Hickory – For its first Firemen’s Kitchen production of the 78th season, the Hickory Community Theatre has chosen the Tony Award-nominated dark comedy Hand to God by Robert Askins. Described by critics as side-splittingly funny, raunchy and deeply provocative, the play takes an unfiltered look at grief, faith and the fragile nature of morality—with the help of a foul-mouthed sock puppet named Tyrone.

Making his Hickory Community Theatre debut in Hand to God is Kalib D. Cormican, a Marion native who now lives in Nebo. By day, Cormican works as a substitute teacher for McDowell County Schools. By night—at least for the next five weeks—he is stepping into the considerably less well-behaved world of Timothy, one of the teenagers at the center of Askins’ dark comedy.

The journey from a McDowell County classroom to the Firemen’s Kitchen isn’t quite as unlikely as it might seem. Cormican earned a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, with a minor in Interdisciplinary Art and Social Practice. His stage experience there includes Everybody, Dog Sees God, Twelfth Night and other productions, along with training in acting, voice, movement, stage combat and puppetry, particularly useful for a play in which puppets figure prominently.

When asked what drew him to Hand to God, however, Cormican offered a much simpler explanation: “I love dark comedy and puppets!”

In Timothy, Cormican found a character who is brash, impulsive and frequently inappropriate, but not without another side. What Cormican likes most about the role, he says, is how “unfiltered yet vulnerable” Timothy can be.

That combination fits neatly into the world Askins creates in Hand to God. Set largely around a Christian puppet ministry in a small Texas town, the play follows recently widowed Margery and her teenage son Jason as they struggle with grief in very different ways. When Jason’s hand puppet Tyrone begins developing an increasingly outrageous personality of his own, the boundaries between puppet and puppeteer—and between acceptable behavior and suppressed desire—begin to disappear.

Timothy becomes part of that increasingly chaotic world as a fellow member of the puppet ministry, bringing his own combination of bravado, desire and vulnerability into a story in which nearly everyone has something bubbling beneath the surface.

Cormican says what he enjoys most about Hickory Community Theatre is the “bold and fun theatre it does,” making the Firemen’s Kitchen and Hand to God a fitting place for his HCT debut.

Performances of Hand to God are Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 16–31 at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 p.m.; and Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for students 18 and over. Because of the content, this production carries a strict 18+ rating and is not recommended for younger patrons. Tickets are available online at hickorytheatre.org/box-office or by calling 828-328-2283.

Hand to God is produced in association with Friends of the Theatre. Hickory Community Theatre is a funded affiliate of Arts Culture Catawba and receives sustaining support from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Season 78 community support is provided by the City of Hickory, A Cleaner World, David and Maria Williams, Shurtape Technologies, and Acuña & Acuña Dentistry.

PHOTO: Kalib D. Cormican plays the role of Timothy in Hand to God. Photo courtesy of the subject.