But it's not what you think. The play God's Man in Texas takes a humorous look at a power struggle between a reluctantly retired megaminister and his replacement.
By JOHN FLEMING
Published June 3, 2004
[Photo: American Stage]
Henry Haggard as Hugo Taney, the confidant, and Warren Hammack, right, as the Rev. Dr. Philip Gottschall in God’s Man in Texas.
Actor Warren Hammack has a personal connection to his role in God's Man in Texas, David Rambo's comic play about a power struggle at a colossal Baptist church in Houston. Hammack plays Dr. Philip Gottschall, the church's 81-year-old patriarch who is reluctant to give up "the top job in the Baptist universe."
Hammack, 70, was raised Baptist in Kentucky and intended to study for the ministry in college. Now he's an Episcopalian and lives in New Hampshire, but he still gets plenty of opportunity to revisit his roots. He has played Gottschall in six productions around the South, including the one that opens this weekend at American Stage in St. Petersburg.
"It must be my white hair," Hammack joked, interviewed last week along with director Van Huff in the theater, where a huge pulpit was under construction onstage.
Rambo's play is based on the real story of W.A. Criswell, famed pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, and his successor, a young preacher named Joel Gregory. Less than two years after being named to the job, Gregory announced his resignation during a Wednesday evening service, saying Criswell wouldn't let him run the church.
"I think it gets into church politics really well," Hammack said. "It's church people who most like the play. They get into it because it deals with something they deal with. When does a church get so big and materialistic that it loses its spirituality?"
The play is set in the fictional Rock Baptist Church, a congregation of 28,000 in Houston. The church has "a dinner theater, bowling alley, eight-screen cineplex for family movies, Christian satellite network. . . . Restaurants, coffee shops, snack bars. . . . Full-equipped gymnasium, two swimming pools, baby care, day care, counseling center, kindergarten, grade school, middle school, high school, Gottschall College . . . gift shop, book store, music store. Ballpark, football stadium, summer camp, singles ministry, full orchestra, 300 in the choir, two marching bands, the world's largest Christmas electric light parade . . . " and many more amenities, as listed by Hugo Taney, a recovering alcoholic, stage manager for the TV ministry and confidant of both preachers.
Huff, who consulted with a pastor at Sarasota's First Baptist Church while preparing to direct God's Man in Texas, thinks it addresses wider issues than church politics.
"There's a reason it's a megachurch," he said. "It's the story of any CEO of a large corporation; it's the story of the very talented teacher who gets promoted to superintendent and six months later walks away to go back to the classroom. It uses the church as the microcosm for what is a universal situation: organizational behavior and the problem of succession."
Another theme of the play is the struggle between fathers and sons. "There's a son without a father, the younger preacher, and there's a father without a son, Gottschall," Huff said.
"Then, of course, there's the father and the son . . ." Hammack said.
"And there's even a Holy Ghost!" Huff added, saying that would be Hugo Taney.
Hammack first played Gottschall at the Hippodrome State Theatre in Gainesville. Most recently, he was in a production at Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock. How has his performance changed?
"It depends on the company; it depends on the director," he said. "All the casts have been a little different. I feel like I've gotten more complexity and contrasts in the character, more dimension to it."
"It would be easy to play Gottschall as a villain," Huff said. "What Warren brings to it is that he's not a villain."
"He believes firmly in what he believes in," Hammack said of his character. "He's not a con man. He really believes this is the way to go, this is the way to serve God, this is the best thing for his church."
Hammack sees a Shakespearean quality in the aging preacher. "He has some of the things that Lear has, like not wanting to give up the power."
God's Man in Texas is unusual for American Stage because it has such a long run. Normally productions run a month or so at the theater. Rambo's play will be in the 140-seat main stage space for about seven weeks, then transfer for two weeks-plus in the new Smith Black Box Theater at Tampa Preparatory School in Tampa.
Playing Gottschall for more than two months will keep an actor in shape. "He's a high-powered, high-energy guy," Hammack said. "It's a workout."
PREVIEW
God's Man in Texas by David Rambo opens Friday and runs through July 24 at American Stage, 211 Third St. S, St. Petersburg, and then from July 29 through Aug. 14 at the Smith Black Box at Tampa Preparatory School, 727 W Cass St., Tampa. $22 to $32. 727 823-7529; www.americanstage.org
