The School of Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Theatre Division presented its second production of the fall semester this weekend with the play “Diviners.”
The play was directed by assistant professor Kyle T. Zimmerman and presented at Spyker Theatre.
Wednesday, the day before the opening night, Zimmerman organized an invitational dress rehearsal to get insight on possible errors.
Zimmerman said he was stressed after the rehearsal, but it helped him solve the problems he saw at the rehearsal including problems with the lights.
“We had to stay an hour and a half hour after the rehearsal, work on the play and try to fix the problems with the lights,” Zimmerman said, “but the actors did a great job, and everything went well, which was confirmed by the audience who stood up and gave us applause at the end of the play.”
Luke Holloway, a sophomore theater minor who played the main character, Buddy Layman, said it took him a while to get the exact feel of the character, but overall he thought he did well.
“Buddy is confused about who he is and what people think about him, but he doesn’t care about that and that’s what I like,” Holloway said.
There were almost no free seats in Spyker Theatre Friday night. People laughed through the story but also felt sad at the end of it where the main character, Buddy Layman, died by drowning in the river.
Brionna Ford, a freshmen mass communication major from Shreveport, said Zimmerman invited her class to the play. She said she was very interested since she had already heard about “The Diviners.”
“I heard it’s a really good play. I enjoyed the story line, and I think Mr. Zimmerman did a great job by directing it,” Ford said.
Clint Broussard, a junior atmospheric science major, said he came to see his friend who played one of the roles. Broussard also said he went to both the rehearsal and the opening night, and he enjoyed them equally even though the cast was changed.
“I think all the actors put a lot of passion in this play…and even though there was complaining about the lights at the rehearsal, I didn’t notice anything, and I think it was great as well,” Broussard said.
Now the play is over, Zimmerman said he will begin work on another show.
“We work on it, and once when we finish it, we will have a premier here at ULM, and after that we will do the play at other schools around the ULM as well,” Zimmerman said.
