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Joshua Maxwell, founding member of the Central Coast’s first dedicated youth arts body, talks to The Point about COVID, cardiac care, rainbow families and surviving 2020.
By Jackie Pearson
Joshua Maxwell has lived a very full life for a 27-year-old – a proud rainbow child and campaigner for same-sex marriage, climate campaigner, youth theatre doyen and someone that COVID-19 would easily kill.
By his late teens it was obvious that Josh was “very much stuck in the arts.” He’d been involved in major productions at school and in the community, done a theatre management course and started work with a Central Coast-based youth theatre company when his promising career suddenly came to a screeching halt.
“I had a heart attack and became debilitated to an extreme level,” Joshua says in a matter-of-fact tone. “I was diagnosed with Congenital Aortic Incompetence, my aortic leak was louder than my heartbeat.
“I had hoped to go overseas and study to be a designer and director; I had all these dreams in 2012 and I had to reimagine how I could continue with my career.”
Joshua was in his office when he started feeling unwell.
“I had been unwell for a while. I just finished directing my first major play in the community and I started feeling lethargic and dizzy. Then the room started to spin, so I called 000 and they said they were sending an ambulance.”
Joshua was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital where he had surgery and was stabilised.
“I was in surgery for 17 hours. They replaced my aortic valve with a mechanical valve, placed a graft on my aortic root. It was about to rupture. My doctors were amazed I made it to Christmas. Eight weeks after my cardiac event, I wasn’t able to lift anything.
“I was in ICU for a week, stopped breathing twice, in hospital for a month. It took eight-to-nine months to feel like I felt before surgery but it took three years for them to discover long-term damage to my body.”
In the middle of it all Joshua contracted a serious infection which was successfully treated but resulted in a diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome five years later.
The challenges of 2012 would have destroyed the spirit of many but Joshua remained resilient and, out of the ashes, he created the Central Coast’s award-winning Jopuka Productions Youth Arts Theatre.
From Star Wars to youth arts
“Jopuka was a brainchild of mine to have my own production company, it was never meant to be youth arts,” he reflects. The name was Josh’s Star Wars name – he’s never even seen the movie but got the idea from a Myspace quiz.
“I’d had various attempts to start until it was launched in 2016 with the help of two dear friends Jessica Saladine and Danielle Brame-Whiting.
“We realised there was much more of a market need for a dedicated youth arts body so we started to pivot very early into creating more works, youth lead projects and collaborating with other organisations.
“I think it was a bit of a culture shock for the region in the early days. We’d been involved in community theatre together and I was getting to the point where my health was stabilising. I was ready to move back to Adelaide to start working and studying down there but it just started to happen.
“I remember the moment when we decided to happen, we found ourselves together in Danielle’s kitchen talking and deciding to start it, it just happened, it grew and now here we are five years later.”
Joshua has worked around Australia so he finds the arts scene on the Central Coast a bit behind the times – around 20 years behind, in fact.
“Young people and audiences around the country are really engaging in Australian content. All of our plays have been Australian works and new Australian works or edgy Australian works have either sold out or open to rave reviews.
“I hope with Central Coast Council’s new cultural plan they can dedicate some resources to re-educating a wider audience and get us back up to speed.”
He says the scene is changing, pushed along by the likes of Naughty Noodle, Primal Dance and NAISDA.
“We are getting there. Jopuka is the first dedicated youth arts body in the region ever. There have been other organisations who have done youth in collaboration with other or youth services but we are the only ones who o what we do.”
Jopuka had a very full year planned way back in January, but, along came the global COVID-19 Pandemic and Joshua learned about a new kind of vulnerability
Lockdown
“My cardiologist called me and said we are tracking this virus out of China, and if it gets here and gets bad, stay at home and don’t touch anyone.”
Jopuka was the first regional youth arts body to march in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras this year and Joshua was on the float but “within three weeks the country was basically shut down.
“It has been insane, to watch from a health perspective – to know I have to watch myself. I haven’t left my postcodes 2261 where I live and work in 2259. The places I have been more than once in last eight months I can count on one hand.”
Is he comfortable about how NSW and other states are tracking, with such low numbers of community transitions? Not exactly.
“I think there is a really big level of complacency. I think people are over it and I get their mental health fatigue, I am done with this as well but there is a very big part of this that says wear your mask, wash your hands.”
He has been tested three times for peace of mind. The paradox is that while he knows he needs to be careful, Joshua cannot wait to get audiences in front of Jopuka casts.
“Hamilton is on sale with full houses right now and we are asking can we do that from next year? Been tested three times for safety.
“We’d just like some clarity about what the rules will be, for people’s mental health, it would be awesome.
“I still check the daily case numbers for Australia just to see where we are going but I have just stopped looking for the rest of the world.
“We have essentially plunged back into the 1800s when it takes forever to get anywhere. The rest of the world now feels really far away. I believe our governments, whether or not I vote for them or support them, they should essentially realise Australia and New Zealand are essentially on their own.
“We need to get to the net zero case mark, then stay here and live on our own-some until the rest of the world calms down.
“It is hard to accept that there are people out there who don’t understand stories about vulnerable people and just don’t put a price on life. People who want to open up the country, I ask them for what benefit? What is it that you want to do so desperately that you would risk people’s lives? What is it that you are missing out on right now?
