"Diviners" on the Radio Tomorrow!

Continuing on this week's "Diviners" theme (since it opens tomorrow night at Heartland Theatre), director Chris Connelly and actors John Bowen (who plays lapsed preacher C.C. Showers) and George Freeman (who plays Ferris Layman, the father of the boy who has divining skills) will appear live on the radio tomorrow at Bloomington-Normal's WJBC to talk about the play.

Connelly, Bowen and Freeman will be talking to mid-morning host Patti Penn on the air at WJBC from approximately 9 to 9:25 am.

I hear through the grapevine that they may be offering a pair of tickets to "The Diviners," so you may want to listen in (and possibly call in) if you're looking for tickets.

WJBC is on the air at 1230 AM and 93.7 FM, or you can listen online here.

"The Diviners" Opens Thursday at Heartland Theatre Company

Heartland Theatre's production of "The Diviners," Jim Leonard Jr.'s "splendid Depression-era fable," opens this Thursday, September 8th. "The Diviners" is the second show of Heartland's ambitious new season, with the 10-minute plays back in June the first. After "Diviners," Heartland moves on to Deborah Zoe Laufer's "Sirens" in November, Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius" in February, and Tracy Letts' "Superior Donuts" in April.

But first... "The Diviners"!

"The Diviners" is billed as "a play in two acts and elegies," underlining the play's serious themes on the issues of religion, trust and personal faith, as a lapsed preacher named C.C. Showers arrives in a small Indiana town in the 1930s, coming up against townspeople's conflicting views on what faith really means. Several ladies in town see handsome, charismatic C.C. and immediately want him to take over as their town preacher, which he absolutely doesn't want to do. But C.C.'s most difficult problem arises with a boy named Buddy, who happens to be a first-rate "diviner," meaning he can find water even in times of drought. Buddy is also deathly afraid of water. And when C.C. arrives, Buddy is suffering from a terrible itch that only bathing in cool water can fix. The boy is afraid, C.C. is determined to help, and the townspeople and their fixed notions of who ought to act like what only make things worse.

Leonard's play is poetic and engaging, raising lots of questions without necessarily providing the answers. It was written in 1980, when Leonard was still an undergrad, as an entry for Hanover College in the American College Theater Festival. Since then, the play has been well-produced throughout the country, as its down-home, unpretentious view of small-town life during the Depression has proved appealing to audiences, and C.C.'s and Buddy's struggle with what to believe in times of trouble never goes out of style.

For Heartland, Christopher Connelly directs a cast that includes Kim Behrens, Derrick Billings, John Bowen, George Freeman, Lauren Hoefle, Michael Pullin, Amanda Serianni-Davis, Joy Schuler, Sarah Stone Innerst, Reggie Walker and Rian Wilson. Michael Pullin has designed the weathered wood set, with Tommy Nolan acting as lighting designer in this aggressively lit play.

The Thursday, September 8 performance is a "Pay What You Can" preview, with no reservations accepted. Beginning Friday, September 9, tickets are $12 on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with discounts for seniors and students on Thursdays and Sundays. Curtain is at 7:30 pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 2 pm on Sunday. For those performances, reservations are strongly encouraged.

"The Diviners" at Heartland Theatre Company is sponsored by the Religion, Culture and Arts Endowment of the First Methodist Church in Normal.

For more information or to make reservations, visit the Heartland website here.

Note: The artwork used for Heartland's poster, shown above, "Untitled" oil on wood, is used by permission of the artist, Laura Von Rosk. You may see more images of her work at lauravonrosk.com

What You Wish For? Make It Guster and a Meat Cup. At Ravinia. (By Scott Johnson.)

(Once again, I have a guest blogger to write about a concert. Once again, that concert is Guster, this time at the Ravinia Festival outside Chicago on September 3, 2011. Take it away, Scott Johnson!)


It's been slightly over a year since our return to the concert scene, and while it has nothing to do with Central Illinois arts, I am glad to file another review of Guster in concert for the historical record.

Last night's foray took us back to the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, where most of a lifetime ago we attended a concert or two but are now having a hard time remembering exactly who we saw (why isn't there a complete list online?). The North Shore venue is still gorgeous, of course, with a variety of new buildings I'm sure weren't there 35 years ago, and the lawn seating still looked like an appealing option except for the stormy weather that loomed to the west. This time, we were in the pavilion, baby – yep, age has its privileges, and the center-aisle box seats with their wide-bottomed chairs suited us just fine.

As at our previous Guster experience, the outdoor setting provided a breezy, relaxed atmosphere for the Boston-based band. Grinding to the end of an eleven-month tour supporting their sixth album, Easy Wonderful, the group showed no signs of fatigue and kept the audience standing, swaying, and singing through an energetic 21-song set, played without intermission. Six of the songs came from the new album, which I have mixed feelings about, so I was pleasantly surprised the band led off with "What You Wish For," the upbeat lead-off cut from their 1999 breakout album, Lost and Gone Forever, featuring Ryan Miller and Adam Gardner singing counterpoint to perfect effect.

