Thought Residencies

This is Tanisha Taitt and Thought #2. An acquaintance said to me the other day "Well obviously you're a liberal", and although I have no problem being thought of as a liberal, I don't think of myself that way. I tend to consider myself a progressive, and that's because the word 'progressive' indicates motion and movement in a way that the word 'liberal' doesn't quite. I am so passionate and commit...

This is Tanisha Taitt. Welcome to my thought residency, and Thought #1. I've been hearing a lot lately that what the world needs now is love, and that's true. But if you think of love as a flower... it cannot grow on its own. What the world needs now is the seed of courage, the soil of justice, the water of forgiveness and the sunlight of truth -- in order to create conditions in which that flower...

Hi my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my tenth thought. So my seat mate - the drone-maker, who also referred to Chile as the free-est country in the world - because there are no regulations for business people. He's talking to me about the grey area and wanting to know more about it. I'm really interested in his job - where it's al black and white according to him. And what's fascinating to me...

Hi my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my ninth thought. So my seat mate who makes drones for the US Government, he talked about how one of the most incredible experiences he ever had was when he sat in front of a painting for a full hour at an art gallery and tried to decipher what it was telling him. He understood this whole thing about the grey area he wanted to know more about it - how one g...

Hi my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my eighth thought. So, there I was talking to my seat mate and he was telling me that what he loves about his job of making drones for the US government is that it's black and white, that all he has to do is manufacture these drones and get the bad guys in the middle east. And I told him that my line of work is almost the opposite: it is all about working i...

Hi my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my seventh thought. So, speaking of labour versus the art world…I was on a plane yesterday, here in the United States, where I am for a week, and my seat mate was a man who had voted for Trump, and is on the Christian right and whose job it is to manufacture drones for the US government. We had a long talk, a very pleasant talk and he showed a lot of intere...

Hi my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my sixth thought. So, I am wondering how to bring that sense of camaraderie that I experienced in the labour world, of being a waitress, or working the assembly line at the factory, which I did, into the world of being creative, into the world of ideas where I spend most of my day staring at a computer screen, wracking my brains and exhausting myself and de...

Hi my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my fifth thought. So, there I am with my pal at the cafe and he is telling me about how he left the theatre world because he was so tired of the solitude around being an artist and I remember when I was an actress for 4 years in my early twenties and the camaraderie around being a waitress and being around people all day, and how much I miss that, and how c...

Hi my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my fourth thought. So there I am talking to my neighbourhood pal who used to be a theatre artist and is now a bartender and he's saying how is misses living in the world of ideas, and I am thinking about how attractive the world of labour seems to me in that moment, and he tells me that one of the reasons he left the theatre was because he was so tired of t...

Hi, my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my third thought. So, I am talking to my neighbourhood acquaintance and he is talking about how he left theatre school and is now a bartender and that he misses living in the world of ideas, and this gets me to thinking…what it is like to live in the world of labour, the world where you just physically labour…. as opposed to spending the whole day trying t...

Hi, my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my second thought. I was talking about exhaustion when you are trying to be creative and make a living as an artist. The other day I was at my local café working on the second draft of new play Anywhere But Here and I bumped into old neighbourhood acquaintance who had done a couple of terms at theatre school and is now a bartender, and we talked about livi...

Hi, my name is Carmen Aguirre and this is my first thought. I'm thinking a lot about exhaustion, depletion, complete fatigue when it comes to artistic creation…And what one can possibly do about it when one makes a living as an artist and is expected to keep creating and keep creating output? That is my thought for today.

Hello my name is Joey Tremblay, and this is thought number lucky 13. All my life I've had this recurring dream.  It takes place in my home town, Ste Marthe, Saskatchewan, amongst all of my family relatives well the community in general, because we are having a family reunion.  And in the middle of the proceedings I discover that I have the ability to fly.  Well, It's not really flight, it's more l...

