey, and The Holdovers (2024 Oscar nom for Best Picture), as Headmaster Woodrup.
Playwrights Horizons: The End of the Day. Broadway: A Time to Kill, Macbeth, Otherwise Engaged, The Jockey Club Stakes, A Flea in Her Ear, Tiny Alice, Three Sisters. Off-Broadway: As You Like It, The Rehearsal, opposite Dame Judith Anderson’s Hamlet at Carnegie Hall. Extensive Regional credits, including seasons at nearly two dozen theater companies. Winner, Joseph Jefferson Award, Best Actor. He is also a stage director.
Playwrights Horizons debut. Off-Broadway: While I Yet Live, Broke-ology. Other New York Theater: Dutchman, The Flower Thief. Regional: The Christians (world premiere), The Brothers Size, Mountaintop, Goddess, Marcus or The Secret, The Task, Bronzeville (NAACP Award nomination, Best Ensemble).
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: On Golden Pond, Wilder Wilder Wilder. Off-Broadway: The Overwhelming, Omnium Gatherum, The Odyssey, Jar the Floor, Jitney, Love’s Labor’s Lost. Regional: The Christians (world premiere), A Doll’s House, Angela’s Mixtape, Uncle Vanya, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, A Raisin in the Sun. Film: American Gangster, I Think I Love My Wife. TV: “The Good Wife,” “Damages,” “Sex and the City.”
Creative Team
Dane Laffrey
Scenic DesignConnie Furr Soloman
Costume DesignBen Stanton
Lighting DesignJake Rodriguez
Sound DesignMarisa Levy
Production Stage ManagerPlaywrights: Rancho Viejo, Indian Summer, Iowa, The Christians. Broadway: set for the current revival of Once On This Island, set and costumes for Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, set for Fool For Love. Other Off-Broadway: MTC, Roundabout, Atlantic, BAM Harvey, Labyrinth, Second Stage, Vineyard, LCT, MCC, Soho Rep., Rattlestick, Transport Group, others. Regional: Humana Festival, Mark Taper Forum, Old Globe, Geffen, Williamstown, Huntington, Goodspeed, Denver Center, Center Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, others. International work in Tokyo, Oslo, Osaka, and throughout Australia. 2017 Obie for Sustained Excellence in set and costume design; nominations for a Drama Desk Award and five ATW Henry Hewes Awards.
Connie Furr Soloman has designed more than 300 productions. A sample of her work includes: Theatre: 2004, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 Humana Festival ( Gnit, Appropriate, Maple and Vine, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, Vanishing Point, After Ashley, How We Got On, Eat your Heart Out) Macbeth, and Greater Tuna at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Othello and Henry the 4th at the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, seven seasons at the Palm Springs Follies, 30 productions for Stage One in Louisville, Kentucky, Nine seasons at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, 14 productions at Phoenix Theatre, 12 seasons at Actors Theatre of Phoenix. Opera: Pique Dame at Syracuse Opera, Hansel and Gretel at Orlando Opera and Fidelio at Orlando Opera, assistant designer for Rigoletto and Fantastic Mr. Fox at LA Opera. Television: Her puppet designs were part of the Emmy award-winning children’s television series Salsa. Additional Credits: Connie’s designs have recently been displayed at the 2003 and 2007 International Prague Quadrennial and the USITT World Stage Design. Most recently Connie is a published author, her book "Liberace, Extravaganza!" was released in April 2013 by Harper Collins. Connie is a member of the United Scenic Artists Union and teaches design at Arizona State University.
Ben is a lighting designer for theater, concerts, dance, installations, and events. He is a five-time Tony Award nominee as well as an Obie, Lortel, IRNE, and Ovation Award winner. Ben is currently represented on Broadway by Maybe Happy Ending at the Belasco Theater. Recent Broadway credits include The Notebook at the Schoenfeld Theater; Mary Jane starring Rachel McAdams; Days of Wine and Roses Starring Kelli O'Hara & Brian Darcy James; Goodnight, Oscar starring Sean Hayes; The Collaboration Starring Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope; Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Featuring Jefferson Mays; The Rose Tattoo starring Marisa Tomei; Derren Brown: SECRET at the James Earl Jones Theater; Regina Spektor: Live On Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater; Ayad Akhtar’s JUNK at the Vivian Beaumont; Six Degrees of Separation starring Allison Janney, Corey Hawkins, and John Benjamin Hickey; Deaf West Theater’s Spring Awakening at the Lena Horne Theater; Fully Committed starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson; and Fun Home (Broadway, Off-Broadway, 1st National Tour, London).
Jake Rodriguez is a sound designer and composer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Credits Include: Between Two Knees (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Woman Laughing Alone with Salad, The Events (Shotgun Players); Sweat, Vietgone (American Conservatory Theater); A Thousand Splendid Suns (American Conservatory Theater, Theatre Calgary, Grand Theater, The Old Globe); Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (American Conservatory Theater, Guthrie Theater); Everybody (California Shakespeare Theatre); Angels in America, An Octoroon (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); we, the invisibles (Actors Theatre of Louisville); The Christians (Playwrights Horizons, Mark Taper Forum); Girlfriend (Kirk Douglas Theatre), among others. Jake received the 2004 Princess Grace Award for Sound Design and is the creator of Cricket, a mobile theatre sound design and playback software program. Jake completed a design internship at American Conservatory Theater, and studied at San Francisco State University School of Theatre and Dance.
Critics' Pick!
THE FIRST IMPORTANT NEW PLAY OF THE FALL SEASON. Ingeniously staged by Les Waters, this terrific play about the mystery of faith by Lucas Hnath — one of the freshest playwriting voices to emerge in the past five years — is MESMERIZING."
DEEPLY AFFECTING. EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING. A white-knuckled drama about a theological battle. This is a production we can believe in.
A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN with a chorus whose voices blend in harmonies as bright as their choir robes!
EXTRAORDINARY! Lucas Hnath dares us to see anti-religious prejudice as just another form of faith.