Director’s Note
The God of Hell is not a well-known play by Sam Shepard, but it packs quite a punch. Mr. Shepard is a varied artist of over 60 plays, books, and short stories, who is well known for his explorations of masculinity in the not-so-wild west. He was also an accomplished actor who has appeared in over 60 films and TV shows. We, sadly, lost him to ALS in 2017. He wrote until his dying day, dictating stories to his family from his death bed. I was first drawn to him as a young actor. His words gave me strength in a time of uncertainty. His poetry play Savage/Love, helped me explore the world of passion and love before I understood the consequences and power they possessed. From there, I tackled his little produced work, Seduced. I soon discovered that Mr. Shepard was much more than just True West and Buried Child. His plays were an investigation of family, of relationships, of self, of love, and, most of all, a way of defining what it is to be a human in America. His love for America is what led him to pen the play you are seeing today.
It was written in what we thought was a divisive time in our history, 2004. The Patriot Act. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The yellow ribbons. The assumed patriotism of a branch of government that thought it had absolute power. Shepard was wary of discarding the Checks and Balances built into our Constitution. So, he wrote this play. He does not give us any answers. He simply provides us with a scenario. It is our job to interpret and assimilate it however we see fit. Frank and Emma are living the “American Dream.” They own a dairy farm in the Mid-West, content and happy with their simple life brought to them on the platter of democracy and freedom, but- does freedom have a price? That is for you to judge.
The cast and crew have put in a tremendous effort to bring you the truth of Mr. Shepard’s words. We invite you to spend some time with us in the cold of a Wisconsin winter. Meet Frank, Emma, Haynes, and Welch. They are Americans. So are we. In these actual divisive times, it is good to step back and take note. A contamination can quickly spread. If we don’t recognize it and take action, we may never know how it has infected us and changed the face of this great American experiment.
“The moon is getting bigger and brighter. The Strawberry Moon. Spotlighting our little troupe. The full moon. We made it and we hobbled up the stairs. Or I hobbled. My sons didn’t hobble, I hobbled.” – Spy of the First Person by Sam Shepard
