The James Logan Courier

By Maria Soldana, Courier Staff Writer

In James Logan Drama's most recently performed play, The Diviners, Buddy Layman, played by junior Skyler Lee, is a young boy who nearly loses his life in a river while with his mother drowns. Buddy is left traumatized by this near death experience and develops a horrible fear of all water.

A former priest, C.C. Showers, played by Marcos Enriquez, comes along to Buddy's house looking for a job and tries helping Buddy get over his grand fear of water. In the end, Showers is successful because he gets Buddy to get into a river to wash, something Buddy doesn't do much on account of his fear. Showers turns his attention away from Buddy to yell at a group of women who believe that he is still a priest is baptizing Buddy. Tragedy ensues. Like many of our school performances, The Diviners was absolutely amazing. Honestly, I thought that this play would be a train wreck because of the title, making me think it would be a religious sort of play. It did refer to God a few times, but not enough to make this a religious play. The performers did an excellent job in making the play worth watching.

The technical manager, Saniel Baipai, added a great effect to the play with his manipulation of the lights and sound, making me feel as though I were there with Buddy in the forest by his house, or at his house while it thundered outside, or even at Goldie's Cafe with Buddy's father, Ferris Layman, and Showers as they drank their coffees.

A former Logan student who attended a performance, Schyster Corrales, said that the performers did "an amazing job! It made [him] forget that it was merely a high school play."

My absolute favorite performer was Skyler Lee. I learned that he has always had a passion for performing. He has a long history of performances. He said that, ever since he was a child, he has always loved performing. I had a feeling this was so after watching how excellently he performed.

The other lead performer, Marcos Enriquez, experienced his first brush with the Theater in this play. For it being his first time, he did very well and I hope to see more of his performances.

The performer portraying Jennie Mae Layman (who was Buddy Laymen's older sister), Alexandra Ortiz, also did exceptionally well. She showed a variety of different emotions, such a being aggravated with having to take care of Buddy or falling somewhat in love with C.C Showers or being horrified and terribly sad after witnessing her brother drown. The Diviners is her third and final high school production, since she will be graduating this year.

Another favorite performer (next to Skyler Lee, of course) was Jordan Daniels. He played Melvin Wilder, who is one of the main townspeople. He quickly caught the audience's attention and had us all laughing throughout the play. He, too, has a long history of performing.

According to wikipedia, The Diviners is a play by Jim Leonard, Jr. It takes place in the fictional town of Zion, Indiana during the Great Depression era.