“I am a vulnerable person who is having my limited time on earth wasted even further because people are too selfish to live with this for a year.
“I feel horrible for what has happened in Victoria but at least they have know what the rules are. In NSW the guidelines change every week.”
Waiting for arts funding
“I was disappointed to see it took the government months to announce a minute package for the arts. I am just angry now that it has taken so long for anyone to see any of that money at federal, state and local level.
“They have shut down on a $110 billion industry and not told them when they are going back to work. We have small shows running with small audiences but we had to shut down a show recently because a cast member had a sore throat and we were legally obliged to get tested and wait for results.
“We made commitment to those in rehearsals that we would put them on stage sometime this year but we cancelled 12 major events.
“The organisation has taken a $100,000 loss but in support we have only received $12,000: $5000 from state, $5000 from Australia Council for their survive grant and $2000 from a community bank.
“This year has been exhausting. I sought counselling through the whole period. I am in counselling because of my health. I shaved my entire head and eyebrows. I started a podcast, I did a lot of writing, I tried to make myself busy so I did not go off my rocker.
“I couldn’t sleep so my doctor prescribed Valium. Not only did I have the health concerns but everything I knew of the world and the career I had built over 15 years had melted away with no idea of when anything would be back to normal. A new normal.”
Joshua estimates that Jopuka is functioning at around 20 per cent capacity of its normal capacity.
“We have a smattering of very safe productions. They are small cast and small audiences but we were meant to have done five main stage shows and toured. We are one of the lucky companies in NSW that has found a safe way to work and welcome patrons back but it is not anywhere near full capacity.”
Joshua says the arts industry is planning for a fairly normal 2021 but it is at the mercy of state and federal governments.
“Being in the youth arts sector and knowing, under this current federal government that 25 youth arts organisations have lost their funding, plus the cuts to the ABC, SBS, Australia Council, so I expected nothing for the arts.
“The industry has been through a bloodbath when the Australia Council made all their horrific cuts this year.
“I am imagining the next federal budget will be an election budget. I think the election will be called mid next year. I don’t think it will be too bad for the arts in terms of budget cuts but I am worried about what the economy is going to look like when things like jobkeeper and jobseeker end.
“What is the economy going to look like and what does that mean for the arts?
“We need dedicated youth arts support so that if the upper industry is suffering at least the next generation is not suffering and the industry can naturally rebuild. Who have we lost because of the pandemic and how long does that go on for?
No time to waste waiting
Joshua isn’t letting the grass grow under his feet while the powers that be figure out how to reinvigorate the arts. He is writing a play called Very Happy Children with Bright and Wonderful Futures.
It is set on the back of the black summer bushfires and centres around five children from impacted communities who are involved in the climate movement. The inspiration for the main character is the story of Izzi Raj-Seppings, described as Australia’s Greta Thurnberg.
The characters become quite famous for a viral video moment and while all that is happening a bushfire is bearing down on their town. Jopuka and South Australia Youth Arts, have been working on same script.
“I am the writer and it is a really cool project. Climate change is something I am really passionate which is why I run Oz Arts for Climate Action – a network of artist from across the nation.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Joshua Maxwell identifies as a member of the LGBTIQA+ community. “Because of my parents I decided children of rainbow families are as much a part of the community as those who identify themselves as gay, lesbian or transgender, and for majority of my life I have grown up with queer parents.
“My mum came out when I was eight or nine and moved to be with her partner. It was a sort of exotic thing to have two mums, a lot of kids and teachers hadn’t come across it before so I assumed it was something cool to have two mums.
“It wasn’t until a young girl with two mums was shown on TV and some politicians started to have a problem with it, that some friends weren’t allowed to come over as much and some refused to acknowledge Lyn as my other mother.
“When I was at high school in 2006, I actually came across another person who had same sex parents. His parents were out and proud but he kept it quite. I didn’t see why it was something to be ashamed of.
“Doctors were really confused by my parenting setup. School psychologists would ask if there were mental health issues. They were often doing welfare checks because they didn’t know how to handle rainbow families.
“Scouts were interesting. I had a couple of leaders who were great but one was Christian and conservative, who would ask ‘where is his dad?’ When we went away to Jamberee, he made a report I was being neglected.
“Scouts Australia launched an investigation into my family. I left the movement because of it. Scouts realised I was fine, I just had a slightly different life to the other kids in the movement.
“High school was where the bullying really picked up. It was something easy kids could attack me for but I never backed down, I was proud of my parents.
“My mums have been together for 19 years. They got married in 2018 about nine months after the postal ballot results. We called it the paperwork party because we were just waiting for the government to catch up.”
In the leadup to the same sex marriage plebiscite, Joshua earned his stripes as an activist.
“I posted a letter to the prime minister as my first point of activism, ccd half the government and posted it on facebook.”
He went to bed that night and woke up to thousands of notifications stating he was brainwashed and threats of physical violence.
“But it was more the subtle things that were hardest to deal with like local politicians who I’d previously interacted with who started ignoring me when they realised I was part of the Yes campaign.
“My family has, in a regional sense, been quite present in the movement. My parents were the first female couple in NSW to adopt children under the new laws,” he explains.
Joshua’s mums thought his “theatre thing” would eventually drop away and he’d settle on another career trajectory but through his own health issues, a global pandemic and industry-wide shut-down, his love of the arts stands strong.
To find out more about Jopuka visit their website or find them on facebook
