Kay Proudlove is a singer-songwriter raised in Wollongong who imbues her art with a raw vulnerability and humour. Said to have a performance style akin to being invited into her living room, Proudlove, herself, embodies a ‘big-sister’-like, comforting presence — one which welcomes you in, makes you a cup of tea and tells you to ‘spill all the ‘goss’.
Dear Diary journeys into Proudlove’s teen diaries, depicting the vulnerability, embarrassment and hilarity of teenage-hood. In her one-woman show, Proudlove reconnects her older and younger self in this exploration of self-love and acceptance.
Why don’t you start by introducing yourself?
I’m Kay, I’m a writer and musician from Wollongong. I like Shiraz and The Beatles. I have two dachshunds that bark a lot and my reality tv show of choice is Below Deck.
Your play delves into the reconnection between your older and younger selves. Can you introduce us to your teenage self?
My teenage self liked to hang out in the music rooms at lunch in hopes of running into her crush, wrote Lord of the Rings fan fiction during maths class and always lusted after a pair of checkered vans but made do with drawing on her white vollies instead.
You’ve taken your experiences and transformed them into this wonderful creative narrative. In doing so, do you think you have also transformed your teenage self into a ‘character’? How do you connect with that person now, as a writer?
For sure, I had to make my younger self a character so I could get past the embarrassment of it actually being me — I did some real cringey things and they’re all on display. But I find the more that I perform the show, the more love I have for that girl and the things she endured for me to grow into who I am now. I owe her heaps and as a writer. I hope I do her justice.
I know the embarrassment of reading old diary entries – can you take us through what feelings were stirred up when you initially found the diaries?
There was a lot of tears, happy and sad. We were also going through COVID-19 while I was reading them. There was a lot of doubt around how the music industry would recover so I was in that place of wondering how my future would pan out, looking back on teenage me doing the same. Maybe that helped me empathise with the diaries more in the end but it was an emotional rollercoaster at the time. Maybe I should have just learned to bake sourdough in lockdown instead like many other people did, but then I wouldn’t be where I am now.
At what point, and why, did you decide to take the diaries to the stage? Was there anything that particularly inspired you?
I got asked to perform at the MerrigongX made from scratch night which is a place to try new things on stage and I decided it was the perfect place to try one of the songs and see it was even funny to other people. I nearly copped out and played something tried and tested already, because I only finished writing it on the day and I was shaking like a leaf at the thought of putting it out there. But all the things I’m most proud of are things I’ve been terrified to do.
How do you think your experiences and perspectives as an adult have shaped the play, especially in depicting your teenage self? And how did that influence your script and song writing process?
It’s interesting because I can still feel a lot of the emotion attached to challenging things that happened back then. But I guess being an adult means that I can now also make fun of it instead of feeling like I was going to die, which hopefully makes good theatre. The songwriting process was wild because I was using language and expressions from the early 2000’s with the songwriting techniques that I’ve developed as an adult. I guess that’s a nice collaboration between past and present Kay.
Which part of the play do you think your teen-self would have loved about the play? What would she have hated? Why?
She would love that I’m on stage infront of an audience because that was always a passion and a dream. She would hate that I out myself as a failed dancer and that I make fun of my year ten formal outfit after painstakingly planning it out as a 16 year old.
Adults love to tell teens that their experiences are “not that deep”. Now, an adult, would you agree? Were our teen experiences really that deep?
I feel like the depth and overwhelm you feel in anything depends what stage of growing you’re up to. Like even the shallow end of a pool is a struggle when you’re learning to swim so I think teenage experiences are worth the weight they’re given by the people going through them.
What is one thing you want your audience to take away from this play?
Hopefully they leave with a lot of love for every version of themselves and the people in their lives. And a Dear Diary t-shirt. Maybe.
Thank you so much for your time, Kay. Just one final question: is adulthood really any less embarrassing than our teens?
Definitely not. Even just today I accidentally signed off an email with ‘have a good wee’ instead of ‘week.’
Kay Proudlove’s Dear Diary played at the Merrigong Theatre Company from the May 8-11 and is now on tour nationally:
16 May: Hamilton Performing Arts Centre, Hamilton, VIC
18 May: The Round, Nunawading, VIC
24 May: The Clocktower, Moonee Ponds, VIC
8 June: The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith, NSW
14-15 June: The Bondi Pavilion, Bondi, NSW
19 June: Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre, Nowra, NSW
21 June: Townsville Civic Theatre, Townsville, QLD
25 June: Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre, Dubbo, NSW
27 June: Capitol Theatre Tamworth, Tamworth, NSW
29 June: Laycock Street Community Theatre, Gosford, NSW