Easy Wonderful is the band's most successful album – peaking at No. 22 on Billboard's U.S. chart and No. 2 on the alt rock chart – and judging from the audience their hard work has paid off with legions of new college-age fans, easily detected because they didn't know the words to the old stuff. But I've never really warmed up to the album. To me, a fan for only one year but with some serious iPod playing time invested in Guster, several of the songs – and I'm talking to you right now, "Do You Love Me" – are over-the-top sunny and lacking either the humorous or angsty edge that I really enjoy. Then, too, many of the songs seem to lack the crafty guitar hooks that captured me in the first place. As I suspected, however, in concert none of this really matters. The atmosphere sells the songs. When Guster rolled out "This is How it Feels to Have a Broken Heart," a disco revival that I banished from my iPod a long time ago, I cringed. But perhaps the joke has been on me all along: Miller finished the song with a huge glitter-ball covering his head, wailing away on the harmonica tucked inside.

For longtime fans, and there were plenty in attendance, the band hit many high spots: "Demons," "Happier," "Careful," "Satellite," "Barrel of a Gun," "Airport Song," "Amsterdam" (which they skipped the last last time) and a personal favorite, "Center of Attention." Although Guster long ago gave up the bongo-only percussion concept, Brian Rosenworcel still gives a great show of bare-handed drumming on several songs. Meanwhile Miller, Gardner, and new band member Luke Reynolds trade instruments on practically every number, rotating between lead, rhythm, bass, and keyboards, with the occasional ukulele, banjo, and keytar thrown in for good measure.

As the action slowed for a second and Miller broke into a story, we were treated to one of Guster's famous one-offs, perhaps titled "The Meat Cup is Formin' on the Foreman," about Miller's recent experience with a salami and a George Foreman grill.

Sadly, outdoor concerts in the middle of residential neighborhoods mean early encores, and by 10:30 the band was forced to conclude, offering an ear-splitting rendition of Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again." Taking a turn on vocals were Andrew McMahon of Jack's Mannequin (the opening act), the gravel-throated Rosenworcel, and – rather unexpectedly – comedian Will Forte of Saturday Night Live, dressed in Guster regalia. Don't worry, David Coverdale, your job is safe.

Odds & Ends:

• Kudos to Jack's Mannequin for playing through a two-minute blackout early in their set.
• Thumbs down to Ravinia's P.A. music, which was apparently taken from a 1974 compilation album. "How Long?" "Dancing in the Moonlight"? "Close to Me"? Hey, listen, I know I have a lot of these songs on my iPod but that doesn't mean your average alt-rock fan does.
• Two thumbs down to the skunk that went off about halfway through the Guster set. We get enough of this around our house in Bloomington. Come on!
• I just found out that 24 years after their big hit, Whitesnake is still touring, albeit with only one original member.

Eureka College Theatre Looks Intriguing in 2011-12 Season

When I mentioned Eureka College Theatre and their Olio Township Cemetery walk in yesterday's September preview, I noticed they've also announced the rest of their 2011-12 season.

This season, EC's schedule is provocative and intriguing, mixing everything from historical reenactment to improv, with classic theater, fresh new dramatic voices and a children's musical. That includes a one-man show, which I don't recall ever seeing on Eureka's stage.

First up is the cemetery walk, offered September 18 in conjunction with the Woodford County Historical Society. Eureka students will portray historical personages from Eureka and Woodford County's past, telling their stories and why they were important in local history.

Next up is George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man," scheduled for October 4 to 9 in Pritchard Theatre in the middle of the Eureka College campus. Definitely a classic worth reviving, "Arms and the Man" is a witty, wordy comedy about war, romance and heroism. EC Theatre Professor Marty Lynch directs.

Guest director Rhys Lovell brings "Dead Man's Cell Phone," a 2007 play by wiz-kid (and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient) Sarah Ruhl, to Pritchard November 15-20. The play has one of the best opening hooks in theater history, as a woman sits in a café, annoyed by the cell phone that keeps ringing at a neighboring table. Why doesn't the guy answer his phone? Because he's dead. So what is our heroine to do? Pick it up, answer it, and then try to unravel the dead man's life based on who and what is linked on his phone. Lovell is well-known as an actor, playwright, teacher and director in Bloomington-Normal, with credits at Heartland Theatre, ISU and IWU.

