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[email protected]. You can also call us on 1300 triple 9, 6 3 6 Joyce and control a podcast, celebrating people with disability brought to you by carers Queensland, indice, local area coordination partner in the community. Andy Snelling is an Australian to former writer and theater maker with a career that's taken her all over the world this year. She's the only interstate act coming to Queensland for the undercover artist festival. So we caught up with her for chat about her solo show. Happy go wrong.
Speaker 2 00:01:08 I often refer to it as a soul show for me, um, because it's a deeply personal autobiographical show. Um, it's a theater show for those who don't know. And in particular, my jam is physical theater. So combining my upbringing of dance, but weave, acting, storytelling, goofing around clowning and a bit of roller skating thrown into the mix. But the story behind happy go wrong, um, is that in 2014, I was bitten by a tick while hiking overseas and the long and short of it is that that resulted in my life completely being turned upside down. I developed severe illness and I am still five and six years later, um, navigating, um, that chronic illness experience. And so the show is born out of a necessity. I suppose, that I was feeling at the time when I created it to express through my art forms, what this, um, completely life altering experience has been of complete change in body functioning in, in sickness and in very much going to the brink and coming back and the incredible empowering lessons as well that I have learned through that experience and the deep appreciation I now have for simply being alive.
Speaker 2 00:02:39 So happy go wrong is very much a show about finding the happy in the wrong and that through doing that is where I've been able to not only survive. And I don't say that lightly. I very much, you know, went through some very dark and difficult times, but also I've actually come out the other side, thriving. So that's what the show encapsulates. So that's why I say it's a soul show because it very much comes from a very deep experience in my life, I suppose,
Speaker 0 00:03:14 Just serious subject matter though. It does sound like there's quite a fun fantasy element to the show though.
Speaker 2 00:03:21 Yes, that's very true. So I am by nature, a very playful person. And so it was important for me that this show that looks at themes of sickness, disability, mortality, and resilience and struggle. It was important that I found joy in all of that, as well as not shying away from presenting on stage some of the darker aspects of that, but my own lived experience of all of that has been that there's been this wild, double, um, experience of yet. It's been really heavy and dark at times, but I've also been happy and found a lot of joy in amongst all of that too. I mean, I never thought it was possible to live in varying degrees of pain, pretty much constantly, and still find ways of being happy. My former self never knew that that was possible, you know? And so I think, yeah, what I do love about my, my show happy go wrong is the playful aspects to it.
Speaker 2 00:04:23 And, and the show is essentially a rescue mission. So there is a character who is a French angel who flies down to earth on roller skates. And this, this character is obviously played by me because it is a solo show. So I play my own French guardian angel called lucky. Who's this beautiful philosophizing, um, bumbling Fran changer with a dodgy French accent who is there to basically rescue Andy from her misery. And so this character is very cheeky and plays with the audience a lot. And it's sort of like the great chorus and the writer at the same time, if you will. And, um, is the character. I think that drives the show initially and is an important, um, device that I use as an artist to be able to distance myself, Andy, as well from the very personal nature of the narrative that I am discussing by playing another character that sort of looks on and comments like, oh, look at Andy, look, what's happened to her.
Speaker 2 00:05:32 Yeah. It gives that healthy distance where I can bring in comedies. Well, you know, to the whole thing, I think a lot of the time when people think about people who get really sick with life-threatening illnesses or have these life-changing experiences after which they are, you know, they then identify as disabled or whatever it all is. I think so often people are quick to go to the tragic element, but it's like, I think it's really important to show as well that there's actually some extraordinary comedy and play and fun that can be found in all of that experience. And I know that might sound a bit challenging for some people to hear because that's not to dismiss the difficulty that a lot of people, particularly like myself who have invisible illnesses and disabilities experience, I'm not dismissing any of that. That is really valid and really difficult to navigate in this world. But at the same time, I'm just really wanting to show that there's another whole side to it as well, and that there is joy and fun and play and that we can, um, we can kind of joke about ourselves and our experiences a bit as well as a, as a, as a way of educating, you know,
Speaker 0 00:06:46 Well, there's a lot of fun going on. There's a lot of fantasy elements and those roller skates and those franchise angels. It's not just a lot piece of entertainment though. There is actually something the audience can take away with them afterwards.
