Artists (and their fans) sometimes have love affairs with signature works. Singers often become identified with a particular tune that defines their career (think Tony Bennett and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”). Painters are sometimes known by a single work or style (consider Wyeth and “Christine’s World”). Dancers and choreographers are often credited with advancing a unique style that becomes a new standard for excellence (say, Martha Graham and modern dance). The same is true for directors of plays, who often love a script so much they never miss an opportunity to share it with friends.
One of those opportunities is underway right now and you, dear readers, will not want to miss this occasion. Since I know this director fairly well, I know her backstory with this play pretty well. “The Diviners” first entered her consciousness while she visited a former student who was attending North Carolina University School of the Arts in 1982. From that day, it became a landmark work for her and her students. From her first effort directing “The Diviners,” six of those high school actors went on to making the arts their careers. A second generation of actors took up the standard a few years later and from that “Diviners” cast three became theatre professionals. Here in Camden County, a third generation of young performers is readying “The Diviners” for a new audience. Some of them have the talent and desire to carry on their studies; only time will tell what their stories will be. But, like other performers before them, their work with this play will never leave their souls.
Maybe it’s the story; perhaps it is characters’ relationships. It could be the play’s ideas are remarkably powerful; it might also be that tragedies, told with laughter piercing the tears, appeal to our emotional constitution. The author of “The Diviners” is Jim Leonard, much of whose work centers on archetypal images of folk life. In this play, the story begins and ends with Buddy Layman, a boy with special needs and special gifts that captures the audience hearts and leaves them emotionally destroyed at play’s end. You are hereby warned: missing “The Diviners” will leave a hole in your cultural life; seeing it will leave you understanding the power of love and friendship, and also knowing the depths of sorrow.
“The Diviners” will take the stage at the CCHS Auditorium on Thursday (9.14), Friday (9.15), and Saturday (9.16) evenings and during a matinee on Sunday (9.17). Tickets are available at the auditorium in advance or at the door, day of show. With moving dialogue, appealing characters, and true to life emotions, “The Diviners” will provide you with a full evening’s entertainment and lots of residue for conversation afterward.
The following weekend, our community gets to revisit the cultural treasure that is “Crooked Rivers’ Sisters Three.” This historical, musical trip through the history of Camden County, along the crooked rivers that define our geography and way of life, will be reprised next month, Sept. 22, 23 and 24, at the CCHS Auditorium. Tickets will be available soon and production is underway.
Opportunities for this week and the future: the remarkable vocalist Heather Headley plays the Florida Theatre on 9.12 at 8 p.m.; smooth jazz enthusiasts won’t want to miss Fourplay at the Florida Theatre on 9.21 at 8 p.m.; writer and storyteller extraordinaire Garrison Keillor shares news from Lake Wobegon on 10.10 at TUC, 7:30 p.m.
If you have ideas or events you want me to share with readers, send me a note at pkraack1@tds.net.
8.30.06
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