LIFE LESSONS I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN AT THE KATE

Just in case it’s a little late to discover how well you were paying attention in kindergarten, the Saybrook Stage Company is primed and ready for a refresher course, a do-over if you will. From Thursday, July 13 at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday July 14 and 15 at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday July 15 and 16 at 2 p.m., your seat will be ready in the classroom at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Center, 300 Main Street, Old Saybrook. Grab your pencil boxes, milk and crackers, and a blanket (optional) and prepare to discover "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." Based on the best selling book by Robert Fulghum, published in 93 countries and selling over 9 million copies, conceived and adapted by Ernest Zolia, with music and lyrics by David Caldwell, and directed by Terri Corigliano, this musical stars Brett Aiello, Terri Corigliano, Jim Hile, Autumn Eliza Shelly and Mark Gilchrist. Come hear stories of hope and humanity about every day life in our complicated world. Robert Fulghum wrote a guide for living, one that applies equally to children and adults, about basic rules in society. He stipulated that we need to share, play fair, clean up our own messes, put things back where they belong, don’t take what isn’t ours and say we’re sorry if we hurt someone. Not fighting, taking an afternoon nap (after eating warm cookies and cold milk), enjoying the small wonders of every day life, remembering to work, play, dance, draw, sing and think, and holding hands and sticking together. Looking and knowing that everything from goldfish to hamsters to people eventually die are further postulates. The talented cast will be sharing this simple yet profound guide for grown ups as vignettes and life lessons to learn, and will take your hand and hopscotch with you along the garden path to self-knowledge. When do we forget the eagerness and enthusiasm of the young who respond to every question with “Yes! Of Course I Can!”? This delightful troupe will act out a unique Cinderella play where the child who wants to play a pig, and not the prince or princess, wins the day. We count to ten and then engage in an invigorating game of Hide and Seek, launch a helium balloon ride with a daredevil adventurer named Larry Walters, empathize with a heart-broken actor Charles Boyer when he loses his true love and imagine how a great composer like Beethoven could create symphonies when he had lost the ability to hear. And that’s just some of Act 1. In Act II, we learn lessons about generations of fathers and sons, appreciate small wonders, neighborliness, Alzheimer’s disease and the power of love, religion, death and letting our inner child out. This intriguing look into childhood becomes a search for nuggets of wisdom. For tickets ($15-25), call The Kate at 860-510-0453 or online at boxoffice@thekate.org. Enjoy the pithy and poignant passages as Robert Fulghum spins his homespun humor and wisdom on the meaningful moments of life. Get ready to raise your hand with joy.