Speaker 2 00:06:59 Yeah, absolutely. So I kind of describe it as a roller coaster show and entities, both physically for me to do and also emotionally, um, it's, it's a beautiful journey that I take the audience on. So in parallel to this, um, very fun buoyant friend, change your character. There is the secondary character, which is Andy, which is effectively, may playing myself and this aspect, um, through the use of physical movement and interacting with large nests of brown craft paper, which are like these incredible sculptures on stage that I move through and wave. And I drown in them and, and I fight with it. And, and that represents all sorts of, um, visual metaphors that people can read, you know, all sorts of things into. So yeah, there's definitely an aspect of the show, um, that yeah. Is vulnerable and raw. It's just in my nature again, as a performer to find that humanity, I suppose, that connects us all audience and me, no matter whether someone is disabled or not, no matter what experience they have in life, I'm interested in that humanity that connects us all.
Speaker 2 00:08:15 And so I, I do take myself to very vulnerable places in the show and through that, hopefully open up my audience, um, to consider themselves, you know, in their own place in the world and their own sense of mortality. And with that, yeah, there is an epic journey that does occur for sure. And, and I, I've had a lot of audiences overwhelmingly say to me that they definitely leave my show feeling very different to how they arrived, you know, in a good way, um, that they always say there's a lot to take away and, and reflect on. And, and, um, people seem to be very personally very, um, impacted by it, which has been, um, yeah, tremendous for me to witness.
Speaker 0 00:09:01 It must be so rewarding to put something so personal out into the world and have it received well. And it makes people think, yeah,
Speaker 2 00:09:10 That's right. I mean, I guess it's the ultimate dream as an artist of what we're going for, you know, ease to have an impact on the world. And I don't make any grand claims to be here to change the world. But I do think that every time I perform that show, something does shift in that magical space that only can occur, you know, in the liveliness of the ESR between myself and my audience. Yeah. Look, it's the show. Um, it's done a couple of seasons already and it's just had an incredible response. I mean, I've never, I've never done a show like it before it's had just across the board, outstanding reviews, countless five star reviews, standing ovations it's won five awards, but more importantly than all of that for me has been, yeah, I guess the level of community engagement that the show has enabled. Um, and what I mean by that is just the amount of complete strangers that will stick around in the foyer afterwards to speak with me, um, to share how the shows affected them,
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[email protected]. You can also call us on 1300 triple 9, 6 3 6. It sounds like a really physical show. It sounds like a solid hour of physical things going on. Does that knock you around a bit, given your health?
Speaker 2 00:10:56 Yes, that is a really great question because I kind of joke a lot about the sweet irony that my chosen genre of preference in terms of performance styles is the more physical, the better. And yet it is my, my body functioning and my physicality that has been the most impacted by my illness, uh, experience. So over the years, so I sort of laugh with myself and think, gosh, why couldn't you just be one of those artists who just likes to sit still and deliver a model, but I'm not like that. It's just not, not my thing at all. I have to be, I love moving. I love expressing for moving the body. So yeah, it's definitely been a learning curve for me to come back to the stage and learn how to work in physical ways with a body that's now very different, how it used to be.
Speaker 2 00:11:52 So I was performer beforehand. Anyway, I had been all my life and when I fell ill with Lyme disease, I would say there was about a good three or so years there where I wasn't really performing at all. I wasn't able to, I wasn't able to. Um, and when I did slowly, but surely start to re-emerge, which was in the form of creating happy, go wrong. In fact, through that process, I had to reeducate myself, I suppose, on how to be a performer and how to create the kind of work I still desired to create. But while looking after my body and keeping myself safe and all of that, so self care has been a big part of learning for me. And I know it's a very kind of trendy buzzword at the moment, but it is something I now have a different relationship to, and that I take really seriously.
Speaker 2 00:12:44 And I often say I mentor a lot of artists. And I often say to them, even if they're fully able bodied artists, I say, you know, everyone has access needs and you, and self care is for everyone. And so think about when you're creating a work, what your individual needs are and try to really honor those and address those because you'll, you'll have a much better time making your art, you know, and it'll be way more sustainable. Art can be very boom and bust. Like it's, it's a common thing that's spoken about with people with, um, with Emmy, um, chronic fatigue, um, which is sort of a, been a big component of my Lyme disease journey as well, is this boom and bust idea where, um, yeah, you sort of push yourself, you know, you're having a few great days and you think, wow, I've got energy and then you sort of push yourself and then boom, you crash again.
