Floyd Central High
School and Silver Creek High School teamed up to put on Jim Leonard, Jr.’s
great American tragedy The Diviners, set during the beginning of The
Great Depression in a very small fictional town of Zion in Southern Indiana,
probably not far from the high schools’ non-fictional towns of Floyds Knobs
and Sellersburg. The story couldn’t be much more different than Floyd’s
entry into last year’s Thespian Festival – the hilariously outrageous Zombie
Prom. Cleary the schools and their actors excel at a wide spectrum of
material.
The
Diviners begins with the ending. Buddy Layman has gone on from this world.
He drowned in the river. The slow boy who could divine water, but had a mortal
fear of it. A fear sprung from a horribly traumatic incident in his barely
remembered youth – the day he was saved from drowning. And the day that his
mother died saving him. He doesn’t seem to exactly remember the event, but his
fear of water is overwhelming, as is his longing to see his mother again, the
confusion as to why he can’t, and a subconscious guilt over her loss.
Aaron
Mikel stars as Buddy Layman, a very difficult role demanding a
transformation into the mentally challenged Buddy in voice, body language,
humor, and drama – and without overdoing it. And Aaron embodies him with
remarkable skill, making us laugh and sympathize and dread the end we know is
coming. We see most of his personality come out through his new friendship with
the stranger in town, Mr. C. C. Showers, a disillusioned preacher looking for
odd jobs and resisting anything that smacks of religion. Colin Schreier
is C. C., and he captures his character very naturally – a good guy who cares
deeply about others, but is struggling with an inner pain of his own. Together
they make a great team as Buddy revels in having a newfound “pal,” and as C.
C. tries to use the friendship to help Buddy cure his growing itch caused by
ringworms – a condition for which water may be the only thing that can help.
Buddy
ain’t the only person in the small town of Zion to take a shine to C. C.
Showers. His older sister, sixteen-year-old Jennie Mae, becomes infatuated
herself, despite C. C. being many years older and a bit awkward around her
affection. And despite a bad, ill-timed joke about the bubbles in the creek
being “fish farts.” Sarah Vogt delivers a great performance as the
straight-talking Jennie as she does some highly amusing flirting with C. C. and
tries to lovingly help her younger brother.
The
town is full of other well-portrayed characters. Katie Thurston is a riot
as the very conservative Christian waitress Goldie Short who you don’t want to
cross. As the old coot Basil Bennett, it’s truly hard to believe that Matt
Payne is a high school student and not a sixty-year-old Southern man with a
funny voice and personality. Meredith Haas complements him as his spunky
and skeptical wife Luella. Taylor Walker makes for a good, gossipy Norma
Henshow, and her niece Darlene would no doubt provide plenty of gossip material
with the playful April Hill as the sexy town tart. When Melvin Wilder (Tim
McDonald) tries to get Dewey Maples (Brad Ling) ready for a date with
Darlene, it’s a memorable dancing lesson that might be gossip potential as
well. And Kolton Norton is Buddy’s father Ferris who seems a bit
distanced from the world, missing his wife and resisting the need to force his
son to deal with the trauma that haunts them all. You wonder what his reaction
will be when he hears that his son has now drowned as well.
Co-Directors
Chris Bundy and Jason Roseberry have actually collaborated on the
show before. Several years ago Jason was C. C. Showers in Director Bundy’s
Floyd Central production. Years later, Chris Bundy asked Jason to direct a show
at Floyd Central, and he chose The Diviners. Now they direct together,
and it’s clear that they have a love of the show and know how to help shape it
into a story that can both charm with its small-town humor and hit you with its
painful drama.
Performed June 26, 2008.
Rob Hopper
Executive Director
National Youth Theatre
~ Cast ~
Basil Bennett: Matt Payne
Dewey Maples: Brad Ling
Buddy Layman: Aaron Mikel
Melvin Wilder: Tim McDonald
Luella Bennett: Meredith Haas
C. C. Showers: Colin Schreier
Jennie Mae Layman: Sarah Vogt
Ferris Layman: Kolton Norton
Norma Henshaw: Taylor Walker
Goldie Short: Katie Thurston
Darlene Henshaw: April Hill
Directors: Jason Roseberry and Chris Bundy
Stage Manager: Jennifer Broadus
Technical Director: Sean O’Sullivan
Lighting Director: Amie Villiger
Sound: Josh Stallings
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