By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Kindergarten was a long time ago. So, if all you really need to know you learned in kindergarten, you may be due for a refresher course.
The folks at Horizon Youth Theatre (who are far closer in time to kindergarten than I am) are ready to oblige.
The youth troupe is staging Robert Fulghum’s “All I Really Ever Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” this weekend . The production opens tonight (March 8) at 7 in the theater upstairs in the Grand Rapids Town Hall, 24287 Front St. The show continues Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 and $8 for students and seniors.
Directed by Cassie Greenlee, “All I Really Ever Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” is a series of vignettes based on Fulghum’s inspirational stories and adapted by Ernest Zulia with music and lyrics by David Caldwell.
This is a reprise for HYT. The troupe staged it back in 2017 when a few of the actors may have been in kindergarten. It’s a malleable script, according to Greenlee. The different bits can be reordered to suit the production.
She told Clint Cope on “The Morning Show” that this time they opted to take the action from the kindergarten of the title through to the end with a woman played by Mali Cloeter visiting her future grave site. That segues into the conclusion in which a wise man Dr. Papaderos (Drew Thomas) reflects on the meaning of life.
The production is both heartwarming and hilarious. In “Christmas/Valentine’s Day” (one of two sections directed by Thomas), Fred (Jonah Truman), an elderly man with dementia, has a penchant for deciding random days, irrespective of the season, are Christmas. He breaks out into seasonal song. Asks to have the house decorated. This bothers his wife (Khloie Peppers) until their daughters ask: What’s the harm?
While kindergarten may have provided all Fulghum needed, it’s clear the young cast members also grew through their association with HYT. The esprit de corps of the cast is infectious. Talk about playing well together.
Many are familiar faces from previous shows, both with HYT and the high school drama club and elsewhere. Expect to see a number of them when the BGHS all-school musical “The Addams Family” takes the stage April 18-21.
Senior Rose Walters will be in a prominent role, just as she plays a prominent role here. She’s the teacher when “Kindergarten” begins, and the choir director for “Uh Oh.” (Pianist Ben Tittl, who’s not much older than the cast, collaborates fluidly with the performers providing strong support for their singing and adding subtle underscoring.)
Walters is the sole returnee from that 2017 rendition of the show, and those years on experience are evident in the confidence in her acting – her work with Thomas in “Howard” is a hoot, her singing, and her beaming stage presence.
Liam Rogel, another regular, plays two characters who are opposites. He’s Norman the “not odd, but different” kid who insists that “Cinderella” needs a barking pig. Then he portrays the stiff-shirt guy full of himself and the trappings of corporate success in “The Briefcase.” He gets his comeuppance as related by a clearly delighted Fox Roberts-Zibbel, another HYT regular.
On the other end of the experience spectrum is Peppers, who is appearing in her first show. Her dramatic turn as the wife in “Christmas” shows she’s found her niche on the stage.
She also contributes to the Thomas-directed segment the “Spider,” which tells the tale of the unfortunate encounter between a woman rushing to work (Calista Motisher) and a spider (Claire Nelson) and her web. The accident is unfortunate for both parties with the spider relating in vivid terms her side of the incident. She’s quite the sympathetic Arachnida.
Everyone has a place to shine in “Kindergarten.” Also contributing are: Violet Grossman, Avery Hensley, Carson Huyghe, Maggie Otley, and Aidan Thomas.
Seeing all these young actors grow over the years is a joy.
