The Nicholls Players expect their spring play “The Diviners” to be a success despite recent changes in cast members.The play will feature a cast including four roles that have been filled with replacements, the most recent being filled a week and a half ago.
Lisa Cunningham, history sophomore from Houma who worked the sound for the canceled production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” is preparing to take the stage as Norma.
“There were two Normas before me. I’m the third Norma,” Cunningham said. “We had some people who left us hanging. They had conflicts with practice and their schedule.”
Cunningham said it was this pattern that left the cast in its current situation.
“People kept dropping; then new people would come in,” Cunningham said. “They would get behind and drop, so it put us behind.”
Cast members said they are optimistic about the performance despite these changes.
“It will come together. It always does,” Cunningham said. “It’s going to be good.”
The Players said they have found a way to cover every area, even with the changes in cast members.
Birte Marthinsen, freshman from Norway, said all parts have been filled and she is excited about the performance.
Cast members said they hope the audience will focus on the message of the play and not the issues they have faced in putting the production on.
Treva Breaux, an eighth grade student at E.D. White High School who plays the lead role of Buddy Layman, said the play takes the audience in a positive direction. “It’s inspiring,” Breaux said.
“The Diviners,” by Jim Leonard Jr., is set in the Midwest during the Great Depression. The story is about a young, misunderstood boy who has the power to divine water and uses a “Y” shaped rod to locate water sources. He can also sense when it is about to rain. The boy soon meets a weary ex-preacher who drifts into town and is urged by the residents to return to his former way of life.
Stanley Coleman, director and assistant professor of mass communication, said “The Diviners” is ultimately a story about a young boy who is afraid of water.
“At the core, it is about the effort to overcome that fear,” Coleman said.
The play is expected to last two hours, not including intermission, and will be held on March 18-21 in Talbot Theatre. The production of “The Diviners” will be the Nicholls Players’ first performance since the cancelation of “A Streetcar Named Desire” last fall.
The Nicholls Players expect about 300 people to attend the performance.
