Rocio Romero, Spring 2009 News Editor
Although there are only three months before the Dow Arena Theatre opens its doors for Robert Fulghum’s “All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”, cast members have been chosen and rehearsals are in full swing.
What comes to mind upon hearing the word kindergarten? The word may invoke memories of playing in the sandbox or on the monkey bars, coloring, learning to spell and count to 20, saying the ABCs or taking daytime naps.
Those were the days not for thinking about paying bills, showing up to work on time or meeting the deadline for a research paper.
This play is about the different experiences learned while in kindergarten and how those experiences have contributed to the way later life is lived. There is more to this play than giving a good performance; it’s a way to pause the audiences busy lives and take them back to remembering those childhood days.
Director RoZsa Horvath, professor of theater arts and director of more than 50 plays, says this play is “about life and living.”
There will not be a homework assignment due when the play is over, but the audience will take home an important lesson.
“When we are young, we are so busy going to school trying to figure out our lives but often we forget to live,” Horvath said. The play, a combination of life-teaching lessons, theater and storytelling, is particularly loved by Horvath because of the writer’s wisdom and humor.
Cast members have been chosen and the first rehearsal took place Sept. 21, during which the cast sang the “Kindergarten” song and actors practiced their parts. The rehearsal showed how the actors worked well together and how eager they were to get their parts perfected.
Horvath said she looks forward to working with the cast, who she describes as a “nice group of people.”
Cast members haven’t been given specific characters yet. Therefore, they have to stay open to different characters.
Santiago Valencia, 35, performer and former Pierce student who performed his first play, “Green Card”, at Pierce in 1992, prepares himself mentally and physically for the play.
He does this by being “comfortable with my own skin. I go to the gym several times a week, do vocals several times a week, sing in my car. Your body and the bodies of other people are your musical instruments. You have to be in touch.”
Valencia looks forward to this play because he feels the audience will learn two things.
“First, there is always something good to learn from a good film and a good play,” he said. “Second, this play deals with real life, life lessons and life failures and success. I think a lot of people are going to take what they see in the play and say, ‘Yeah! That’s what’s going on with me right now,’ or, ‘Yeah! I remember going through that.”
Assistant Director KeAndre Bell-Washington said the audience would be able to relate to the play’s concept of “living life to the fullest.”
The play will show in the Performing Arts Building from Dec. 5 to Dec. 14.
Director and instructor of theater arts at Pierce Collge, RoZsa Horvath auditioned actors Sept. 8, for the play she is directing, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” based on the book written by Robert Fulghum’s. (Alina Popov)