Things to do in June

Every so often, I revamp my entire system of having a to-do list, since, well, my to-do list never gets done, so I'm constantly trying to think of new ways to structure my life so that life actually... happens.

Sometimes I save a to-do list and make it a special feature on Patreon, for the historical record. Well, this one is free! It's right here on the blog. So let's take a look at the complete list of projects, as seen on the TAPAS website, and figure out what can be done to get closer to achieving those projects in the month of June.

• TAPAS and Stuff Productions Podcast: As of this writing, Podcast #43 has been hanging in limbo for nearly three months. Gotta get over that troublesome little hump. I hope to post a podcast episode every time I have a day off work, and finish Season 1 before moving to Quincy... at this point, the latter goal would require significantly delaying my move to Quincy, but that's been giving me trouble anyway.
• Let's Play Infinity Engine: Haven't played Icewind Dale since October. I'd like to play it for at least one hour this month just to blow the dust off of it. I'll get back to it properly after finishing Dungeon Siege.
• Let's Play Jackbox: Well, hoping for a summer 2020 season of this series if I can get Quincy friends together. Masked, presumably. And that's assuming Quincy happens in June...
• Let's Play Dungeon Siege: As noted above, I hope to finish the single-player campaign of the game this month so that next month, I may properly return to the first TAPAS project, playing Icewind Dale.
• Disney Retrospectives: The Little Mermaid TV series has proven surprisingly hard to sit through, but I hope to get through two retrospectives of this series a week so that next month, I can start posting the Gargoyles retrospectives that Naty and I recorded over the holidays.
• The Deities Project: Four pages of those to go! Stacy has been working swiftly, in defiance of my original premise that she'd finish one page a month. I don't expect her to finish all four pages in June, though that would certainly be impressive.
• Keys & Kingdoms: The Choices: I had hoped the storyboard would be finished in May. While Casey proved a speedy boarder, no one else is even close, so now, the goal is to finish the storyboard in June. Also, got some guys helping me finish writing the Explore Cosmos short subjects.
• Luno Canyon: Naty and I were going to dive hard into writing the audio drama, but then she broke some ribs in a freak swingset accident and was in no condition to focus. But she's all healed up now and just finished her finals at school, so that's something to take off the back burner and get back to work on, I think!
• Drizzt and the Companions of the Dance Hall: Current priority is to release demo versions of the first four songs! So, the June task... is to finish composing those four songs.
• Better Yet?: Our summer productions is delayed due to covid, obviously. I've considered two possibilities: that the six cast members plus a camera crew are a small enough group to gather together and perform safely. Or, more likely, perhaps we stage it as an audio drama so no one has to leave their home? If neither of these work out, we're going to follow the lead of Quincy Community Theatre and delay the show to 2021.
• Whirlwind: It's been forever since I got back to the task of revising this story. Still gotta do that.
• Kingdom Butts: Well, the crew now knows how the first story arc of the Kingdom Hearts series goes, so I'm thinking of planning bit by bit how the first story arc of Kingdom Butts will go. Still not even sure if I'll write it myself or with a team. There's been some quiet buzz of a Kingdom Hearts TV series going into production which is, well, just typical, I can never make a fan project that stays current.
• Depression & Me: Figured we'd puzzle this one out after writing the first season of Luno Canyon, so, maybe we don't touch it in June.
• Iris: Been having lots of ideas for this series! Still have to, of course, begin it. And before I do that I need to figure out the world and the future story arcs. Cool-looking characters with a lot of inner torment will only get me so far.
• Some Sweet Kind of Vampire: Also been having lots of ideas. Just need to rewrite the pilot, gotta get around to--there's a lot of stuff that I'm prepared to do and just haven't gotten around to. It's a difficult time right now in the world and, well, all times are difficult times when you're me, so, yeah, it hasn't been a very productive past couple of months...
• 100 Awesome Plans: Going to start making this show as soon as I have my own place, so it's delayed until that happens. Due to covid, I'm thinking of dividing it into two 50-episode seasons instead of a single 50-episode project; the first season will be the "home" suggestions, then maybe after 50 weeks the pandemic will be over and I can start doing the "away" suggestions.
• The Trivia Box: Still a fairly nascent idea, I figure it's just a game show that's more about comedy and introducing the viewers to the people of Quincy than it is about the stakes and prizes. Might not ever actually be a thing.

...Oh, and also I write fanfiction. That's not a TAPAS project, it's just something I've been doing for the past ten years, and I don't want to abandon my two big stories before they're finished, know what I mean? Low priority, but still a priority.

