italian bureaucracy. oh bother.

work news:

we have just started getting the plays we're going to be doing up on their feet. it's nice to finally be doing some action (not just sitting/reading)! we won't know until next week who will be in our tour groups, so this week we are playing around with different people so the director can see who works well together, etc. There will be either 3 or 4 people in each tour group. The shows are written for 3, but having 4 in a group means we don't have to double as many characters.

The fairy tales we are working on are really cute! They all have sweet little songs that are constantly in my head. The director wrote all the songs and made the backing tracks, and she's teaching everything to us which is really nice. She also helped write most of the material we're performing. It's nice because the plays we do are for a very specific need. For example, Italian doesn't have an "h" sound, so it's difficult for kids to be able to say things like "thirty" or "hate." So while we might be performing a fairy tale, the characters have names like Dorothy and Theodore and have songs that force kids to say and hear phrases or sounds that are difficult for them. We do a lot of spitting "thhhh" gags.

culture news:

Because I'm American, I have to present myself to the Italian government and get a permit to stay. This is a very difficult process. I had to go to the post office today to get a form to start the whole thing, and it took 2.5 hours! Giuseppe came to get 2 Americans, but then decided after much discussion to take 4 of us. We got to the Theatrino office and had to fill out and sign several forms. We were seated in the kitchen and people kept running in and out with different things for us, and asking us if we had certain papers. We didn't, of course, because no one told us which papers to bring. So they would say, ah, where is it, can you get it? And we'd say, oh sure, it's in the room, can I give it to you tomorrow? And then they'd reply, no, no, we don't need it.

What?

Then we went to the post office to wait in line forever, only to pick up a packet. Now the packet must be filled out, returned to the post office for more stamps and signatures, and then I have to get an appointment to sign more things in front of different people a month or so from now. Which means I'll have to leave my tour to come back to San Remo. Silly. All to prove that I'm here. Tadaaaa.