Dramageddon is a genre-bending choose- your-own-adventure podcast created by playwright Jean Tong and comedian Lou Wall. Each episode pits two queer people against the climate apocalypse in 2050. This MWF-themed special tests Candy Bowers and Nevo Zisin on their survival skills, forcing them to address ethical questions such as: write or run? Publish or punish? Paperback or zombie snack?It’s the end of the world; bring on the Dramageddon!Produced by Xen Nhà with Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, published by BroadwaveCandy Bowers is a radical mischief-maker, comedian, writer and actor born of South African political refugees. A musical comedy star and hip hop theatre-maker, she was the recipient of the MentorLA initiative in 2019 and has added screenwriting to the mix, signing to Hollywood Agency WRITLarge.Nevo Zisin is a queer, non-binary, Jewish writer, performer, activist and public speaker based in Naarm. They are the author of award-winning Finding Nevo, a memoir on gender transition and a member of the Gender Euphoria cast – Australia's largest all-trans and gender diverse show on a main stage.
This episode takes us all the way back to Day 0, as comedians Zoë Coombs Marr and Nina Oyama emerge from an isolated three month getaway to find the world unlike how they left it. The pair battle generational differences, debate the perks of never having to shit again, and figure out how to survive when the apocalypse first hits. Zoë Coombs Marr is a performer, writer and comedian. Her work has been seen everywhere from stinky garages to the Sydney Opera House. Her latest comedy hour, Bossy Bottom, won the 2019 Edinburgh Herald Angel Award and was recently recorded as a special for Amazon Prime Video. She is occasionally on the telly and in 2006 won the National Poetry Slam Championships under dubious circumstances.Nina Oyama is a 26 year old, half Japanese, writer, director and comedian from Sydney, Australia. At age 19, Nina scored her first television writing job on You’re Skitting Me Season 2 after a producer saw her performing stand up comedy in a dingy room in Kings Cross. Since then her writing has been seen on television shows The Chaser’s Election Desk, The Chinaboy Show, Mornings, The Project, The Slot Online and Squinters Season 1 & 2. She currently has a bunch of projects in development and intends to live in Los Angeles. Her dream is to be the Australian/Japanese version of Ali Wong.
It’s all aboard for performers Carly Sheppard and Tahlee Fereday as they jump on a cruise ship to escape the zombie plague that’s taking over land and sea. Join them for rats, cruise ship orgies, and zombie physiology getting in the way of their final plan. Based in Melbourne, Carly Sheppard is an Indigenous dancer and choreographer descending from the Wallangamma and Takalaka Tribes of North QLD. After studying at NAISDA Dance College and the Victorian College of the Arts, Carly has been training and working professionally in the dance industry for over eight years.Tahlee Fereday is a 2017 graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). Before her studies she was based in Darwin, where she hosted The Breakfast Show with Tahlee on Larrakia Radio 94.5FM. Tahlee’s theatre credits include Astroman (Melbourne Theatre Company), Fallen (She Said Theatre), Love (Dee&Cornelius). As a First Nations and queer artist, Tahlee is an advocate for representation of minority voices on the mainstage.Instagram
Playwright Morgan Rose and writer/editor Roz Bellamy discuss the weirdest ways to escape awkward pick-ups at the bar, how educators can support the next generation of change-makers, and how to talk big and difficult ideas with young people.Morgan Rose is an internationally produced playwright, performance maker, and dramaturg. Her writing is sad-funny/funny-sad, with a focus on the absurdity of the contemporary world. She was a recipient of the INK writing commission with Red Stitch Actors Theatre in 2014 and again in 2018.WebsiteRoz Bellamy is a freelance writer passionate about creativity, social justice and mental health. They are the online editor at Archer Magazine and a PhD candidate at La Trobe University. They are working on a memoir about gender diversity, Jewish identity and mental illness. Website | Twitter
