Minnesota's Sally Wingert has played most of the roles she's dreamed of in her storied 45-year stage career — 43 of those as an Actors' Equity union-badged professional.

In addition to Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest" and Sir Toby in "Twelfth Night," her most recent and memorable roles at the Guthrie Theater where she made her name, she's acted in such films as "Untamed Heart" (as a tree buyer), "Fargo" (as the wife of an agitated customer) and a stoic payroll lady in "Factotum," headlined by Matt Dillon.

She's acted on Broadway and on London's West End in "La Bete," playing a character inspired by Molière's mistress Madeleine Béjart. But there's one part Wingert has never had a chance to inhabit until now: God.

The 67-year-old Duluth native has been tapped to play the Divine One in "An Act of God," opening Saturday in St. Paul at Six Points Theater.

"It's pithy, snarky and just a gas," Wingert said.

She may be excited for the role, but she has one question for all the directors, casting directors, dramaturges and the like out there.

"Why has no one ever cast me as God before?" Wingert said. "My husband would say I've been trying to play God for decades, but I don't think I've even been a voice of God or anything like that."

It's a fun exploration for her, especially because of how playwright David Javerbaum, a writer for "The Daily Show" who has won 13 Emmys, constructed the role.

"I am the actor, Sally Wingert, that God has just plopped into for the night," she said before a recent rehearsal. So, like a temporary Divine One?

Javerbaum reminds the audience of that throughout the play.

"The premise is that God is kind of weary with how the Ten Commandments are being followed or not right now and realizes that there are other ideas," she said. "So God presents to the audience the new Ten Commandments."

For Wingert, who is being directed by Craig Johnson, the role brings her home at an ideal time of the year. A good chunk of her work schedule has recently been on the road, helped by the fact that her two sons are grown and that hubby Tim Danz has retired from teaching and can join her.

And the places she has gone to work have had good winter weather.

Just this February and March, Wingert headlined as Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie" at Houston's Alley Theatre, a performance the Houston Chronicle called "superb." "Menagerie" is one of three plays she has done in America's most diverse large city.

"Houston was a surprise because it's incredibly welcoming to immigrants, it has a serious food scene and it's pretty fun," Wingert said. "But summer is forbidding — infernally hot."

She acted in "Native Gardens" at the Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont last summer.

And she jetted to Florida in January 2024 for "Inherit the Wind" at Asolo Repertory Theatre, headed by Peter Rothstein, who co-founded Theater Latte Da.

As she spoke from her home in St. Paul, she was joined by her latest rescue, Richard Morris Dozier, a Blue Lacy she got from her spells in Texas. The pooch sprawled at her feet.

"Act of God" is not a solo show — archangels Gabriel and Michael attend to God — but it can feel that way because Wingert has the bulk of the lines and it's delivered as direct address.

"I love addressing the audience — that's a great change up and I've gotten to do it a lot in my career," Wingert said. "I get to acknowledge the audience is there, make literal eye contact."

Wingert also gets to think about what God means.

"God is deeply human," Wingert said. "You know, the storyline is that of mankind is made in God's image. So all the things that are wrong with you and me are potentially all the things that are wrong with God."

A journey interrogating what it means to be divine and all-powerful, even if temporarily, was not something Wingert imagined when she was growing up.

"My parents didn't go to the theater when I was a little girl and so I watched television and wanted to be, specifically, Carol Burnett," Wingert recalled. But then she went to the Guthrie at 14 on a school trip to see Michael Langham's production of "Oedipus the King."

"That show changed my life," Wingert said. "I realized that the live component of people in that room altered me. That fourth wall completely went away and still does."

She plays God now, but she's caught, still, in the stage's magic spell.

'An Act of God'

When: 7:30 p.m. Sat., 1 & 7 p.m. Sun., 1 p.m. Tue., 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Thu. Ends May 18.

Where: Highland Park Community Center, 1978 Ford Pkwy., St. Paul.

Tickets: $28-$40. 651-647-4315, sixpointstheater.org.