Divining sticks and wandering preachers will be the subject of Missouri Southern’s opening play for the 2005-2006 season.

The Diviners, winner of the American College Theatre Festival written by Jim Leonard, Jr. and directed by Dr. Jay Fields, head of the department of theatre, will be performed by Southern’s theatre department Sept. 13-17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bud Walton theatre.

The show is set in the small town of Zion, Ind. during prohibition in 1935 and portrays the relationship between Buddy Layman, a 17-year-old mentally handicapped boy with a talent for divining water and C.C. Showers, a wandering revival preacher trying to switch his occupation and how the town reacts to the events that follow.

Shane Rudolph, freshman theatre major, plays the role of Layman and explained that while his character has the talent of divining (finding water with a Y-shaped stick) he is deathly afraid of water.

“It takes everything in him to find it, but he can’t be near it because his mama died drowning in the river saving him,” Rudolph said.

When Showers shows up in town, Buddy’s dad gives him a job in a garage. The townspeople think Showers may be able to help Buddy with his problems. However, Showers is trying to escape his role as a preacher.

“Being a Christian playing a Christian that doesn’t want to have anything to do with God anymore is hard to do,” said Ben Horine, junior theatre major who portrays Showers.

“My character plays emotions any believer would have at some point in life, but to portray that type of attitude on stage is difficult.”

In fact, part of the reason Showers and Layman become such good friends is because Layman is the only person in town who doesn’t care that Showers was a preacher before he came to Zion. He only cares about who Showers is and, partly because of this, Showers is drawn to Buddy.

“The metaphor for the production is the audience looking down from the top of a cyclone watching what the cyclone metaphorically does to the town: how everything goes out of whack from one thing [the death of one member],” said Todd Manley, freshman theatre major who plays the role of Dewey Maples.

Fields described The Diviners as “not a meaty show-it is a down-home type show with a very serious message and a very serious ending.”

“I would hope they might examine their own beliefs to see if what they believe are good causes, are always the same kind of causes they think they are,” Fields said.

“You know sometimes all of us are passionate about something and we think it’s going to get this outcome and sometimes that passion leads to other things. And when it comes to religion, people who are passionate sometimes can’t see beyond what their own beliefs are to other things. This show reveals those other things.”

Preparation for the play started when the cast auditioned last spring.

Rudolph said his high school performed The Diviners the year before he became involved in the theatre department. He heard it was one of the best theatre productions the school had every done. When he heard Southern planned on performing it, he auditioned.

The cast has put several hours into the production already.

“Anybody can memorize lines,” said Sarah Jones, sophomore secondary speech communication and theatre education, “but you have to find the heart in the character for it to really come out to the audience.”

Jones stressed the importance of being true to the playwright while preparing to perform the role.

She said while actors and actresses are to put some of themselves into the character, when the individual comes out on stage the audience should see the character the playwright intended it to be instead of the individual actor or actress being him or her self.

It takes plenty of preparation from the cast to get into their roles. They have several different rehearsals including exaggeration, objective, and speed rehearsals all used effectively to prune and perfect their characters.

“If you came to a rehearsal, you’d think ‘what are you doing?’ but it helps get into character,” Jones said.

The cast also kept journals of their character’s life in the early 1900s through the set time in 1935.

“Everybody has their own little niche in character in the show,” Jones said.

She said it was a lot of work and thinks the audience will notice the time put into the production.

To buy tickets, stop by the theatre office in the Taylor Performing Arts Center or call 625-3190.

Tickets are $3 for adults and $1 for senior citizens and high school students.