The Ozark Arts Council Presents:
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Friday–Saturday, March 1–2, 7:00PM
Sunday, March 3, 2:00PM
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten will be performed Live at the Lyric March 1–2, 2024 at 7:00PM, and Sunday March 3 at 2:00PM. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55 and up) and students, and $8 for children (under 12), when purchased in advance; prices are $3 higher if purchased at the door.
PLEASE NOTE: Adult themes and language.
Based on Robert Fulghum’s best-selling books, Kindergarten takes a funny, insightful, heartwarming look at what is profound in everyday life. It’s an evening of theatrical storytelling in revue format, with monologues, dialogues, and multiple-voice narration, enhanced through the use of live piano underscoring, which provides fluidity and charm to the experience. While not a musical per se, the play also includes some well-placed songs to enhance the emotional texture of the storytelling.
Heartwarming, charming, funny and touching. The stories are about all of us.
– National Public Radio
The delightful stories feature colorful characters such as: a shy little boy who insists on playing the “pig” in his class production of Cinderella and steals the show; a man whose dream of flying carries him high over Los Angeles…in a lawn chair buoyed by surplus weather balloons; a “mother of the bride” who’s staged a perfect wedding—until the bowling ball of fate rolls down the aisle; and a modern-day Greek philosopher who finds the meaning of life in a piece of broken mirror from World War II.
These stories celebrate our very existence, from the whimsy of childhood to the wisdom of old age, giving performances of Kindergarten the sort of lasting relevance that is fitting for those who know Fulguhm’s book.
A refreshingly intimate combination of theatre and storytelling. Gentle…funny…joyous. Sparks of recognition ignited the audience.
– The Chicago Sun-Times
Our cast includes a wide range of ages and experience levels all brought together by new-to-us-but-highly-experienced director Leslie Austin (who taught Theatre and worked with several troupes in the DFW area for several decades). Actors include Lisa Johnson, Shelly Watson, Beth Lambeth, Rachel Hayes, Kelly Copeland, Susan Spradlin, Andrew Coble, Fred Lutz, Amy Sorenson, Alexis Poor, Ann Lemley, and Daniel Seay.
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten will be performed Live at the Lyric March 1–2, 2024 at 7:00PM, and Sunday March 3 at 2:00PM. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55 and up) and students, and $8 for children (under 12), when purchased in advance; prices are $3 higher if purchased at the door by standing in the cold wind and rain of early March in the Ozarks…
This joyful and exuberant, yet ultimately touching, comedy focuses on three women at crossroads in their lives—the Wild sisters of Winedale, Virginia—Fanny and Willa and their frustratingly quirky sister-in-law Johnnie Faye. This feisty and fun-loving trio has supported and cheered one another through life’s highs and lows through the years, including the early demise of two of their husbands. And they really need each other now, as Fanny experiences a hilariously inappropriate reaction to her 60th birthday, while Willa is so stressed out from her nursing job she resorts to vodka and speed-knitting to cope, and Johnnie Faye, determined to put her year of fraught widowhood behind her, desperately tries to find a man—preferably a man with a house, since hers is somewhere at the bottom of a Florida sinkhole. These women’s lives are further upended by the responsibility of caring for their free-spirited, ailing aunt and the realization that they are drowning under loads of family keepsakes and possessions nobody wants—especially them! With equal doses of hilarity and heart, these extraordinary women come up with delightful and surprisingly unorthodox ways to clear the clutter from their lives, their homes and their relationships so they can move their lives forward. Together they prove it’s never too late to take another one of life’s paths for a grand new adventure. This Jones Hope Wooten comedy is guaranteed to drive you wild with laughter—and motivate you to keep hounding the kids to please take that stack of quilts and Granny’s Christmas china!
In the first part, the setting is the front porch of Roy and Elizabeth’s (Emma Bock) home in Maynard, TX on a hot summer afternoon. Elizabeth and her friend Hattie (Kylan Mayes) are whiling away their time folding laundry, watching TV, gossiping, and of course, sipping bourbon. The hot day gets a bit more heated when they are joined by the self-righteous Amy Lee (Brinkley Brewer), the new wife of Cletis, the local hardware owner’s son, who can’t resist blurting out that Elizabeth’s husband has been seen around town with other women. While the ensuing conversation in increasingly edged with bitterness, it is obvious that Elizabeth will stand by her man.
In the second part, Roy (Hayden Allen), Elizabeth’s husband, a brawny, macho type, is back in town after serving in Vietnam, and is trying to re-establish his place back in the community. He is joined by his younger brother, Ray (Donovan Walters), who worships him, but has a dangerous secret.. With the arrival of Cletis (Isaiah Wallis), the underpinnings of Roy’s world begins to collapse when Ray’s secret comes out: he has slept with Roy’s wife during his absence and also demolished his beloved Thunderbird. While the three men try to regain the status quo, we are left with the feeling that, with Elizabeth’s love, things may just work out.
“A Blues Soul with a Rock ’n’ Roll Heart”
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, he fell in love with music as a kid, listening to everyone from Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix to Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen. At 14 years old, Anthony gravitated to the guitar and his relationship with the instrument was born. After grinding it out, his chops caught the attention of B.B. King’s bus driver at a jam night. Blown away, the driver introduced him to B.B. who invited him to open up a string of tour dates in 2005. Gaining invaluable knowledge from “The King,” he went on to share the stage with the likes of Buddy Guy, Robert Plant, Joe Bonamassa, Heart, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and more. Along the way, his concert attendees have included Academy® Award winner Morgan Freeman, John Goodman, and Vince Vaughn as well as Eric Clapton, to name but a few.
2018’s Peace, Love & Loud Guitars vaulted to #1 on the iTunes Top Blues Albums Chart and #1 on Amazon Music’s New Release Blues Chart. Meanwhile, Guitar World readers voted him one of “The 30 Best Blues Guitarists in the World Today” in 2019, and the publication noted, “Gomes is another power player who is at his best when his gear is in the scorched earth between blues and rock.” After seven consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Blues Albums Chart, Containment Blues marked his second #1 on the respective chart in 2020.
“I’m either the last of a dying breed or the start of a new revolution,” he smiles. “I still believe in a world of guitar heroes. I strive for a world where you don’t have to be 19 years old to sell a lot of records and tickets and to make a statement. I’m one of those people who doesn’t think rock—or the blues—is dead. I’m looking for fresh ways to bring them together. I’m at the table rolling the dice all in the name of blues and rock ’n’ roll. I know there’s never been a more exciting time for music, and I’m here for the journey.”