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Director's Notes

In his notes that he wants printed in the program, he says that the rules we learn in those early stages of school--Kindergarten, daycare, preschool--are not simple.  They are oftentimes complex.  They are, he says, elemental.  Without them, society would not be what it is (or what it should be if you believe that the world isn’t following these rules.

It is out of this idea that my concept for the show is developed.  Elemental. To really highlight this concept, I went to science. Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Sulfur are the essential elements in our body, and  Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Chlorine, Sodium, and Magnesium are the major minerals.  Without these, we would struggle to survive.

But beyond that, what are the elemental lessons we must learn to survive as a human race. Our world today seems to be increasingly hostile, with respect being rare.  My hope is that as you watch this show, you are reminded of what it takes for us all to survive, and that we remind ourselves that there is still good in the world, if we only stop to recognize it and uplift it.

It is also the precepts of this show that I feel guide me as a director.  These first few months here at Munster have been wonderful, with so many people welcoming me to the Mustang family.  I look forward to serving the students and the community, riding on the lessons from this play.

--R. Palasz

A Note from Robert Fulgham

Sometime in 1985, a short essay most people call "That Thing About Kindergarten" won the International Refrigerator Award.  It also won the Office Bulletin Board Sweepstakes, the Send-A-Copy-to-Your-Mom Trophy, and even the My-Rabbi-Read-It-In-His-Sermon Prize.

As I write now, "That Thing About Kindergarten" has traveled around the globe--translated into at least twenty-four languages.

And it became the title essay of the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which has sold seven million copies in at least ninety-three countries.

The essay hangs in the halls of the US Congress, on the walls of schools, and in prison cells.  You can find it in the high-tech scientific laboratories, your doctor's waiting room, and factory cafeterias.

The author of the kindergarten essay had his life turned topsy-turvy by it.

I know.

I am he.

Recently, to get some perspective on the whole hoo-ha, I stuck a copy of "Kindergarten" to the door of my own refrigerator (with four industrial magnets--none of those little cute ceramic deals for me--when I stick something to the fridge, it stays stuck).  Anyhow...I sat in my kitchen one night and stared at the lines that had altered my life an wondered: Why?