Stageworks’ Impromptu Players go to ‘Kindergarten’ this weekend

Robert Fulghum’s book of humorous and inspirational essays, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, makes the case that the cornerstones of a civilized society – sharing, caring, respecting others and taking the occasional nap – were all right there in the early-childhood instruction manual.

The 1986 tome has been adapted for the stage several times, and it’s the version by Ernest Zulia and David Caldwell that the Impromptu Players of Stageworks Theatre will present Friday and Saturday via Zoom.

Virtual tickets are selling briskly. Here’s the link.

“It’s encouraging,” says Stageworks executive and artistic director Karla Hartley, “to know that people want to get out – well, get out of their minds at least – and spend some time engaging in theater. It’s good to know. And we’ll probably be doing more and more of this sort of thing.”

The Impromptu cast consists of donors and supporters “who are not actors,” Hartley explains, “lawyers, doctors, real estate folk, that kind of thing. And when the world was normal, we would do three or four of these staged readings of plays every season, as standalone fundraisers.”

Director Karen Buesing’s cast includes at least one “real” actor (Stageworks regular Kari Goetz), plus St. Pete musician, writer and man-about town Paul Wilborn providing between-scenes music. The others are Kim Cummings. Matt Newton, Harold Oehler, Cathy Unruh, Tom Scarritt, Janet Scaglione, Jerry Slutzky and Helen Techier. “In the past, we’ve had the occasional genuine actor, but for the most part it’s non-actors who are just having a bit of fun and trying to support the theater.”

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 28 and 29 at 8 p.m.) is an hourlong series of vignettes, with singing and dancing.

“I think it’s a lovely play to be doing at this time,” says Hartley. “Because generally it’s about kindness, and being good to other people, which is something we need more of.”