On Projects, Time, Neurodiversity, Capitalism, and Money

A while back, I did a post talking about some projects that I was working on. I thought I might do something similar, because it's something I've been particularly noticing lately.

The main thing I'm pouring a bunch of time into at the moment is a campaign that I'm running using a system called Relics, made by a friend of mine, which has been good fun. TL;DR on the system is each player is an angel disguised as a human in the modern world, and God and heaven are both shut off, and they have to figure out what the heck they're doing. I'm doing a fair bit of writing for it, and I've never run a campaign before, so figuring a lot out! Haven't done much story writing in a long time, so I'm remembering all of that again and the various difficulties or things that came with that. But then there's also improv and such that I need to account for.....I am at best okay at some sorts of improv, but I'm not great 😅 so we'll see how that goes.

The main thing I'd like to be doing is getting my Fringe show, Rainbow Religion, out there again. I was able to do two performances - which is twice as many as I was expecting to do - but it still feels like it could get out to more people. I do have it available to watch online, which is great, but I'd love to see if I can perform it again in more places and such. But that probably means a bit of money investment, or just doing it for some queer churches potentially.

Another project I've thought of is doing an a cappella medley from Bo Burnham's Inside, with all of the songs. My thought was to start off doing one with just the four Bezos songs, as a smaller one to get into it, and then doing the rest. But first I need to figure out exactly how to mash them all together, and then arrange all the different sections for the different voices (probably doing four voices?), and then record it, and hopefully do a video for it too. Which is a lot, and I haven't really even started. Each time I play it in the car, I start singing some of the different parts and hearing how it will sound in my head, and having a good idea of which sections I'd use from each of the songs, but I still need to actually put it together.

Kinda a project, kinda not - got a talk that I'm doing at my church in a couple of weeks, so I've been spending bits of time working on that. It's been a long time since I've done a "sermon" as such (I did a talk about neurodiversity a little while back, but that felt somewhat different to a sermon), and doing it post-deconstruction/reconstruction feels very different. We'll see how that comes together, I think it's mostly done.

I also wrote another song for my musical about queer faith the other day. It's a project that I got the idea from near the end of last year, had a flurry of energy around and doing bits for, then haven't touched for most of this year. But I'm hoping that at some point it will get finished and see the light of day. Thinking about perhaps trying to look into grants or artist-in-residence type things I could apply for to help me with it. I just need a bit more motivation, and really some other people to help me make it happen. Making a musical is a big job.

Then there's a company that I'm going to be helping put a podcast together. Probably can't talk about that too much right now, but it's going to be interesting. I don't really listen to podcasts - I watch a couple - so I feel like I'm probably not going to be able to contribute much in terms of what it should look like. But we'll see how we go!

Then I also have a whole bunch of projects that are just on the backburner now, and have been for various lengths of time. Like the language I was creating, or my old musical, or multiple albums I've written, or board games I was making, and more besides.

Part of that is thanks to neurodiversity, particularly ADHD. It means that my brain wants to do a whole bunch of different things, and also do them all at once, rather than focus on one thing (also because of how it interacts with autism). But it's also because of a lack of time, and energy. Which is because of things like work. Which is because of things like capitalism. Y'know. Needing money to survive and all that, needing to work to survive. Which is shitty. And feels like it shouldn't be the case in an abundant world? But still very much is. And that's hard - knowing that there's so many ideas that my brain has, and so much I could do, and most of it I won't be able to do. Most of that potential won't be filled, because the vast majority of my time and energy has to get poured into survival. And I rather hate that. But I also don't know how to change that, bar miracles happening.

Of course, folks are always welcome to support me financially - I have a Patreon that people can contribute to with small amounts on a regular basis if they feel able to, but most of the folks I know probably aren't. But yeah. Being able to live in the world and actually do what you're good at, and put more of your time and energy into that, would be rather nice.

Reflections on The Boy From Oz.

Image credit: Angela Cascarino

Over the last several months, I've been involved in Campbelltown Theatre Group's production of The Boy From Oz. Yesterday was our final show, so I thought that I'd take some time to reflect a little on the experience. This has been an incredible show, and a gargantuan effort from so many people. We've had an incredible amount of talent, both on stage and off, and it's been reflected in the feedback that we've been receiving, and the number of tickets selling (most of the shows sold out)!

For myself, it's been a joy and a privilege to be a part of; but also a lot of work. Campbelltown isn't as close as it used to be, so making a two-hour round trip a couple of times a week for rehearsals has been rough. And just in terms of energy, and how I've been going emotionally and mentally, the last several months have been pretty all over the place. So I haven't been able to put as much into this show as I would have liked to. It's probably a blessing in disguise that I was mostly chorus.

But being able to be in a show again with so many old friends has been really amazing. Many of the cast and crew are people I've done a number of shows with before, all the way back to ten years ago, my first show with CTG. It's been good being able to see them again, and spend time with them, and just the support from them all has been amazing. They've all been pretty good with name and pronouns, even with me changing name fairly late in the production - and it was really affirming and encouraging for me to have that.

It's also been lovely being part of a show that's just so fun and colourful. For those of you who don't know the show, it's about the life of Peter Allen - an Australian singer/songwriter, pianist, dancer, bisexual, queer guy, and rather fabulous (remind you of anyone?). He's done a couple of songs you might have heard of, like I Still Call Australia Home, and I Go To Rio. And there's a few familiar faces on stage, like Judy Garland, her daughter Liza Minnelli, and even a brief appearance from a young Brian Henderson (played by yours truly). So the show was a lot of fun, and rather fabulous, and the music was great. So many fun dances and costumes, and people looking and sounding amazing.

It's been a while since I've done a musical - the last one was Spamalot, back in 2015, seven years ago now. (Yes, for those who were in it, it was that long ago!) I mostly do plays. But it was good getting back into singing and dancing on stage, and I hope that I have the occasion to do it again. Hopefully next time, a little bit closer to home 😅 Though that also means making new connections at a new theatre. We'll see how we go. First, rest, I think. Rest is good.