Using the power of live theatre to explore a divisive and emotional tragedy in our community, Community Players collaborated with a team of award-winning filmmakers, led by Nanfu Wang, on the documentary series “Mind Over Murder” airing on HBO.

The six-part series chronicles the bizarre and psychologically complex story of six individuals who were convicted for the 1985 murder of a beloved 68- year-old grandmother, Helen Wilson. Despite five of the individuals originally confessing to the crime, the “Beatrice Six” as they became known, were exonerated by DNA evidence in 2009, a turn of events which divides our community still today.

As part of the project, Community Players produced an original theatrical work titled GAGE COUNTY, NE in August, 2021. The play was written and directed by New York-based Cecilia Rubino and featured a cast of 16 area performers. For more information about our production and the thoughtful process we undertook while sharing our part of this difficult story, please click here.

We know that this case brings up strong emotions and opinions in our community. We ask those with concerns about our participation to watch the series in its entirety, after which time we would be glad to have in-person conversations about our involvement.

All episodes of the series are now available for streaming on HBO Max.

View the series trailer here: