Theater’s Silver Company will perform its spring show, “The Diviners,” April 19 at 7 p.m., as well as April 20 at 2 and 7 p.m. This is the program’s second ever performance in the black box theater, and the first show assistant director Logan McGraw has directed at Hebron.
“[The show] comes back to the idea of miracles,” McGraw said. “It’s a play about a boy who, at 3-years-old, almost [drowned] in a river, and [was] saved by his mother, who ended up drowning just to save him. [The accident] causes permanent damage to him, and it altered his entire world perspective.”
This is junior Grant Koch’s first lead performance, one that has been in his sights since middle school. In the time between his first exposure to the role and now getting to perform it, he has recited Buddy’s lines for specific monolouges and scenes. He attributes him landing this role due to how familiar he was with the work already.
“[Buddy] has been one of the more challenging characters I’ve ever played, solely due to the aspects of life he deals with [from] day to day,” Koch said. “Luckily, I’ve had experience with this character since seventh grade, when [our director] was considering this for UIL. The audition was very different, but I got to audition with a side I had worked extremely hard on.”
The stage is a fluid set — meaning the actors are also the sethands, moving items and props to create different settings in the show.
“We want the audience to feel like they are members of the town,” stage director Hannah McNally said. “Actors enter from all different angles in the black box, and we are putting things right up close to the audience to make them feel like they are in the setting.”
The black box theater was built after a LISD’s 2017 bond was granted and included black boxes at both Hebron and The Colony High School. Black box theaters are used as a blank slate for performances.
“Everyone in the company is at different stages in their journey of being able to perform,” McGraw said. “As I got more familiar with them, I started thinking of different roles each person on the team could fit into. I’ve seen a lot of change within them, and how they take care of each other. The play takes place in a small town where everyone knows everything with everyone, and they’ve really become that as we’ve worked together.”
Having seen the show on the UIL circuit before, McGraw said he is excited to make it his own.
“This is a show [that], to me, has never been done well,” McGraw said. “I’m excited to take my hand at it and do it the way I have always thought it should be done. That could be either playing a character differently, or doing this transition in a new way. This will be a very different experience, and I really want people to come out and see it.”
