Heartland View

The stage was minimal. The lights cast grey shadows upon the set. Four tables and four chairs occupied the space.

The simple and plain set mirrored the sameness that the community portrayed and gave the cast the flexibility to manipulate the locations of the play.

The community life, to which this play is about, is a place where no choices are made and there is no individuality.

Children looked at the stage with confusion.

"It wasn't what I expected" said one boy in the audience. "My mom brought me. She wants me to read the book."

However, after the play was over, we noticed that same little boy was filled with anticipation to read the actual story.

"The Giver" was a great play to bring children to because they could identify with the cast-most of them children themselves.

The story takes place in a utopian society of peacefulness. There is no prejudice, no pain, no suffering and no choices to make.

The main character, Jonas, is given the assignment of The Receiver which is the most honored in the society. It is his job to take on the pain and suffering his community knows nothing of. The Giver passes these memories of color, pain, love and hate onto Jonas, because he will one day become The New Giver.

The play provokes thought by asking you to look at your life and wonder what it would be like if you didn't have to make choices. It makes you appreciate the decisions that you make in your everyday life that you take for granted.

Lois Lowry began writing "The Giver" to show the importance of memories and what an impact they have in someone's life.

Lowry's father had Alzheimer's and her mother remembered the death of Lowry's sister, Helen. Lowry felt that her mother wanted to hold on to the feeling of anguish she felt after losing her daughter.

Lowry brings to life the possibilities of an actual "fight or flight" situation. When bad experiences occur, people have the ability to block out the bad memories.

"It is the ability to choose which makes us human."

-Madeline L'Engle

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