There’s a simple guide for a good life, just follow the precepts we all learned in kindergarten: share, play fair, clean up your own mess and never take things that don’t belong to you.
It’s a recipe, Emily Warwick understands and a set of tenets her high school class mates appear to follow.
“We truly have a group of actors who don’t get hurt,” says Warwick, the student director for Thomas Haney secondary’s upcoming production of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
“If I tell them something, they don’t get angry. We are all friends and we all take direction from each other.”
Based on Robert Fulghum’s best-selling books, Kindergarten takes a funny, insightful, heartwarming look at what is profound in everyday life.
This tightly woven adaptation has earned standing ovations from Singapore to Prague— from L.A. to D.C.
Thomas Haney’s drama department promises an evening of theatrical storytelling with monologues, dialogues, and multiple voice narration, enhanced with a live band playing seven original songs.
Fulghum’s ability to look at life’s profound moments through the eyes of young children, speaks to core of our existence.
The delightful stories feature colourful characters such as: a shy little boy who insists on playing the “pig” in his class production of Cinderella and steals the show; a man whose dream of flying carries him high over Los Angeles … in a lawn chair buoyed by surplus weather balloons; a “mother of the bride” who’s staged a perfect wedding—until the bowling ball of fate rolls down the aisle; and a modern-day Greek philosopher who finds the meaning of life in a piece of broken mirror from World War II.
These stories celebrate our very existence, from the whimsy of childhood to the wisdom of old age.
“You go from kindergarten to college to marriage so you can trace the pattern of who you are,” says Michaela Freeman, 17.
“It’s great to be able to play all these people, to get to play such a range of people. You don’t get to do that very often – right from a kid to an old woman.”
For Freeman, her role speaks to the very essence of the play.
“It’s a play about growing up and learning about life so being able to play all the different characters really reflects that.”
She also enjoys the cerebral choice of plays, picked by drama teacher Shelley Evans.
“You can teach a lesson through the play. It’s not just all fun and it really let’s you flex your muscles as an actor,” says Freeman.
Austin McCabe as Branislav gets to die and go to heaven.
“I like that there’s a deeper meaning behind most of the scenes,” says McCabe, a Grade 9 student who performed in last year’s production of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
“In this I have outlets to do deeper, more dramatic things.”
Showtime
• All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten will be in production for only four performances, Wednesday, Jan. 29 to Friday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m., as well as a matinee performance on Friday at 12:30 p.m. Tickets for the musical at $8 for students and seniors and $10 for adults for the evening performances. Tickets for the matinee performance is only $5 for all ages. Tickets can be reserved for pick up at the office by calling 604-463-2001. Please note that due to some subject material, this production is not recommended for young children. Sightlines Theatre is located at Thomas Haney Secondary School, 23000 116th Avenue in Maple Ridge.
