God's Country Will Run at Baylor Theater Dec. 2-7

The chilling docu-drama God's Country, which chronicles the exploits of a white supremacist group, will open on Tuesday, Dec. 2, in Theater 11 in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center on the Baylor University campus. Curtain times for the production are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2-6 and 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 7.
God's Country, the Tony Award nominated play by Steven Dietz, focuses on the one-year rise and fall of The Order, a small band of racists responsible for one of the country's most successful crime sprees in history and the murder of Jewish radio host Alan Berg. Much of the play deals with the subsequent trial of The Order members that shocked the nation.
The script of the play follows the courtroom proceedings very closely, using original trial transcripts as a basis for most of the dialogue. Director Jerry Morrison, a graduate student in the Baylor Department of Theater Arts, uses a variety of multimedia images and sounds to further enhance the atmosphere of the play.
Morrison said that one of the goals of the production is "to let the words and the views stand on their own, to not embellish or lionize either side."
He adds that the subject matter is as timely now as it was when the play first premiered in Seattle in 1988. "Since the play was introduced, we have seen that these groups are still multiplying, and hate crimes are on the rise," he said.
Tickets for the production are priced at $7 and are available at the Baylor Theater box office. For more information, call the Department of Theater Arts at 710-1865.