The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • 31

The Modesto Bee Thursday April 10 1986 On The Go Living Section NEW Face By FRED SCHWARTZ Bee staff writer If the funding comes through a family of black and white Ruffed Lemurs will be cavorting within the next year at the renovated Micke Grove Zoo near Lodi The endangered monkeys from tropical rain forests have been hunted to near extinction for their thick fur and those not killed are threatened by the exploitation of their habitat for lumber minerals and land development Micke Grove Zoo in the midst of a renovation project that will see its archaic Monkey Island replaced by a naturalistic environment has launched a public campaign to come up with $250000 during the next six months Already some $31000 has been raised including $25000 through the San Joaquin County Zoological Adopt an Animal program and another $6000 from a General Mills grant hope to break ground in August and open our new primate exhibit by this time next said zoo manager Ken Nieland face of things to come of course depends on funding and we are encouraging public A red fox nestles in the sun The present Monkey Island with its concrete style and jungle gym swings is not suitable to support a family of monkeys according to Nieland was just too hot in the summer and too cold in the he said new facility will be a more tranquil place with shade trees and other amenities It will be more comfortable for the animals and more pleasant for visitors our Monkey Island renovation we will provide a setting where the Ruffed Lemurs will be able to live and reproduce in as close to a natural habitat as possible Lemurs have striking black-and-white coloration large eyes and a long bushy black tail Unfortunately the features which make them one of the most spectacular members of the prosimian group of monkey-like mammals also make them one of the most preyed upon The only chance for their survival is through a program of cooperative animal management like our Nieland added is a serious He said the Ruffed Lemurs were chosen for the zoo be- See Page C-4 ZOO Forrest Jackson JrThe Bee watched by a zoo visitor A Review Diviners" has to make is own way For a serious work not easy Although 1 remained somewhat removed from the general enthusiasm that aloofness needs brief explanation You can blame it on an extraordinary production at Stanislaus State When the play by Jim Leonard Jr was done there in 1982 one of its first stagings in the country director Jere Wade and his cast created one of those fusions of theatrical understanding and achievement that strikes rarely and when it is least expected I was mesmerized and stunned and the new reality of Sierra fine work has to stand against the memory of an overpowering event in Turlock story revolves about a retarded young man a drifter who wins his trust and affection and the people of a tiny hamlet A mother baboon and her baby in the Monkey Island which will be replaced by A powerful drama tightened by the reins Ted BensonThe Bee a more natural enviroment Special to The Bee troubled teen-ager in rural Indiana The time is 1931 at the depth of the Depression All fit under the pun of the title It applies to the boy Buddy because of his seemingly magical and God-given ability to find underground water a skill known as divining For the others it applies because of their intense and varied passions about religion In the case of the drifter Showers (Richard Lore) that passion has tom him away from the church after years in a Kentucky pulpit Although preaching had been the family's calling for generation upon generation disillusion has driven him from those roots To the people of Zion Ind especially the women nothing seems more sadly lacking than a Bible-thumping preacher and they won't accept Showers' refusals of the role That the newcomer is handsome 30ish and unattached doesn't hurt the By LEO STUTZIN Bee arts editor In directing Diviners" Sierra Repertory Theatre's Dennis Jones has taken a powerful drama filled with poetic imagery mysticism and religious fervor and reined it in from mythic to personal scale Whether that best fulfills the potential can be argued There is no debating however that the production is dramatically compelling and technically superb and that the uncommonly sparse audience at opening was dazzled and deeply moved At the final dimout the applause was vigorous and sustained Had the house been full as usually happens in the east Sonora theater the walls would have been shaking The play deserves those full houses as well as ovations and probably will get them as word gets around Without benefit of Broadway hit status or the reputation of famous author ardor either Since times are hard Showers arrives in Zion seeking only a roof over his head and a way to earn his keep By chance he finds both at the home and garage that Buddy shares with his father and younger sister Jennie Mae who is 16 and blossoming Buddy it turns out was braindamaged in an accident in which his mother drowned years earlier The trauma has left him with a phobia about water: Among other things he never bathes And presumably because of the resentment that his wife died in saving Buddy the boy has also emerged with so little ego that he refers to himself only in the third person is absent from his vocabulary Despite those problems townsfolk view Buddy as blessed because of the that leads him to divine water Playwright Leonard surrounds See Page C-3 Mike Martin portrays the I 1.