Return to kindergarten at Geneva H.S. play
“Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
“Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
These words of wisdom, along with lots of other sage advice, come from the pages of Robert Fulghum’s best-selling book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” And these lessons will be brought to life onstage at Geneva High School, Friday, Nov. 11 through Sunday, Nov. 13.
“Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten,” Fulghum writes. “Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.”
Carrie Schafer directs 20 talented GHS students in touching, charming and humorous sketches that depict a variety of life’s situations, while also teaching some of life’s basic but most important lessons at the same time.
“The ensemble cast speaks primarily to the audience,” Schafer said. “The audience will see themselves, their families, people they’ve met, in each of these characters. The writing is rich and at times deeply moving. Patrons will find themselves being emotionally drawn into each story and hopefully will leave having had their lives enriched in some way.
“The idea Robert Fulghum wants us to consider is the simplistic yet profoundly wise structure of the average kindergartner’s life. What would our world be like if all of us stopped at 3 o’clock every afternoon for a cookies-and-milk break, then laid down with our blankets and took a nap? What if nations — world governments — always put things back the way they found them? Or just played fair?”
“All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11-12 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 13, at the Geneva High School auditorium, 416 McKinley Ave., Geneva. General admission tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors. There is no reserved seating.
Cast members include Mandy Barnes, Yesha Bhatt, Nick Bianchina, Conner Colbert, Brandon Damore, Meredith Dillon, Rebecca Grischow, Angelo Gelfuso, Cameron Graber, and Megan Grant.
Also: Josh Harper, Jeff Hersheway, Alex Howe, Anika Nims, Bianca Shaw, Zane Shaw, Hunter Smith, Clare Stribling, Elise Watson and Katie Willadsen.
Cassie Steffey is stage manager.
For details, see geneva304.org or call (630) 463-3800.
If you go
What: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Geneva High Schools fall play
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11-12; 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13
Where: Geneva High School auditorium, 416 McKinley Ave., Geneva
Tickets: $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors
Details: geneva304.org; (630) 463-3800