Aw yeah...

Good things are starting to happen! One of my biggest goals of the year was to obtain residency here in New Zealand, and as you can see from above I've been invited to apply for it. I'm just waiting on a little letter from the FBI stating that I, Brooksie, am not now or have ever been a detriment to society, and then I can send in my application. Everything else is done, including my Medical Certificate, so come on, G-Men!

Wish me luck, everyone.

In other exciting news, I started my drama class the other night, and it was a hell of a lot of fun. There are twelve of us total taking the class, and we have two instructors. There is even another American in the class (small world, eh?), and he's a psychiatrist from North Carolina - just one state to the south of Virginia! This class will run a total of eight weeks, at once per week (not nearly enough!), and then after a four-week break, it resumes again with another eight week session. The goal is for the class, should we all stay together, to spend the second eight weeks focusing on putting on a production.

We did a little bit of improvisation the other night, which is far and away my favorite thing about drama, and there are actually two members of W.I.T. (Wellington Improvisation Troupe) in my class. They are both quite talented, I can already tell, so I hope to learn a lot from them and am looking forward to the next class.

There is one thing that was a surprise, however, and it's something I think that will be really cool. You see, the class is called "Drama - Mixed Abilities." To my dear old naive self, I assumed this meant that it was open to aspiring actors of all talent/experience levels, from "None" to "Oscar Winner".

No.

It means... it's an acting class for people with disabilities. Hence you can understand my instructor's quizzical expression when she turned up at the theater the other night, and there I was, the first and only person there waiting for class to start. Unbeknownst to me, she was likely expecting one of her students with Down's Syndrome from the last class to show up. So I'm chatting with her about her experiences as a director and an actor, and at the first lull in the conversation, she asks me:

"So, you do realize that this is a class for people with disabilities, right?"

Awkward pause. Me wearing a big grin.

"Oh!" I go. "Well, I don't really think that's going to be a problem for me. Is it still all right if I take the class?"

"Well that's all up to you," Kate (my instructor) says. "I think it can work, and we'll see who else shows up and if there's anyone else like you who misunderstood the class description."

Turns out, I wasn't the only one who misunderstood, although several of the others did realize it was meant for disabled people but also thought it was open to everybody.

Fortunately for us, it is open to everyone. I hope all twelve of us return for next Monday's session, and it certainly seemed like that would be the case at the end of the last class. There was a lot of good energy with the group last week, and our instructors are great. I am looking forward to this experience more than ever now! It will be unlike anything else I've ever done.

Word has it that our production will be an adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", about which I know very little but I am eager to do anything related to The Bard, for I never have!

I've always wanted to say, "Get thee to a nunnery!"*
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*Hamlet, Act III, Scene i