Maria and I went to Hubbard Hall, our beautiful old opera house Sunday night to hear a band called Coig, they are from Nova Scotia and performed for a full house.

It was a great concert, it inspired me to pursue my idea of taking an acting class with Christine Decker, a professional actor with more than 40 years of experience.

I e-mailed Christine Saturday after seeing a play she directed for the Bennington Community Theater at the Oldcastle Theater in  Bennington. After the play Christine announced she was teaching an acting class.

A voice inside  of me practically yelled, “take it.”

Christine messaged me back Sunday night.

She said she thought it would be a great idea for me to take her course, called Acting 101. The class would be conducted over eight Monday evenings starting in January of 2019.

Christine, who performed in a play I wrote about farming at Hubbard Hall four years ago, agreed that the course might benefit my writing. “My approach is understanding the complexity of humans,” she wrote. “Why we do what we do. Why it’s not always logical. I also have a background in writing and improvisation which requires an understanding of story telling. And I need men in my class! It’s hard to find scenes with women.”

I told Christine I don’t aspire to acting or being in a play, I want to explore story telling from a different perspective and also go inward and learn a bit more about the way I present myself.

I admire Christine greatly, and I think it’s a good fit. I also want to understand theater in a deeper way.

Maria was thrilled with the idea, she wants to pay the $160 fee as a Christmas present. I balked at this, and then remembered that if I want to give in a healthy way, then I also ought to be able to receive. I like giving, I always balk at receiving. That’s not really right.

So I’ve applied to this class and been accepted, and I called the special number and reserved one of the 12 spots in the class. For reasons I don’t quite understand, I’m really excited about the opportunity to study acting, story-telling and improvisation, especially from someone as distinguished as Christine Decker.

Creativity demands change and growth and openness, otherwise it can get stale and dry up.

I understand that many people my age are going the other way. I do not see aging as the end of something, but as the beginning of another exciting chapter in my life. I don’t wish to shrink my life but expand it.

I intend to make the best of it,  and grow and change and try to improve to my last breath. I think this course will help me see the world in a richer and more nuanced and different way, and enrich my writing and photography.

Learning always enhances writing.

I will be writing about the class on the blog, and taking photos. I got a lot of support from my blog readers yesterday when I first mentioned this idea.

Thank you.