The Diviners
by Austin Repertory Theatre (ART)
Oct. 12 - Oct. 16 (2023)
The Diviners is a play by Jim Leonard, Jr. It takes place in the fictional town of Zion, Indiana during the 1930s/Great Depression era. The play was originally developed with assistance from the American College Theatre Festival and originally performed by the Hanover College Theatre Group in 1980. The play later received its first professional production with the Circle Repertory Company in 1980.
The play begins and ends with elegies spoken by two of the townspeople describing what happened the day of Buddy's tragedy. The body of the play is the memory of the time leading to the climatic event. Buddy is searching (divining) for water for local farmer, Basil. Luella, Basil's wife, refuses to believe that the boy can find water.
Set in the early days of the Depression in a small southern Indiana town named Zion, Buddy Layman is a mentally-challenged boy whose sweet nature touches most people he meets..
A “slice of life” play, “The Diviners”, takes the viewers intimately close to the main characters :
- CC Showers- having a crisis of faith and purpose
- Buddy - who can mysteriously “feel” when water is near, yet fears it to the point of phobia.
- Ferris - A single father trying to raise two challenging kids in the Depression.
- Jennie Mae – forced to grow-up too soon, facing normal coming of age feelings
- Townspeople who each have a point of view and in their desire to achieve what they believe to be righteous and true, cause distraction and calamity.
-- Wikipedia
Austin Repertory Theatre seeks actor to portray single father of two difficult children during the Depression.
Auditions in-person on October 16; video submissions accepted until that date.
Email sstuart@smca.com
Rehearsals begin November 14, 2023; run is January 19 - 24, 2024.
Pay is $200.
