There have been 44 school shootings since eight students and their director at California Lutheran University started rehearsing for a play about the school shooting that changed America.

They say that number is why it's important to put on this production.

More:Former Cal Lutheran president Mark Mathews dies at 92

"Columbinus," a play about the April 20, 1999, massacre by two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, will begin its run at Cal Lutheran Nov. 8.

The 2005 drama by Stephen Kram and PJ Paparelli weaves together police evidence, excerpts from the shooters’ journals and interviews with parents, survivors and community leaders to depict the day of the shooting and the aftermath. It looks at adolescent archetypes and draws on nationwide interviews with high school students.

"Working on this play has been a very very different process," director Brett Elliott said. "We started out watching documentaries about the original event in 1999, we’ve looked at interviews and done extensive reading about it. We started from a place that was very grounded in history. Right from the start, the cast was really moved by and convicted by the truth that is behind the writing and conception of the play."

When Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 and wounded more than 20 others at Columbine High School before killing themselves, it was sort of the ignition point of the school shooting epidemic. At the time, it was the largest number of people killed at a school. That number only grew as more school shootings occurred over the years.

MORE:Fallen Cal Fire engineer's name to be added to Ventura County memorial wall

"It's terrifyingly real to our current times and I think that makes it even more important to do," said Gabrielle Reublin, a senior at Cal Lutheran and part of the play's ensemble. "It's a big responsibility doing this play and portraying these roles — it's just something that has to be done."

Reublin said the process of working on this production has been different than others she's done in the past. It also has an emotional intensity that brings a unique challenge to the cast. The actors aren't much older than their characters were when the shooting happened in 1999.

"The research process really helped," Reublin said. "It's important for all of us that we aren’t glorifying the shooters in any way. In the beginning (the characters of the shooters) don't even have names. The first act is exploring connections, the second act dives deeper into the actual shooting. It's very important to all of us that it's not about the shooters, but it's about the teenagers and the teenage years. And just like with teenagers today, a shooting can happen to anyone."

Jacob White, who plays the shooter Klebold, said there’s a lot of misconceptions surrounding the events leading up to the Columbine shooting and the play has done a "good job in clearing up those misconceptions."

MORE:Ventura County Office of Education to host first Education Summit

"I've only known the era of mass shootings," said White, who was born just months after Columbine. "I was at The Oaks mall last spring when there was a shooting, it wasn't a mass shooting, but even then we were in that environment where you see the mass panic of people ... (Our production) is honest and brutal and true to the events that happened."

White said it's important the ugliest parts of that day, and those leading up to it, are shown in the play. He said the production doesn't "sanitize" the events of Columbine and it doesn't romanticize the shooters or their actions.

"It is about the high school. It's about Columbine High School and the students that went there," White said. "That's why it's called 'Columbinus and not 'Dylan and Eric The Play.'"

The material in the production is not suitable for young children, according to the director. Viewer discretion is advised.

The play starts at Cal Lutheran's Preus-Brandt Forum on Nov. 8 and runs through Nov. 18. Tickets are $10 and free with a CLU ID. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2SIUQt1.

READ MORE: