Under the direction of K O'Brien and Robert Carey, the diverse, talented and enthusiastic cast of Laurel High School students in their debut performance, bring forth this gem of a play.  It is not surprising that The Dining Room was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and had an original run of 18 months off-Broadway back in 1982.  The play is an emotion-filled buffet with each cast member portraying many parts of many different ages, backgrounds and emotional states.  The entire play takes place in a dining room that represents many dining rooms in different homes across time, as we view multiple situations, celebrations and confrontations of the ties that bind us.  Prolific playwright A.R. Gurney gives us a loving look at family life through thick and thin as the importance and use of this room of the house falls in and out of fashion.  Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a boy returns from boarding school to discover his mother's infidelity; a senile grandmother doesn't recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home, etc. The action is comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes--some funny, some touching, some rueful--which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species.   Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the varied scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.