Speaker 2 00:13:33 I have experienced that a lot over the years, um, because that easy, my personality to kind of push the limits of ish. And I always say we have, uh, you know, many of us have lots of different types of disabilities and we are allowed to get it wrong and there is no wrong. In fact, you know, we are allowed to push our limits and to maybe do something that isn't right for our body or our doctor told us not to, you know, we are allowed to do that and work it out for ourselves. You know? Um, so much of the time, I think paper would disability get this experience of being mollycoddled wrapped in cotton. Wool told you can't do things. And I think there still needs to be a level of autonomy and finding your own way through. There were times and I'd be rehearsing this show.
Speaker 2 00:14:16 And I just, I couldn't actually like run the entire show. So I'd rehearsing very different ways. You know, I often say to people, a lot of these show in the early days was rehearsed in the bath. Like literally I would just lie the bar, uh, B be speaking the lines and like acting out the show, but just from lying in the bath, but visualizing myself doing it. And so the cool thing about all of that is that I have discovered a whole new artistic process for myself that is so different, how I used to work and has actually opened up more creative possibilities for me. And so I'm a big advocate as well for that we perceive as limitations or restrictions on our body or whatever can actually be hidden door. Like he can trap door, secret doors into whole other ways of working or functioning that we just hadn't considered before, because we weren't kind of forced into the situation to consider another way. So, yeah, it's a great question. The show is highly physical, but I have a massive preparation routine before the show and our whole recovery routine that I go through after the show, in order to be able to do the show
Speaker 0 00:15:28 And any plans he had for the future, maybe taking what you've learned about working with your body and applying it now to new work.
Speaker 2 00:15:35 Yes, absolutely. On the sort of person who constantly has like a thousand ideas for a thousand different shows, performances and artworks running through my head. So for me, it's about really getting focused on focusing on one thing at a time, like what, what is achievable? Yeah. I am already in the early development stages of what will be my fourth solo theater work. I can't yet fully reveal the details of, but I will say I am researching that show. I'm in the research phase, sorry for that show and the early writing stage of that. And I'm dealing with a whole lot of new elements in that show that I've never done before, uh, which I'm very excited by. And one of those is embedding access into the theater work from the beginning. So for anyone, for whom that they don't know what that means, what that means is essentially a concept called aesthetics of access in art.
Speaker 2 00:16:36 And it means rather than what I've previously done is create a show that I want to create and then add on the access elements afterwards. So that could be adding on an Oz land interpreter who stands on the stage with me to interpret the show in Oslan for the deaf community, or that could mean adding in audio description to the show where an audio describer will sit up the back of the audience and describe the show for people who are blind or low vision. So that's an example of creating a work and then adding on the access at the end, it's kind of an afterthought like, yes, it's lovely. Yes, it's important. Of course, every show should have it. However, there's another whole level, um, that we can bring a work to. And this is I'm, I'm being very ambitious in trying to achieve this.
Speaker 2 00:17:25 And I really hope I can. And I'm certainly trying to, and that is that with my new show, I'm trying to incorporate, for example, like elements of all's land and captioning and so forth into the actual show. So that it's like part of the narrative will like, there's a character who's, um, who speaks in Oz land. That's just like a natural part of the show. It's not, they just happen to speak. He knows land. Like, it's not a thing if you know what I mean, considering wave, you know, I'm consulting with, for example, a friend of mine who is a, um, neuro diversity consultant, um, I'm speaking with him, like what can I be considering with the making of my show that can help make it more, um, I guess easier to navigate for someone with say autism or differing sensory needs or whatever in my audience.
Speaker 2 00:18:15 So it's trying to bring together lots of different types of access into the work. And again, offers my work a different type of feel and creativity that it wouldn't have had if I weren't doing those things. That is an exciting new thing for me that I'm trying to bring into my new solo show. It's a really big undertaking because it involves me educating myself around different forms of access, because I know my own access really well, but we don't always understand everyone else's as well, but I'm very passionate about that. And then, um, and also, you know, trying to raise funding as well, to be able to fund all of those components too, but I'm not perturbed by that. I'm just looking at ways of trying to make it happen at this point. And we'll see what the final product is. I'll do the best I can, but that's like, that is one strong example of how my own disability experience and my own experience navigating my own access needs to make this show has now grown into another whole level of how I think about creation for the next work. For example,
Speaker 0 00:19:18 Andy Snellings show happy go wrong has one show coming up in Brisbane for the undercover artist festival on September 17. Find out
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