Hello my name is Joey Tremblay, and this is thought number 12 Theatre in Canada, is one of that last standing bastions of colonialism. Still, in 2016 we have not managed to shake off the specter of our colonial history.  And worse we are totally reluctant to tear down the colonial system of how we make art.  We insist on prioritizing work and narratives that come from elsewhere, and we have a susp...

Hello my name is Joey Tremblay, and this is thought number 11. I've been working on a wee theory about theatre.  It's my "go to" musing whenever I get disillusioned with the day to day practice of making art.  You know, when I lose the sense of meaning, or purpose or value of this particular art form.  In those dark moments when it all seems meaningless, and I think "I've got to quit.  Why the fuc...

My name is Joey Tremblay and this is thought #10. You know, the older I get the harder it is for me to be an actor. To perform in front of an audience.  I'm not sure why, part of it is because it is harder and harder to memorize lines at my age, and that is terrifying to think to go in front of an audience…. But I think the other part of it is, acting for me, was always an instinctual, fearless ac...

Hello, my name is Joey Tremblay and this is my thought, number 9. I was asked recently to define what I felt was successful about my practice.  Or, okay, more clearly how I defined success.  My immediate response, is that, you know, I feel successful when I'm not drowning.  When I'm somehow managing to stay afloat, in just attempting to keep my small theatre company buoyant and relevant and operat...

My Name is Joey Tremblay and this is my thought number 8. Have you noticed that Theatre Critics are dropping like flies? Well the ones that work for newspapers seem to be going into oblivion. But, uh, my reaction is ambiguous to say the least. I'm not sure we ever had a culture of critical discourse when it comes to theatre and newspapers in this country. I think at best, the reviews, in papers we...

Hello, my name is Joey Tremblay and this is thought number 7. I think people are losing the ability to empathize. For a bazillion reasons. I dunno. Pick one. The internet. Facebook. The increasingly digitized, digital world that we live in. My favourite pet peeve – Neo liberalism. Consumerism. But I really think it's true. We are slowly losing our ability to feel empathy for other people. And, yet...

Hello, this is Joey Tremblay and this is though number 6. What's with all these musical reviews – you know, these musical biographies of famous pop singers? Like, Patsy Cline. Buddy Holly. Johnny Cash. Elvis. You know, like They are everywhere? Ok, I get it. They make money. They fill the big houses… they please the palate for baby boomer nostalgia… but ultimately, I kind of think they reduce the...

Hi, my name is Joey Trembly and this is my thought #5. Theatre needs to veer toward becoming a truly subversive art form. In every way. I mean, how it's made, to why it's made and where it's made. and who it's being made for...it's just that in this horrid neo-liberal hostile world that demands submission and compliance and a general numbness, theatre needs to be a rebel, it needs to be punk rock....

My name is Joey Tremblay and this is my fourth thought. I hate Shakespeare. I hate watching it. I hate reading it. I hate studying it. I hate performing in it. I hate directing it. There I said it. Okay, I'm a Scrooge of Shakespeare. And I hate the way it's force fed to us like a cultural tonic that we are forced to swallow but we are told that it's ultimately good for you, good for your soul. Is...

My name is Joey Tremblay and this is my 3rd thought. I think that we need to keep repeating the mantra that theatre is essentially a live event. It's ephemeral, it's of the moment, it's full of possibility and full of potential failure. It can't be rewound but is perpetually forward moving. I mean despite the failure, despite the accidents, it just keeps chugging ahead. So, let's make theatre that...

My name is Joey Tremblay and this is my second thought. I like to believe that the key to revitalizing theatre lies within the multitude of independent, off the grid, small-scale theatres that are cropping up across the country. I believe that it's in these spaces.. these flexible and nimble organizations that Canada is seeing a cultural revolution in terms of innovative new work, you know, where...

Hello this is Joey Tremblay with my 1st thought. Process before Product. Okay, lately I've been obsessing with the 'phrase process before product". It's kind of become this guiding principle - a wee mantra that informs my theatre practice and it shapes how I try to approach every new project. Is it pretentious? Probably. Is it navel gazing arts speak? Ya, most likely, but I guess it is just my res...