Pictured is "The Giver" cast during rehearsal.
The HHS Theatre Company has been preparing for its fall play, “The Giver,” since June and the MPR doors finally open next Friday! “The Giver” is set in a future world where differences are outlawed and a committee of elders makes choices for community members down to what they wear. The play follows one boy’s journey to seeing beyond his community and understanding there was choice, diversity, and freedom in the past.
About fifty HHS students are involved in the production. Ten Stagecraft students helped build and paint the set and forty students make up the play's cast and crew. Theater teacher Stephanie Evans shared that this show is unique because, due its small cast size, she double-casted the show to involve more students. This means that two or more actors are cast in the same role and take turns playing the role during alternating performances. Each cast will perform three times, plus one school matinee for the 8th graders from Hockinson Middle School on November 8!
Being part of the HHS Theatre Company grants students learning opportunities that prepare them for life after high school that they may not have access to otherwise. For the actors, theater teaches them to speak clearly and eloquently in front of groups of people. Involvement with theater bolsters the cast and crew’s executive functions, where they perform tasks in a specific, precise order. In addition to learning technical skills behind set design and acting, theater production necessitates learning how to work as a team. “Shows require kids to work with each other who all have different jobs,” theater teacher Stephanie Evans explains. Some students move set pieces, others apply makeup and wigs, serve as technicians, and perform on stage. “It is a group of people with varying gifts who have to work together to create theatre magic for the audience,” said Evans.
You are invited to support our theater students by watching “The Giver” at the Hockinson High School's MPR at 7 pm on Nov. 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9. Matinee shows are on Nov. 2 at 2 pm and Nov. 8 at 1 pm. Purchase tickets here.