December 6 and 7 will see a program of 10-minute plays directed by students, meaning EC is branching out from acting instruction into directing, as well, and that will be followed (February 23-25) by a one-man show, the play "Thom Pain (based on nothing)," by Will Eno, which was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. It's a rambling, funny, sad monologue which New York Times' critic Charles Isherwood called "a small masterpiece." Isherwood wrote, "'Thom Pain' is at bottom a surreal meditation on the empty promises life makes, the way experience never lives up to the weird and awesome fact of being. But it is also, in its odd, bewitching beauty, an affirmation of life's worth."

The popular Red Devils' Improv Troupe returns on March 31, and rounding out the season (April 17-21) will be "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," based on the children's book by Judith Viorst. Viorst teamed with the Kennedy Center in Washington DC to turn her book into a stage musical, writing the book and lyrics herself, with music from Shelly Markham. EC Theatre Professor Holly Rocke will direct "Alexander," which is, as its title suggests, the story of a kid having a really awful day where everything seems to go wrong. "Alexander the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" comes to Pritchard Theatre April 17 to 21.

They're also promising another stage combat workshop in May, with details to be filled in later.

Click here for more information on the entire theater schedule from Eureka College.

September Songs (and Dramas. And Auditions. And Everything Else.)

Yes, it's 100 degrees today and it feels weird to be talking about fall. Still, September is jam-packed with theater offerings and auditions, as many area theaters kick off their fall seasons. Here's some of what's happening around us...

First up: Community Players' "And Then There Were None," directed by Cathy Sutliff, opens tonight, September 1, with a special preview performance. This stage version of the famous Agatha Christie mystery novel strands ten strangers with guilty consciences on an island, and then knocks them off one by one. Community Players' take on "And Then There None" plays September 1-4, 8-11 and 15-17, with Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances at 7:30 pm and Sunday matinees at 2:30 pm. Tickets range from $6-12.

Community Players will also hold auditions for its next production, the sweet and funny Catholic coming-of-age musical, "Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" September 11-13 at the theater on Robinhood Lane. Brian Artman directs.

Tickets are now on sale for ISU's fall season, including Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," which takes the stage at Westhoff Theatre on September 29th, directed by Jeremy Garrett, and "The Women of Lockerbie," a modern story with all the sorrow of a Greek tragedy, coming to the Center for the Performing Arts on September 30th. Click here for more information about ISU's School of Theatre.

As long as you're plotting out your fall schedule, you should know that tickets are available September 6 for the Illinois Voices Theatre/McLean County Museum of History annual Evergreen Cemetery Discovery Walk, featuring ten colorful characters from Bloomington-Normal's past. This year, all these folks are connected to the Civil War in honor of the 150th anniversary of its opening battles. The Discovery Walk happens October 1-2 and 8-9, but you'll want to nab your tickets now, either at the Garlic Press, Evergreen Cemetery or the Museum itself.

Heartland Theatre opens its second show of the 2011-12 season on September 8th when Jim Leonard Jr.'s "The Diviners" opens. This popular play, sponsored by the Religion, Culture and Arts Endowment from the First United Methodist Church in Normal, looks at a former preacher whose faith is tested when he arrives in a small, drought-stricken Indiana town during the Depression and meets a special boy with "divining" skills. Christopher Connelly directs a cast that includes Kim Behrens, Derrick Billings, John Bowen, George Freeman, Lauren Hoefle, Michael Pullin, Amanda Serianni-Davis, Joy Schuler, Sarah Stone Innerst, Reggie Walker and Brian Wilson. "The Diviners" opens September 8th on "Pay What You Can" night, with regular performances from September 9-11, 15-18 and 22-25. Click here for reservation information.

CUTC (the Champaign-Urbana Theater Company) is holding auditions for the 2nd "Rocky Horror Show" in concert. If you've always had a hankering to do the Time Warp again, auditions are Saturday, September 10th from 11 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, September 11th, from noon to 3 pm, with callbacks Sunday at 6 pm, all at the CUTC office on Cunningham in Urbana. The performance itself is scheduled for Saturday, October 22 at Urbana's Canopy Club. You can see all the details here.

Have you been keeping up with New Route Theatre's intriguing "One Shot Deal" series, where local actors and designers put on one-night-only performances of plays with social and cultural significance? September's "One Shot" is "My Name Is Rachel Corrie," a ripped-from-the-headlines, true-life play about an idealistic 23-year-old from Olympia, Washington, who ended up a martyr for the cause of Palestinian freedom. "Rachel Corrie" will be performed at the Eaton Gallery, 411 North Center Street in Bloomington, at 7 pm on September 14th, followed by a panel discussion.

Eureka College Theater, in cooperation with the Woodford County Historical Society, will offer its annual Cemetery Walk at Olio Township Cemetery at 2 pm on Sunday, September 18th. The production will feature Eureka College students portraying people who played important roles in Eureka area history.