And I'm thinking about two other projects that aren't yet on the website:

• The Grandpa Show: When I move to Quincy my grandpa will be nearby, and it's been a priority of mine -- ever since my grandma was still alive; it was her idea -- to preserve his knowledge and experiences, all the stories he has to tell. His own mortality has been on his mind the past couple of years, ever since he hit his mid-70s. So, I'm basically thinking an audio podcast where I interview him, maybe occasionally film him going through his possessions and photo albums.
• Irregular Fantasy!: I intended to approach David Morgan-Mar about this project in, say, early 2022, but what the heck -- I approached him about it last week. I figure if we start now, we just might have an animated pilot ready by late 2022 in time for the 20th anniversary of Irregular Webcomic! What can I say, something inspired me and then my characteristic impatience flared up.

As of the end of May, I now have a cast lined up for K&K: The Choices! Main characters and the two minor roles appearing in the pilot episode. I'll leave you this week with that cast list.

And... how about the stories behind each cast member? Yeah, that'll be cool.

• Aramie Joy as Airi and Ziya Herman as Zaya. Obviously, my two little sisters were the inspirations for these characters, I was pleased when they promptly showed up for the second audition period. They both declined to sing, which is okay, I figure that any voice actor who doesn't live in Quincy won't have the time to be brought in to both speak and sing their part.
• Stacy Lord as Zaya (singing) and McKenzie Eby as Jax. My Team Salmon co-creators were the only people who showed up for the poorly-timed first audition period, trying out for their namesake characters of Stacky and Kinzie. I found that they were surprisingly poor fits for the characters based on them, but they both had really great qualities, Stacy's amazing singing and Kenzie's adorable geekiness, I encouraged them to try out for other roles. Stacy tried out for a few of the other roles and I placed her here, and Kenzie, well, I still actually haven't seen her audition for Jax, she was unable to upload the video, but you know what, I took her word for it, I know what she sounds like.
• Caleigh Twaddle as Airi (singing). Armed with the knowledge that Aramie wouldn't do her own singing, and not knowing much about Quincy's student theatre scene, I reached out to a local music teacher and vocal coach to ask for recommendations, and her first suggestion was Caleigh, who played Anna in a pre-covid production of Frozen at the beginning of the year. I reached out to Caleigh's mother and, though I've yet to directly converse with Caleigh, I've been told she's very enthusiastic about this project! Got her audition and it was excellent, excited to meet her and work with her.
• Mekia Gay as Maer. This performer caught my attention when I saw some pictures and videos of rehearsals for QCT's Chicago, the performance of which has been sadly delayed to next year, and I recently realized I also saw her in Mamma Mia, that was fun, and then! And then, the moment she found out about this event she immediately approached me asking for all sorts of details on how she could help, it was amazing, and she was the first Quincy performer to submit her audition, doing a whole bunch of monologues and songs that ultimately made her a sure thing for the role of Maer, most excellent.
• Jen Shackleton as Kinzie. Worked with Jen on my third and most recent theatrical appearance in Mark Twain's Is He Dead?, and shortly thereafter she played Alvissa in my Irregular Webcomic soundsets, I kind of had her in mind for Kinzie all along. Interestingly, I'd been envisioning her just playing Kinzie with her natural voice, as she did with Alvissa at my request, but then in her audition she played Kinzie very posh, so that was great, always nice to see something unexpected.
• Jessie Crockett as Cristela. Cristela has always been a very hard character for me to figure out, so I had no real idea of who would play her if no one auditioned... then Jessie swooped in at the last possible second and completely nailed her, I adored her audition and immediately offered her the role. A total stranger just threw herself in the ring on a whim, and it was fantastic. Many of the people who have been attracted to the project since the cast announcement are friends of hers, that's a nice way to grow the audience, and she's the only person in the Quincy squad thus far to have joined the TAPAS Discord server, she's really opening up our world there!
• Adrienne Fisk as Stacky. Adrienne was my dance partner when we were ensemble in She Loves Me, and it was fun getting to know her, very attractive, very nerdy, and I had her in mind for Stacky from the start, so when no one auditioned for that part, I just asked her if she'd take it, and she was up for it, having not auditioned due to insecurity about her bad microphone set-up. So this'll be tons of fun.
• Emily Dozier as Natha Lee. The last role to get lined up was Natha Lee, nobody auditioned for it, I can imagine it being intimidating that the role calls for a Swedish accent, and Naty was unwilling to try out for the part. After the auditions ended, I approached Emily, one of my first theatre friends ever since Spamalot, and she was all for it, having apparently procrastinated past the deadline. Perhaps we can arrange for Emily to study Naty's accent, assuming such a thing is needed, and Emily is one of the most amazing singers I've ever heard, so I'm super excited for Natha Lee to get her own number later in the series.
• Kelsey Pigg and Mason Ellison as Officers. A couple of theatre pals who helped me out gathering a bunch of potential auditioners. Even if the only people who actually auditioned at their suggestion were Jessie and Mekia (who were definitely very welcome surprises, mind you!) I decided that for their assistance I'd give them these minor one-shot characters. I'm sure they'll be appearing in many other parts once the series gets picked up!

So, that's things to do in June. Let's get 'em done!