The Journey Was Great!

Because I had come to Granite State College with transfer credits, I didn't have a lot of electives to take. Most of the subjects that I took were requirements for my Behavior Science classes. At one point I did have an opening that needed to be filled by a humanities elective. I scoured the possibilities. It was going to be during the summer term and I wanted something either in Concord or Manchester. Did I want something at the Currier Art Museum? A language? I wanted it to be something that I would enjoy, something I hadn't tried before...hmmm.

At Michelle's suggestion (see my previous post for our statistical adventure) I signed up for a "Fundamentals of Acting" class. She had taken this course and had really liked it. I had my doubts, but was looking forward to doing something entirely different. It only seemed fair that I should take this course, aftr all I had gotten my son involved in acting when he was a little boy. He's still enjoying acting while in college. I kept telling myself that if he could do it, and Michelle could do it, so could I.

The first thing that surprised me about this class was how many men were in it. There were only two other women beside me, the rest of the class was men. Never had I been in a class where the majority of students was men. This was just the beginning of the surprises in this class.

The instructor for this class was a hoot. She was so funny and laughed at everything we did. On our first test we were required to stand up in class and sing a song from a musical!! We all thought that she was kidding, she wasn't. We all, one by one, belted out lines from any song from a musical that we could remember. I believe I sang (badly) something from South Pacific.


 

 

Each week as I drove to this class my stomach would start doing flip-flops thinking about what crazy, nutty things we would have to do this week. Any and all inhibitions about looking foolish had to be dropped at the door. Jumping in with both feet was required. I don't think I've ever laughed as much in any class ever. The acting games that we played helped me to be less nervous and critical of my talent. It also was great knowing that we were all in the same boat. We had a dress up "mocktail" party as one assignment. We did lots of crazy group activities that were lots of fun.

Our last class consisted of a one act play that we had rehearsed with our acting partner. We invited friends and family to see our plays as we presented them to the class. Though I had never acted before or been on stage and was extremely nervous, I had a great time. Michelle came and I remember hearing her crack up through my whole play. This class was a blast every time we met. Stepping out of my comfort zone was tons of fun. Who knew adult education courses could be so fun!