June production week diary for KiwiRPG Week 2026
Monday 22nd June
The third show of our (hopefully ongoing) live campaign is on in 6 days. We have 3 actors, a rotating guest spot, a musican and a DM playing for a live audience once a month in sunny Ōtepoti / Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand.
Holy sh*t bookings are low. SIngle figures low. Worried.
I have to revisit an exit strategy if no one turns up this week and next month. Crunch worst case numbers and plan B on how to keep this going / online / oneshots etc. Urg. Must keep remembering I knew winter would be hard, audiences hibernate down here. Past me set this up as a deliberate trial by fire; get funding to float the hardest time of year and see if there was a group hardcore enough to keep turning up for it. Better to know now than 8 months in.
As well as the usual to-do list – do all the stuff for Matariki firepit (bucket, blanket, extinguisher, poker, what am I forgetting??) Collect sticks for marshmallows BEFORE the weekend. Mental image of running around the town belt like a lunatic collecting sticks, 60 mins before the show. Cackling witch insanity.
This week I have Shihad’s General Electric on repeat in the car for school drop off. This is speaking to me today:
And it’s always such an effort to believe
In what you want to be
I take a leather pouch when I go out
There’s no money in it
I’m starting to see the pattern of the month, the week before the show feels like a terrible scramble no matter how much I think I’ve done. My hopes to get a better podcast recording up of our last show before now have been dashed by my own technical ineptitude. Haha. A frustratingly intermittent buzz on the night in the recording, and everything I try makes something else go a bit wrong, like a kid mixing all the paint to make a rainbow, and ending up with Disappointment Brown.
I have the mediocre version online because I said I would get something up before this show, but constantly worrying that people will give up after 10 seconds because of the live sound quality. Who am I kidding? 3 seconds. We all have such high expectations now, so used to pristine studio sound.
Research and common sense suggests the old lighting dimmer pack and my rushed set-up that night is the culprit, so the dimmer pack is going in the naughty corner and all the power cables are being quarantined like the plague.
If that doesn’t work I’ll throw my toys out the cot.
Tuesday 23rd June
Do the to do list. It’s like going crazy, I have ‘write a to do list’ on my to do list.
Dont leave all the front of house stuff to the last minute! (*future me reading this. Mocking laughter.)
I need to make some budget strategy calls about posters. I want to keep paying local artists to make new art each month, which I love, but it’s making no measurable impact on bookings. Not sure how to interpret it, too many variables. It’s hard to balance this stuff.
Last month’s session was toooo looooong I don’t even want to write how long in case anyone reads this (…4 hours) How can we improve that? Keeping things to time seems a pretty common question for TTRPG live players. I think if we can just crack that time question while still playing the game, having fun and keeping a long form thing rather than continuous 1-shots (which would definitely be easier) then we’ve done it. Whatever ‘it’ is. I have no doubt that the ability is in the team, it’s just unlocking it.
I love the point of difference we have playing with an audience, getting real laughter, IRL community, and the focus it gives us as player, but it really is a LOT harder to make a live show…imagine being able to edit! If you must bow let it be to a stupidly tall mountain eh? I still think there a sustainable sized audience in Dunedin for this (Are you out there? Are you reading this?) If I can get the word out to keen people, maintain momentum once a month, we can all find the sweet spot, and I learn all the other skills I need fast enough…before the production runs out of money.
It’s like watching an unbearably high-stakes snail race.
Wednesday 24th June
Radio interview for OAR went ok, I didn’t say anything completely ridiculous, or get any names wrong. I think. So that’s a good start – it’s here:
https://tinyurl.com/DandDonOAR
But I haven’t listened back to it because I know I’ll be annoyed with it, and time is a weird soup that only pours one way, so there’s not much point torturing myself. I can do that next week.
10 seats booked. Sigh.
Time actually IS a weird soup this week. Winter is setting in properly now, dark and cold by 6pm, our start time. I fear the temperature in Gasworks Museum where we perform. It’s a fantastic moody gas-punk space, and they’ve been so great about having us there, but if the boilers aren’t on… So if there’s any issues with that I’ll definitely have to cancel the show. Can’t afford to go anywhere else. Especially not with 10 bookings, ahaha (cue manic laughter)
Thursday 25th June
Still 10 bookings. Yukking my yum. Wish I didn’t have to look at it.
Make another to-do list.
Possible uptake in website hits from the OAR interview yesterday (?) but not really noticable. No new bookings, so I guess TTRPG fans aren’t listening to local radio before 7.30am? Proving that they’re a sensible bunch and still asleep I hope.
In tears of rage at the computer this morning, my Reaper project save being a total dick because computers are TOTAL DICKS. Over it now, got it safely onto an SD card and in the hands of Hugh, who will probably fix the problems in about 5 minutes, because he’s flash and I can’t even call myself a beginner in the world of sound engineering.