It's a real funny or die world for comedians Geraldine Hickey and Anna Piper Scott in their plight to see if stand up comedy has it's place in Dramageddon. The pair talk Adelaide Fringe (pre- and post- apocalypse), how to handle a heckler and deliver a rousing rendition of "To Be With You" by Mr Big. But will they deliver a killer set - or be killed by their set?Geraldine Hickey is an Australian comedian best known as co-host of the Breakfasters program on Melbourne’s beloved community radio station 3RRR. Geraldine's latest show "Things Are Going Well" was nominated for the Melbourne Comedy Festival Award for most outstanding show in 2019.Twitter | FacebookAnna Piper Scott is a Perth-born, Melbourne-based stand-up comedian. A trans woman of remarkable wit and social insight, Anna is a skilled writer and bold performer whose comedy is incisive, relatable, well-crafted and flat out funny.Website
Trapped in an enforced quarantine, married couple Mia MacDonald and Steph Hughes discuss being “crafty with finding sperm”, tiny cock viruses, how to keep milk cold in a world with no fridges, and divorce!Mia Mala McDonald is a photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. Mia is deeply interested in people and this is the real essence of her work. Her process allows her to see things in a new way, small things in the way people behave and she strives to disclose these intimate personal narratives. Mia lives in Melbourne with her partner Steph Hughes and their daughter.Website | InstagramSteph Hughes is a Melbourne based illustrator who is most well-known for hand drawn, line-y and simple (though sometimes busy) drawings. Her work is all about people, words, stories, cities and buildings, diagrams, music, overheard nonsense, football, sight gags, maps of all kinds, third-hand gossip and wallaby snot.Website | Instagram
Secret martial artists (and theatre artists) Sapidah Kian and Natesha Somasundaram get into the nitty gritty of totalitarian leadership, cannibalism as punishment, and tickle torture - as the new leaders of the post-Apocalyptic Mt-Dandenong -Hotel-slash-lesbian-commune.Sapidah Kian is a director, actor, theatre maker and dramaturg, working across theatre, film, television, and radio. Since 2014, she has been a lecturer in acting and directing at the Victorian College of the Arts. She was Director in Residence at Malthouse Theatre for 2017/18 and is currently co-chair of the Green Room Independent Theatre Panel.Natesha Somasundaram is a writer for theatre and television. She graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Performing Arts in 2017 and was resident playwright at Melbourne Theatre Company 2017-2019. She has written for Netflix, ABC, SBS and more; Natesha’s debut play Jeremy and Lucas buy a Fucking House was nominated for a Greenroom Award for Best Writing.
Multi-disciplinary artists Lara Thoms and Danielle Reynolds discuss anxiety diarrhoea, emetophobia, and improvise Apocalypse acrostic poems to say goodbye - all while trying to get some good farming technique going to survive Dramageddon.For a full transcript of this episode, head to this link.Lara Thoms is a multi-disciplinary artist who is interested in the socially engaged, site-specific and participatory possibilities of contemporary art and performance. Lara regularly works with non-artists in her work and uses politics, humour and dialogue to rethink social hierarchies and highlight the unexpected.Website | InstagramDanielle Reynolds is a Melbourne based artist who works across multi-disciplinary installation and performance. Her work explores failure, futility and the intersections of sincerity and absurdity, and is generated through humour and play.Website
Singer Mama Alto and poet Fury forge through an Apocalyptic Melbourne as hunter-gatherers - while self-ranking the Dramageddon stank and sharing the best way to survive a live-shooter situation.For a full transcript of this episode, head to this link.Mama Alto is a jazz singer, cabaret artiste & gender transcendent diva. She is a transgender & queer person of colour who works with the radical potential of storytelling, strength in softness and power in vulnerability. Website | Instagram | Twitter | FacebookFury is a white, queer, non-binary (trans) writer. A writer and poet since the age of 12, Fury is a journalist and queer advocate interested in writing for screen and stage as well as cross-genre and experimental work.Website | Shop
Queen Victoria Women's Centre and Broadwave present Dramageddon, created by Jean Tong and Lou Wall and recorded at Castaway Studios. Created before we found ourselves in the midst of a pandemic, Dramageddon is the perfect slice of satire to distract you from the world right now.Find out more about Dramageddon, and read the Q&A with podcast creators Jean and Lou