Waldorf’s first theatre production of 2014 a thumbs up
Abbie Wells shows The Diviners program with a big thumbs up.
By: Nick Heimerman
It’s that time of year again! Time for the amazingly talented Waldorf College Theatre to put on a show! Their performances this year kicked off with the play, The Diviners. The play was written by Jim Leonard, Jr. and was directed by Waldorf’s College Director of Theatre, Dr. Robert Aufrance.
The show consists of eleven cast members, eight of which are freshman. The freshmen are: Toney Wise, Jr., Korrin Hult, Marlon Banks, Anna Obrcht, Kaleb Michel, Jennifer Martin, Alex Burns and William Kreitlow. Seeing this play was a great way to be introduced to the brand new talent that Waldorf College recruited.
When asked about the casting of the play audience member, Haley Rubin stated, “I thought that the characterization and acting of everyone in the cast were very well done. I look forward to the next performance.”
The Diviners takes place in a small town in Southern Indiana where an ex-preacher, C.C. Showers (Philip Detrick) shows up and is looking for a place to work. Ferris Layman (Marlon Banks) offers him a job as his assistant mechanic. Ferris has two kids: Buddy (Toney Wise, Jr.) and Jennie Mae (Korrin Hult). C.C. becomes very close to the Layman family and even becomes very close to Buddy. Soon after C.C.’s arrival, the rest of the townspeople hear about him being an ex-preacher. The town has not had a preacher in quite some time. No one else was excited about the situation as much as Norma Henshaw (Abbie Wells). Norma was convinced that the arrival of the ex-preacher was a sign from god and that C.C. was going to revive the church in their town. C.C. wanted nothing to do with the church anymore and soon became very irritated with Norma and her group of girls trying to push him into becoming a preacher again.
Time passes and C.C. becomes close with Buddy Layman who is not necessarily right in the head. Buddy is also very afraid of water because of a near death experience when he was a child, which resulted in his mother’s death. Throughout the play Buddy is tormented by a horrible itch that started in his feet and eventually spreads through his body. The local doctor of sorts/ farmer, Basil Bennett (Kaleb Michel) tells C.C. and Ferris that only a good cleaning will get rid of Buddy’s itch. C.C. later convinces Buddy to take a walk to the river with him. He gets Buddy to wade into the water with him and dumps water on him. Norma and her group of girls show up and believe C.C. is baptizing Buddy and begin praising the lord. This distracts C.C. from Buddy and Buddy starts drifting away from C.C. Buddy then slips under the water and is lost. C.C. tries to save him, but is too late.
When asked for her overall opinion on how the play went, Stage Manager, Emily Walker stated, “Overall, I think the play went extremely well, it caused audience members to think and immerse themselves into the world of the play because of the minimal sets and props and it also challenged the actors to act in a way they hadn’t before.”
This was Walker’s first show with the Waldorf theatre department and she reacted to her experience by saying, “I think I was a good stage Manager, with it being my first show here, I was kind of nervous and didn’t want to let Bob down, but I learned a lot about myself as a Stage Manager. Despite the stress the role of Stage Manager comes with, I enjoyed every minute of it.”