In a good moment, I love how producing live performance makes me learn new things, even if it is out of desperate necessity. Honestly I wouldn’t get my shit together without the deadline of an audience. The list of traits that are common in actors, or tropes about actors at least, is basically a check-list of ADHD.
Meeting tonight via zoom. See if anyone has bright ideas.
Gasworks contacted me and said they’ve added some heating. So that’s nice. They also remind me there’s another heated room we can use. I had completely forgotten about that because it’s not as moody as the Engine Room, and I’m not keen for another variable. See how we go.
I hope the poster art for July arrives in my inbox tomorrow morning to help me through the next 48 hours. The fizz of seeing what other people create – stuff that exists because of the boring work I’m doing- is a morale boost to get through the decision making, checklists and money shit. Freudenfreude.
Thank god the new Dimension 20 episode dropped today. Listening to the sweet tones of BLMs storytelling has a direct positive influence on the quality of dinner I cook for my family and how clean I get the kitchen.
Friday 26th June
Last night’s meeting was good. Must remember that working alone all the time is quite bad for my brain.
Do everything I haven’t already done. MY CHARACTER SHEET. MARSHMALLOW STICKS.
Going forward I need a cut off time where I stop doing anything about future performances and only work on tasks for the upcoming show. For example… 30 minutes spent this morning fucking around trying to get something on podcast analytics was NOT AS IMPORTANT as figuring out how to record the show on my mixer in two days, since my expert won’t be there to set it up for me. I knew this, but had put it straight in my denial box until today. He’s set it up for you! Fly little bird!
This morning there was a Black Back Gull on the road. I circled back after dropping my boy to school and someone was moving it, still alive. Dude had to go to work so I put the bird in my car. Went through the process of figuring out where to take him. Gently driving down the road with this placid gull- they’re usually so reactive and fierce- just chilling in the front seat.
Watching me drive.
And I’m watching him wondering if he’s going to live, or if it’s internal injuries.
I got to the wildlife hospital, the second I stop the car he comes out of the stunned condition, starts flapping around. They’re fucking big buggers in the front seat of a small car. I open the doors and he launches out and flies straight off. Applause from his audience of one.
I think every gull I see is him now.
It doesn’t have to be real to be true.
About all gulls being him I mean, this did actually happen. Here he is in my car.
Saturday 27th June
Two new bookings. One day to go, grand total of 12 booked seats. I did clear the SD card and get marshmallow sticks yesterday. Yay me.
Sunday 28th June.
SHOW DAY. Also my 49th birthday. No time for that today, we had fish n chips in the park for lunch so I wouldn’t not eat before the show again.
Monday 29th June.
How nice it would be to write the payoff of “everything went perfect, heaps of people showed up”
Here’s what actually happened.
Went up with 19 paid tickets, plus 5 odd comps. For the capacity and vibe of the show that’s actually a nice number and the are a GREAT audience. No shit, I love performing for them. But for financial sustainability when my funding runs out, it’s maybe half the minimum.
Gasworks, bless them, had installed some radiant heating in the roof especially for us. But it was still too cold after about 2 hours (more about time in a minute)
The firepit started off great, once I got it to a position that didn’t give me the shits about burning the place down (aahahaha not really Gasworks, just jokes) in back of the room providing a lovely crackly glow and ambience, people toasting marshmallows, nice. As it went on though… Yeah, not so smokeless when it starts to die down. Secondary combustion at high temperature, right? I knew that ‘cause physics, right? So, incrementally the room starts filling with smoke during the show. Like a fucking farce, Noises Off. What did I think was going to happen? Idiot.
So. Won’t be doing that again.
I did all the power supply and sound and light set up myself (more or less) like a little red hen, and it worked, and I understand it now. Also, quarantining power got rid of the buzz. I haven’t checked the recording, I’m sure I will weep over some aspect, but until then that’s a win. Acutally a big win that I needed to work. I was racing against time, didn’t get some stuff done, and pretty stressed out though.
And once again we run massively over time. Not four hours, but still too long. I feel discouraged.
Dis Courage. My character Cailtin O’Shea got to captain a ship last night. Hers didn’t sink.
Not the time to stop bailing though. Caitlin very nearly died in the show, her life flashed before her eyes in a vision of fey whisky rainbow piss.
I’m alive and all I’m doing is making a show, not fighting dragon acid. The map past me set out for present me was to keep trying shit and assess after the July show. So, one more shot before the knives have to come out.
Next month I’m moving out of the Engine room and into the smaller, but definitely warm, fitting room space. We will still have the firepit & marshmallows but put it outside, where we can maybe have it as a visible backdrop through the windows. We will somehow need to address the length of the show. Plus getting people in the door, publicity, postering etc etc. That’s a tomorrow problem. In fact, it’s all a future me problem.
I need to do the dishes and get somthing out of the freezer for dinner. Rose. x
Downtime Activities is proudly funded by the Dunedin City Council Professional Theatre Fund and auspiced by Stage South trust
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Downtime Activities D&D 