In 2000, the Drama Club scored another 1st place victory in Districts and Regions but this time went on to secure the first ever Drama Club State Championship with a 35 minute version of "The Diviners".
Alma White, the Pillar of Fire, and their association with the Klan are dramatized in Libba Bray's New York Times best-selling 2012 murder mystery The Diviners, in a chapter titled "The Good Citizen." The Diviners is being made into a feature film by Paramount Pictures.
Svendsen wrote the television film adaptation of The Diviners, as well as the miniseries Human Cargo and the television film At the End of the Day: The Sue Rodriguez Story.
Born in New York City, MacNaughton primarily worked in the theater, both before and after E.T., performing with the Circle Repertory Company, where he originated the role of Buddy Layman in Jim Leonard's The Diviners.