God’s Country

The Program in Theater of the Lewis Center for the Arts presents a senior thesis production of Steven Dietz’s God’s Country, based on the true story of the white supremacist group known as The Order, whose members were held responsible for the 1984 murder of Denver-based Jewish radio talk show host Alan Berg. Directed by Dominique Salerno and featuring Paul Miller, God’s Country is a harrowing look at the religious, political and cultural convictions that fueled The Order’s violent crimes. Salerno, a religion major pursuing a Certificate in Theater and one of this year’s winners of the prestigious Alex Adam Award, first saw the play in high school. Ever since, she has been haunted by both its theatricality and its intense subject matter. The production inspired her to concentrate in Religion and to do her junior independent work on the belief structures that inform the radical racist right. Although Dietz’s documentary drama is rooted in Order ceremonies and trial transcripts, Salerno suggest that its emotional impact emerges from his depiction of ordinary lives and relationships lived out in the context of extremist ideologies. As she explains, “Dietz forces his audience to participate in the moral tension he creates, leaving to them the question of whether these people are monsters or men. “