It’s like “Waiting for Godot.” But for kids. With zombies.
Prepare the hordes: for one day only, a Fort Green performance space is staging “All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Being a Zombie” — a new play that uses the undead to teach kids potentially life-altering lessons, such as “brains aren’t everything,” “you are what you eat,” and “what doesn’t kill makes you more alive.”
It is, in fact, a little existential.
“You hear what it’s like to be a zombie and how it’s different from being alive, and what they’ve learned from looking back on their life,” said director Amanda Hinkle, who is also the director of education at Fort Greene’s Irondale Center, which is producing the show as part of a monthly series of brand new works of children’s drama from up-and-coming playwrights.
One thing it isn’t, Hinkle promises, is too scary.
She and playwright Jason Pizzarello specifically worked to tone down a few scenes that were too creepy for youngsters. Still, the show doesn’t shy away from some serious topics — including death.
“There’s a funny scene about the grieving process,” she said about a scene in which the zombies must deal with problems that arise from being half dead and half alive.
“It could start a lot of conversations, as well as being entertaining.”
While the Irondale Center has other children’s programming too, including a summer theater camp, zombies should note: there are currently no classes available on brain-eating, jamming through barricades, or spreading viruses.
Undead life’s just not fair, kids.
“All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Being a Zombie” at Irondale Center [85 S. Oxford St. near Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 488–9233, irondale.org]. March 16, 2 pm, $5.
Reach reporter Jaime Lutz at jlutz@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-8310. Follow her on Twitter @jaime_lutz.
