Director's Note for "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten"
Click here for info and tickets to Stages Bloomington’s return to live performance. Limited run (November 5-7), limited seating. I initially didn’t think this show needed a director’s note, but I was told there was space left over in the program, and I ended up glad I was nudged to write something. I’ll let you read it early:
Hello, and welcome to Stages Bloomington’s first in-person production in more than a year and a half. (This is also my first director’s note in two years, so I might be a little rusty.)
This is a series of vignettes adapted from the writings of Robert Fulghum. His first essay collection (same title as our show) has a subtitle that I’ve thought about a lot: "Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things". He finds charming and powerful life lessons in unexpected places. Most plays are fiction, driven by conflict. This show is a little different: most of its stories are (mostly) true, and its engine is Fulghum’s voice, his point of view on things. Different is okay, it’s nice to take a break from conflict sometimes.
This pandemic has changed us all, and if there are any exceptions to that, I'm not sure I want to meet them. (I tried to write this whole note without referencing Covid-19, but I couldn’t do it. Sorry!) We’ve all found ourselves reevaluating parts of our lives and seeing our world in new ways. We’re having our own "Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things". I hope that’s something we keep doing as we go forward. And I hope, and I think Robert Fulghum hopes too, that we never lose sight of the basic, essential lessons for a good life.