Illinois Wesleyan Theatre kicks off its fall season on September 27, when Lillian Hellman's searing "The Children's Hour," about lies, rumors and malicious little girls, opens in McPherson Theatre. Thomas Quinn directs this "Children's Hour," with performances from September 27 to October 2.

If you are a Tennessee Williams fan, Parkland College in Champaign has two shows for you. It's all called "Tennessee100," with two separate evenings of short plays, offered in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Williams' birth. You can see "The Long Goodbye," "The Municipal Abbatoir," "Adam and Eve on a Ferry" and "This Property is Condemned" on September 28 and October 1 and and 7 at 7:30 pm, or "Summer at the Lake," "In Our Profession," "The Chalky White Substance" and "Mister Paradise" on September 30 and October 6 at 7:30 pm and October 8 at 3 pm.

Got anything else you want me to feature? Drop me a note by commenting here or sending me an email at julie@juliekistler.com

Almost Time for Discovery Walk 2011

I really, really like the McLean County Museum of History's annual Discovery Walk, produced in conjunction with Illinois Voices Theatre and Bloomington's Evergreen Cemetery.

In the past, I've written for some of the historic characters who've populated the Discovery Walk, and I've also been a tour guide for groups touring Evergreen Cemetery to hear these voices from the past speak out. Last year, I took on a third role, portraying Lucy Orme Morgan in the Walk.

I will not be on the front lines this time, but I did write another character -- Mrs. Eliza Esque, who helped organize celebrations in honor of soldiers (including her husband), returning from the Civil War as well as the Emancipation Proclamation -- and I'm looking forward to seeing how actress Jennifer Rusk portrays my Eliza! (That's one of the benefits of writing for this sort of thing. Whether your character's historical file is slim or hefty, you can't help but become intrigued and a little bewitched by the person you're trying to conjure up.)

This year, all of the characters relate to the Civil War, as we honor the 150th anniversary of that war beginning. Eliza Esque will be joined by:

George and Frances Ela, a young married couple separated by war but maintaining their love and their patriotism in letters.

William Horine, a private in the McLean County Regiment who sent home very colorful letters about the conditions of war.

Lewis Ijams, a Union soldier, severely wounded and assumed dead on the battlefield, who managed to make it back to Union lines and eventually home.

John McNulta, a Union colonel and commander of the McLean County Regiment who employed innovative methods to ensure the safety of the men under his command.

Martha Rice, a Southern woman living in Bloomington. She and her husband, a Confederate sympathizer, were not looked on kindly by their neighbors.

John C. Roeder, a German immigrant who hunted lawless Confederate outlaws and desperadoes in Western Missouri.

Lee Smith and George Stipp, doctors who experienced the horrific conditions both surgeons and patients faced in an ill-equipped, over-crowded Union hospital housed in a former hotel on the outskirts of Washington DC.

Actors this year include favorites like Kathleen Kirk, Michael Pullin, Rhys Lovell and Todd Wineburner as well as newcomers Gwen de Veer, Nick McBurney, Michael O'Sullivan, Jeff Ready, Jennifer Rusk and Kevin Wickart.

Tickets for Discovery Walk 2011 will be on sale beginning September 6. You may purchase tickets at the Garlic Press, Evergreen Memorial Cemetery or the McLean County Museum of History. Prices range from $4 for children and students with ID to $10 for Museum members and $12 for the general public.

All tours take place at Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington, with tours scheduled for 11 am and 2 pm on Saturday and Sunday October 1-2 and 8-9.

For more information, visit the Museum's webpage here or call 309-827-0428.

Lions and Tigers and Hippopotami, Oh, My!

Alanna DeRocchi's "Animal Presence" exhibit continues through October 22 at the McLean County Arts Center, with a special "artist's talk" tonight, August 30th, at 7 pm.

DeRocchi's exhibit includes large scale ceramic and mixed media sculpture, described as "Ceramic animals, awesome in size and delicate in their detailed features." The Arts Center's materials explain her process this way: "DeRocchi builds her massive beasts from coils of clay, sculpting the surface as the animal grows. Through the raw wood constructed displays that the animals rest upon to the unfinished painted surfaces of the animals, DeRocchi references taxonomical research and the practice of recreating the exotic in natural history studies. Putting a twist on zoological dioramas of institutions like the Field Museum in Chicago, she explores the wonder and obsession we have with understanding our fellow species."

Pygmy Hippopotamus Bathing, ceramic, paint, graphite, wood, steel, foam, caster wheels, 6' x 4' x 3', 2010

Alanna DeRocchi has a BA and BFA from Western Illinois University in Macomb. She then did post-baccalaureate work at California State University in Long Beach and earned an MFA at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her work has been exhibited from Macomb to Montana.

Animal Presence is sponsored by Peter and Susan Hood.

McLean County Arts Center
‎601 N. East Street
Bloomington
309-829-0011