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How To Eat Like a Child by San Diego Junior Theatre 
It's a crash course on all the essential skills of childhood. No, we're not talking about readin', writin' and 'rithmetic here. We're talking about those truly essential skills. Like how to have fun, how to get away with things, and some of the best ways to torture your siblings/parents. Included in the lesson plan is, of course, How to Eat Like a Child, as well as various other fields of study including How to Stay Home from School (even if you're not all that sick), How to Ride in a Car (and drive the driver absolutely nuts), and How to Go to Bed (or not go to bed!).
San Diego Junior Theatre has rounded up a cast of obvious experts in the various subjects who seem only too eager to share their accumulated knowledge with the audience members. In fact, so natural are they in the parts they play, there is no need for role names. All actors merely play themselves! Alex Fleming works overtime in several of the lesson plans including a violin player who transforms into a hoppin', rockin' lead guitarist for any of several rock bands -- instantly becoming the idol of several hysterical groupies. But Alex's main role was as the dining table reporter who reports on the eating habits of kids with a mixture of awe and disgust in four separate interviews with such creative eaters as Arielle Pardes, Josh Hillman, Philip Greenberg, Jonathan Edzant, with most of the rest of the cast helping out. Here we learn that eating your food is not nearly as important or admired as the ability to play with your food. But there are many more important lessons that are well taught. In How to Beg Your Parents for a Dog, Kevin Barber, Kiefer Shackelford, and Ben Gammage (the dog) entreat their parents with a highly amusing song-and-dance routine. In How to Deal with Injustice, Leah Enowitz chastises mother Adriana Blair for forcing her to walk when it is so much more efficient for mom to drive her. Jacob Sampson has a long, frustrating, and in the end terrifying wait for mom who is late picking him up from school in How to Wait. Jonathan Edzant charmingly teaches us How to Look Forward to Your Birthday. Maryn Beckett's beautiful voice and humorously vindictive advice instruct us How to Act After Being Sent to Your Room. And in definitely one of the most hilarious and well-written scenes, Paulina Slagter goes through the various stages of reacting to having the television turned off -- from false promises to flattery to reasoned discussion to a terrible tantrum when all those efforts fail! After several of these lessons, Ben Gammage and January Armstrong delight us with their long, sustained laughing beginning with, but certainly not ending with, their lesson How to Laugh Hysterically. And they are very good teachers, as the audience seemed to pick up on the skill quite well. But alas, eventually the show must end and it is then time to go to bed. Thus the last lesson is How to Go to Bed, which features the whole ensemble in the openly rebellious number We Refuse to Go to Sleep. Alas, no one can stay awake forever. But by golly, we can fight it! Rob Hopper San Diego Playbill ~ Cast ~
January Armstrong Kevin Barber Meryn Beckett Adriana Blair Alice Cash Kyle Crews Betsy Dunbar Jonathan Edzant Faith Eischen Nicki Elledge Leah Enowitz Celeste Ferrier Alex Fleming Alexandra Foxe-Rodriguez Ben Gammage Angela Giolzetti Philip Greenberg Joshua Herren Joshua Hillman Heidi Hofmockel Becca Jacobs Cassie Jonestrask Kali Lindsay Amanda Martin Katie Martin Ann Nettleton Arielle Pardes Jacob Sampson Lindsey Schwartz Kiefer Shackelford Paulina Slagter Victoria Tecca Pia Tuchscher Celena Van Der Vries Toffer Williams Marianne Zumberge Director/Choreographer: Torrie Dunlap Musical Director: Desha Crownover Set Design: Jay Heiserman Light Design: Matt Novotny Costume Design: Mibs Somerville Sound Design: Alan Edwards |