Eaglecrest theatre recently put on The Diviners as their annual fall play on November 15th, 16th, and 17th. The play follows the community of Zion, Indiana and the Layman family during the 1930’s and 40’s. Buddy Layman is 14 and his older sister, Jennie Mae, is 16. As a baby, Buddy almost drowns and his mom must save him from the river. Tragically, his mother dies trying to save him. Since this moment, Buddy is autistic and deathly afraid of water. He refuses to bathe and panics whenever it rains. The town knows that when Buddy says it’s going to rain, it will rain. Things start to turn around when C.C. Showers, from Kansas, comes to town. He quickly befriends Buddy and a deep attraction forms between him and Jennie Mae. The large age difference between them is a source of tension throughout the play and creates many awkward moments. The town believes they are saved when C.C. admits that he used to be a preacher and Norma Henshaw, a devout Catholic woman, has never been happier when C.C. starts to help Buddy with his affliction with water. C.C. firmly tells the community of Zion he is done with preaching multiple times, but none of them believe him. The first act ends with C.C. and Jennie Mae washing Buddy’s feet. A true miracle. Throughout the second act, C.C. continues to make Buddy see that the rain isn’t harmful. In an intense scene, we see C.C. holding Buddy tight in a rainstorm forcing him to see that he can breathe and that he’s alright. After, the two of them go down to the river and C.C. bathes Buddy for the first time in a long time. The community of Zion meets them at the river singing a religious song. In a twisted fate of events, Buddy slips and starts to drown. C.C. and the community of Zion cannot save him and he passes away under the waves. The ending scene cuts to two people of Zion, Basil and Dewey, remembering the event with melancholy voices.

The play is a remarkable story showing a character with autism, the tension within religion, and true tragedy. In order to create this production, the cast and technical crew worked for many months. Stephanie Swenson and Lindsey Pesek created the vision for Eaglecrest theatre the summer before the year started. Pesek states that,

“Swenson and I made a goal this summer, actually, to choose shows, direct, and put together theatre art that kind of told the story of the marginalized. So not a story about rich people having first world problems. Actually telling stories about people with some hardship.”

The Diviners definitely told an uncommon story that many community members loved. Zoe Griffiths played the female lead, Jennie Mae. Her connection with the audience and the way she combined chemistry and tension with C.C. Showers was amazing. In order to create this connection with her character and the audience, Griffiths states that,

“I bullet journaled her [Jennie Mae’s] life including the past and future as well as every line she said so that I was able to play her to the best of my ability. Making such a strong connection to the character is hard, but once done the audience can form an emotional connection to the character also. This adds a level of authenticity that all actors strive for.”

Many cast members did this, and you could tell forming this connection between themselves, their character, and the audience was a focal point of rehearsals.

The technical crew also took on a huge challenge of creating a raked stage. A raked stage is essentially a slanted stage so that it is lower near the audience and higher the further away the actors are. Katharina Tucker commented, “The hardest part of [making] the raked stage was trying to put it together with a tight deadline. As most things are, deadlines and time are the biggest challenges we face.” There were also many sound effects to imitate wind and thunder during the rainstorms.

Many things go into a theatre production that the audience never sees. The week of the show, cast and crew were at school until nine rehearsing. The Saturday before the show they were at the school for 9 hours doing final construction and run throughs. For two months, from auditions to the first show, they rehearsed every day after school. There was also another nine hour Saturday spent purely building the set. Along with a huge amount of personal time to get everything ready. Throughout this process, the people in the theatre community form very close bonds. Their hard work and talent can be seen in every production they do. If you couldn’t go to The Diviners, be sure to get a ticket to their spring musical, Once On This Island!