Interview with City Mag Adelaide

Clich HERE to read the beautiful, detailed interview I did recently with City Mag Adelaide. I share the fateful story behind my full-blown illness journey and how that very story now unfolds on stage live before an audience in Happy-Go-Wrong. This is a nice one.

“Illness has a powerful way of weeding the garden. At its most intense, my illness cleared out relationships, work, my arts practice, all my money, everything… leaving with me with a feeling of having nothing. I thought my life might be over, but it was precisely from this place of nothing that I started to see everything.

There’s a line in my show that continues to resonate: “Once you have the wisdom of death, you can’t go back… and why would you want to?” It’s funny how being thrown upside down can put you the right way up!”

Feature in Broadway World

Broadway World has written an article on my solo show, Happy-Go-Wrong at Adelaide Fringe 2021.

“After the greatest 'accident' of my life - a tiny tick bite - turned my world upside down, I was surprised to discover that such soaring joy could exist alongside unfathomable struggle, to the point where I began to wonder if this accident was, in fact, no accident. As I continue to fight for my health, and seek out the happy in all the wrong, Happy-Go-Wrong is a lifeline that shines a light on the invisible battles that so many face on a daily basis. It is also my spirited way of saying thanks for still being alive.”

Check out the full article HERE.

Podcast interview

Here’s me on the Project Better Podcast where I talk about why I’m happy to go wrong and get real about my double life as a passionate performer and full-time sick chick. 

We get right into the vulnerable depths of my struggles living with an invisible illness - Lyme disease - and the extraordinary survival superpowers I have developed, thanks to my love of creative expression and my show Happy-Go-Wrong.

In my former life, I never would have imagined I’d have so much to share on a Health & Wellness podcast, but such are the unexpected quirks of years of guinea-pigging on my body!

Honestly, I love podcasts so much and it was such a pleasure to riff with these two legends!

To take a listen, click HERE.

Note: This was recorded in October 2019.

Interview in The Age

I’m in the paper today as part of The Age’s important series on ‘Artists in the Time of COVID19’. It gives voice to the challenged Arts sector and makes the experiences of artists accessible to the mainstream at a time when it feels like our role in the world has been forgotten.

So I got interviewed many weeks ago, just after scrambling back home from New Zealand. I spoke about the unexpected poignant timing of performing Happy-Go-Wrong which is about the great lessons sickness has taught me and the extraordinary resilience we don’t know we have in us til we’re put to the test. A show about how much you realise you have when everything is taken away from you and you have to start over. About how freakin’ amazing it is to simply be alive.

I spoke at length about how familiar this all already is to many in the chronic illness and disability community; about how I’ve learnt to find possibility in my years of restriction and how this now makes me oddly well-equipped for this pandemic.

I also spoke of the government’s neglect of the Arts industry in the various support packages put forth and how it is art we turn to at such times to save our sanity and show us the mirror of ourselves. I expressed (possibly naive) hope for a newfound appreciation of the Arts during this time, but also the fear that artists are so used to having to get by on their own, that this default robustness may sadly backfire and see us left, yet again, to fend for ourselves.

Of course, journos have certain agendas they need to honour, limited print spaces and the ever-increasing pressure for click-worthy grabs, so the article doesn’t quite capture it all as I experienced it, but it’s nonetheless great to see my work, indie theatre and Lyme disease get some coverage in these information-crowded times. (And hey, I’m next to John Gielgud, so no complaints from me, baby!)

Hope you enjoy the read! 🙌

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, CLICK HERE

Happy-Go-Wrong wins another award!

Happy-Go-Wrong was lucky enough to just squeeze in its New Zealand Fringe 2020 season before theatres shut down. It was a strange and poignant time to be on stage, sharing a show about the powerful lessons great sickness can teach us. I was blown away by the beautiful full houses, standing ovations and audience members who stayed behind to talk to me or who later messaged me online about the impact my show had on them. To top it all off, I won Best Marketing award which was an unexpected delight!

Rave reviews for Happy-Go-Wrong

Happy-Go-Wrong has enjoyed another stellar season with full houses and incredible responses by its kiwi audience. I received two reviews, both utterly mind-blowing. I put in a lot of work after my premiere season on re-writes and tighten the dramaturgical structure of the show, and am delighted that it has really paid off. Take a gander below:

THEATREVIEW

ART MURMURS

Green Room Award Nominations

I am absolutely delighted to share the news that I have been nominated for two Green Room Awards in the Independent Theatre of 2019 category: Best Performer and Best Writing for Happy-Go-Wrong! This is a huge honour to be up there amongst some incredibly talented writers and performers. Congrats to all nominees.

Some jaw-dropping news!

Happy-Go-Wrong makes several 'Best Shows of 2019' lists

Happy-Go-Wrong has found its way onto several ‘Best Of’ lists for 2019.

The show has been named an “indie highlight” of 2019 by The Age critic Cameron Woodhead in his reflection on memorable theatre from the year: “Happy-Go-Wrong laid bare the fate of an artist struck down by chronic illness.”

The show has come in at #7 (out of 199!) on prolific theatre critic My Melbourne Arts’ Top Ten Shows of 2019. “Happy-Go-Wrong drew the audience into the reality of living with a chronic illness and when Snelling sung her original song, “You Are Alive”, we were motionless, transfixed by a moment of pure emotion and truth.”

The show has also made critic Keith Gow’s Best Shows of 2019: “Andi Snelling’s very personal show about her own invisible illness that opens up a discussion about disability and the arts. Beautifully theatrical.”

And there’s also plenty of love for the show over at critic Anne-Marie Peard’s What Melbourne Loved 2019: “Happy-Go-Wrong was an incredibly moving and beautiful celebration of life!” “…a deeply personal story about invisible illness, without it feeling at all indulgent – an utterly mesmerising, moving piece of theatre.”

I feel very lucky!