The Diviners, April 2013
Winner of the American College Theater Festival, and written when Jim Leonard, Jr. was just 19 years old, this marvelously theatrical play is the story of a disturbed young man with an uncanny gift for finding water and his friendship with a disenchanted preacher in southern Indiana in the early 1930s. When the boy was young he almost drowned. This trauma and the loss of his mother in the same accident left him deathly afraid of water. The preacher, set on breaking away from a long line of Kentucky family preachers, is determined not to do what he does best, and instead works as a mechanic for the boy’s father. The town doesn’t have a preacher and the women try to persuade him to preach while he tries to persuade the boy to wash. When the preacher finally gets the boy in the river and is washing him, the townspeople mistake the scene for a baptism. They descend on the event that sadly changes from sacred to tragic.
The Diviners by Jim Leonard, Jr
Spring Mainstage 2013
The Cast
Buddy Layman Samuel Rosario
Jennie Mae Layman Vanessa Jones
Ferris Layman Angel Reyes
Sara Layman Emily Trapp
C.C. Showers Joel Kawira
Father Tavo Parral
Norma Henshaw Rhianna Cockrell
Darlene Henshaw Melanie Hertzler
Goldie Short Adrienne Schmucker
Basil Bennett Martin Flowers
Luella Bennett Gwen Stephan
Melvin Wilder Isacc Hernandez
Dewey Maples Paul Zehr
Ensemble Kyle Davis, Miranda Earnhart,
Jenna Lee, Blake Shetler
The Production Team
Director Tamera Izlar
Stage Manager Angie Troyer
Assistant Stage Managers Blake Shetler, Miranda Earnhart
Producer Doug Liechty Caskey
Technical Director Andrew Moeggenborg
Assistant Technical Director Angie Troyer
Set Designer Andrew Moeggenborg
Lighting Designer Jay Mast
Sound Designer Patrick Ressler
Costume Designer Natasha Weisenbeck
Hair & Make up Designer Clare Maxwell
Dialect Coach Paul Meier
Choreographer Rachel Miller
Bike Consultant Jesse Bontrager
Light Board Operator Ben Ganger
Sound Board Operator Robert Learch
Master Carpenter Alan Smith
Master Electrician Gwen Stephan
Wardrobe Manager Natasha Weisenbeck
Set Construction Alan Smith, Angie Troyer,
Gwen Stephan, Robert Lerch
Hair & Make up Dressers Clare Maxwell, Hannah Sauder
Graphic Designer Hannah Grieser
Photographer Hannah Bartel
ASL Interpreting Professor Colleen Geier
ASL Interpreters Rebekah Lintz, Stacy Wyse
Production Assistant Sandy Slabaugh
House Manager Brandie Brubaker
Publicity Jodi Beyeler, Becca Kraybill
Advance Ticket Sales Lisa Weaver