On Thursday to Saturday evenings, Drama students performed the play version of Newbery-winning literature The Giver. In the play, the government strictly controls the society so that no tragedy, such as a war that is said to have ended the civilization in the past, can ever happen again. There is, however, a catch: they control everything.

“This Utopian society… is controlled by this group of people,” said Alex Vlasto, who played Jonas, the main character. “They dictate what your job is gonna be, who you’re gonna marry, how many kids you’re gonna have – it’s two children for family. It’s very very dictated. And this kid Jonas is trying to escape from the society.”

While Jonas had his own sufferings, the Drama team also suffered a great deal as they produced the show. Actors had tons of lines to memorize and the technical department was busy throughout the whole act.

“This show in particular is hard,” said Nikki Cabaniss, the director, “because pretty much every five seconds there is some kind of change on stage, either a lighting change, a set piece change, or just anything. The other part of the show is that there are no scene changes that are built into the script, so we had to get clever with how we planned all of different spaces.”

But the 96 students who participated in various roles all pulled it through. They finished the play with no major mistakes, excluding a mistimed entrance of the dinner table at one point. The parents and other audience members gave a loud applause at the end of the show, and the director seemed especially pleased.

“This has been a really great cast and crew to work with,” said Cabaniss, “and they have really brought their A game to try and make the show the best they can be.”