'The Diviners' opens Wednesday at Southeast's Rose Theatre

Dr. Sharon Bebout-Carr is drawn to stories about how people function as part of a community, particularly a community under stress. She has written three plays that examine communities. "Walking on our Knees" was a performance ethnography delving into the lives of coal miners, "Heads Above Water, Heartblood in the Sand" told the stories of families and communities inundated by the flood of 1993, and "Ghosts Still Speak," based on a book about the devastating New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812, looked at both the history and modern changes wrought by the quakes.

Bebout-Carr didn't write "The Diviners," a Depression-era play about people in a struggling small town where a brain-damaged boy has a special gift. But the play fits nicely within the scope of her concerns. "In many ways each of these characters is trapped by the things that define them," she says.

Bebout-Carr directs "The Diviners," the final production of the 2002-2003 University Theatre season, opening Wednesday at Rose Theatre.

"The Diviners" won the 1980 American College Theatre Playwriting Contest. A tragedy without villains, it has been compared to "Our Town" in its portrayal of small-town life. "There are no bad guys in this play," Bebout-Carr says. "They're all very good, good-hearted people with wonderful intentions who somehow as a collective create a tragedy."

Dan Graul plays Buddy Layman, a boy who nearly drowned as a small child but now can divine water. Buddy was written to be played as 14 or 17. Graul is 22. "In some ways Dan has quite a challenging making Buddy believable at that age," Bebout-Carr says.

As lapsed preacher C.C. Showers, Adam Rutledge spends part of the play carrying Graul around, another challenge because Graul is the bigger man.

Water plays an important role in the play, with scenes at a well and at a river. Creating hydrological effects on stage is the job of Ken Cole, who is in charge of lighting the play.

"It's done through the use of color and moving light and angles and trying to simulate the way light reflects off water onto people," he says.

A variety of techniques are used to create the effect, something Cole has done on two previous productions. "Every set is different, and every show is different," Cole said. "You have to bend the technique."

In the case of the well, light will be used to create "an aura that he has indeed found the water," Cole said.

Another role of lighting in this play is to bring out the humanity of the characters. "This really is a story that could have happened in anybody's neighborhood 60 years ago," Cole said.

The other cast members: Christy Beckham as Jennie May Layman, Tim Nicolai as Ferris Layman, Sarah Moore as Norma Henshaw, Meredith Lape as Darlene Henshaw, Judy Pratcher as Goldie Short, Mike Culbertson as Basil Bennett, Sara Lintner as Luella Bennett, Adam Leong as Melvin Wilder, and Dave Whitlock as Dewey Maples.

Dennis C. Seyer designed the set. The costume designer is Rhonda Weller-Stilson.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182