The Montgomery County Cultural Center and Iron Age Theatre Present The Diviners by Jim Leonard Jr.

Directed and Designed by Randall Wise and John Doyle


October 31 - November 23
Friday - Sunday

In a small farm community during the depression water and faith are in short supply. A charismatic but back-sliding preacher drifts into town and meets a gentle but misunderstood boy with the gift of divining or water-witching. The two outcasts find a common bond and help each other divine for truth, faith and hope. The townspeople though demand the preacher return to a way of life he no longer believes in and it drives both men to a crisis of trust. Jim Leonard Jr.’s earthy, funny, poignant and profoundly tragic play has echoes of Steinbeck’s classic depression era work. The characters are simple but good people searching for hope and something to believe in.

with Jered McLenigan Anthony M. Giampetro Kate McLenigan Steve Hatzai Linda Palmarozza John Fidler Melissa diLeonardo Susan Paige Lane Linda Newsted Ray Saraceni Markus Zanders Dulcimer Performed by Linda Beck

at the Centre Theater
208 Dekalb Street Norristown
610-279-1013For information e-mailus.

Read Reviews of the Production
Meet the Cast of The Diviners
Read more about the production
Read an article by Cynthia J. McGroarty of the Philadelphia Inquirer
Iron Age Theatre and The Centre Theater has been nominated for the 2002-2003
Barrymore Award for
Best Ensemble in a Play for Terra Nova

Links About the Production

Fear and Phobia Case Studies Hydrophobia Overcoming fear of water A Proposal for Divining Research Your Gateway to the Paranormal - Divining An Article on the Source of Divining Rod Movement Information about the State of Indiana The History of Schwinn Bicycles White House Site on Herbert Hoover The Depression Papers of Herbert Hoover Hoover Quotes about Prosperity Drowning Information

Reviews:

Jered McLenigan perfectly captures Buddy's impetuous childishness and lack of self-control, as well as his sweetness and innocence. As Showers, Anthony M. Giampetro gives a sound surface reading of this decent, well-intentioned man, but doesn't offer much sense of the spiritually and personally troubled man within.
...the final scene is dramatically and theatrically stunning. Taking place in part underwater, it is so brilliantly imagined by Leonard and evocatively staged here that I'm sure it will stay in my mind long after the memory of the rest of The Diviners has vanished.
Douglas Keating
Philadelphia Inquirer

The Iron Age Theatre Company persistently produces quality theater. The director-designer team of Villanova University grads John Doyle and Randy Wise haven’t found a wide audience for their productions yet, but they deserve one.
Their production of the rarely-seen drama The Diviners reveals why. Jim Leonard Jr.’s powerful Depression-era fable of a mentally retarded boy who might have special powers and the former preacher who tried to save him is a splendidly complex, deeply moving play, and Iron Age reveals its strengths as well as their own. Jered McLenigan sincerely portrays Buddy, the boy whose lifelong fear of water, caused by his mother’s drowning while saving him, has made him a “diviner” – a finder of water.
A splendid ensemble creates the tiny town of Zion, Ind. With grace and conviction. Markus Zanders and John Fidler play bumbling farmhands; Melissa diLeonardo is Jennie Mae’s precocious friend; Linda Palmarozza, Linda Newsted, and Susan Paige Lane are the women demanding a church; and Ray Saraceni plays a big hearted farmer. All bring small, sweet scenes to life with touching detail, building a foundation that makes the play’s proportions – which approach Greek tragedy in its stunning climax – genuine and forceful.
Doyle and Wise work miracles in Montgomery County Cultural Center’s tiny theater, with a set suggesting Indiana’s parched rolling hills, bold, evocative lighting and gentle music underscoring the play’s richness.
Mark Cofta
Main Line Ticket

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