Thought Residencies

Good morning, Rhiannon here with my eleventh thought. Little known fact about me, I am such a rebel. No, uh - I guess this morning I'm thinking about school & how I'm really bad at going to school. And how I should be technically graduating with my bachelors degree soon, but that won't be happening, but instead I'm graduating with a fairly good knowledge - I guess I'm not graduating, I'm living -...

Good morning Rhiannon here with my tenth thought. This morning I am thinking about all the things that I don't know how to do, and all things I want to learn how to do. I've lived in Montreal now for four years, I moved here when I was 18 and now I'm 21, I guess it's my fourth winter. And I have spent a lot of that time learning how to write plays, and I've kind of finally got to the point where I...

Good morning Rhiannon here with my 9th thought. I am currently walking to work through Parc Lafontaine in Montreal, and this morning I'm thinking about creative burnout, and sort of the feeling you get when you decided to take a little bit of a break, a little bit of a rest, and then you get to come back to your work. I think, I've been taking a bit of a break this week, feeling really stressed ou...

Good morning this is Rhiannon with my 8th thought. This morning I'm thinking about theatre for young audiences, and how important it is to take kids to theatre, and how important it is to have theatre for children. I went to a show yesterday at Youtheatre, which is a company in Montreal, and the show was done entirely with technology, and there were no actors and no words, and I got to walk throug...

This morning I am thinking about conspiracy theories and hand knit socks and how learning how to knit socks is a lot like learning how to make theatre. In that it's really hard and expensive and time consuming, and really worth it. Yeah, and how once you knit a sock it disappears into your boot forever and once you put a play up a lot of the time it (especially as a young author) disappears into t...

This is Rhiannon with my sixth thought. Oh man oh god oh man oh GOD OH MAN OH GOD [ Video for reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9KyBdPeKHg ] One night after I performed a one woman play about sexual assault (that I had written), a college bro came up to me and said "yeah, I really enjoyed your piece. I like to write about dark stuff too." I was crying and smoking a cigarette at the time...

Good Morning this is Rhiannon with my 5th thought. The violet plant in my room started flowering even though its bud was pressed up against the cold glass of the window. I think I am afraid of theatricality. I've noticed a tendency to shy away from it in my writing, and cling to naturalism in my speech patterns. I think it's because theatricality makes me feel vulnerable as a writer. I worry about...

It's a crisp afternoon in Montreal and this is Rhiannon Collet here with my fourth thought. My friend had a bad fever last night & I sat with him in bed and wondered if I was going to start shivering too. I wondered if I was going to start freezing & burning at the same time. I also wondered if putting pink streaks in my hair will make me feel fun & new again. I hope so. Leonard Cohen died on Thur...

Good morning - Rhiannon Collett here with my third thought. I've been thinking a lot about diversity in theatre this week & how diversity on stage breeds empathy. And by diversity on stage, I don't mean one black, indigenous or person of colour tokenized per season, per show. I'm talking about the people who make the artistic decisions. I am talking about directors and playwrights. Having an entir...

Rhiannon here with my second thought. A truly terrifying night last night. I fell asleep at midnight & woke up at 2:30 and it was over. I dreamt I was trying to direct my play, but my teeth kept falling out. I spat them into the sink and the front of my face caved inwards. I began to home hunt - I found apartments with beautiful skylights, but had to hide my teeth in my pockets. Had to spit them,...

It's 7:58 AM in Montreal Quebec on the day of 2016 American election & this is Rhiannon Collett with my first thought. 10 000 hours is approximately 13.6 months. How many abortions could you do via Coca Cola in 10 000 hours? Is 9,999 abortions a more horrific number? What would make you want to do that many abortions? What is the perfect abortion? How can you perfect that kind of death? 10 000 abo...

Phone rings twice then voicemail recording "you've reached 647-280-66(static)leave a message after the tone (beep) Hi, David this is Milton Lim and this is my tenth thought residency going out to the consumers and to the future. Hi David Yee, this is Milton Lim this is my eleventh and final thought dedicated to the incomplete. I hope that the opening for your show at the Factory went smoothly, I w...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my tenth thought residency going out to the consumers and to the future. I've been intrigued by a genre of electronic music called Vaporwave over the last year and a bit. It's a blend of synthesized 80s and 90s corporate mood music; it is often bright and cheery, modulated and slowed down, playing between the slightly familiar and the very familiar. It plays on re...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my ninth thought residency going out to your eyes and ears. I just finished watching season 2 of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror. So, today I'm thinking about my relationship to technology, especially user interface and design for touch screens. I think about the gesture of swiping as a violent act. Even in definition swiping is suggested to be a strong sweeping bl...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my eighth thought residency dedicated to the ugly. Last night I hosted a horror-themed video game night with my friends at the International Centre of Arts and Technology. We primarily played P.T., a demo of a cancelled game called Silent Hills by Hideo Kojima in collaboration with filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro. The game prioritizes horror instead of the game aspec...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my seventh thought residency dedicated to the wandering minds. During my undergraduate psychology classes, like many other students, my friend Mateusz and I would have a ritual of cramming, sometimes hours before our exams. It always seemed like he was worse off than I was, but maybe that' s just my hindsight bias. One of the days in desperation, I said "why are w...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my Sixth thought residency going out to the gamers Like a lot of other people, I've been thinking about Virtual Reality. A game developer acquaintance of mine, once remarked to me that most people perceive VR as a simple extension of video games, however most video games operate with the principle that you move across a large map or area to achieve your goal. VR o...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my fifth thought residency going out to my fellow otakus I grew up watching and continue to watch a lot of Japanese animation; I consider anime both a pastime and a passion. The video essayist behind 'Every Frame a Painting', Tony Zhou, once did a video on Satoshi Kon, the man who created Paprika Paranoia Agent, and Perfect Blue among several other influential ani...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my fourth thought residency. Dedicated to the ESL community I'm currently taking part in the Block A program at Playwright' s Theatre Centre, it consists of weekly writing workshops. When I participate in the act of writing, I sometimes think of my friend Tyler Russell, Executive Director/Curator of the Centre A Gallery, and the time he asked me why I only create...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my third thought residency. This goes out to the rebels. Today I met up with a friend who is visiting from Hong Kong. We talked about the recent transgressions that occurred during the swearing in of new pro-democracy members in Hong Kong's legislative council and the subsequent denials of their oaths. I think about the ripples of the umbrella movements still reso...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my second thought residency. This goes out to my parents. I've been thinking a lot about how we carry people and ideas with us. My mom used to tell me: "if you love someone, make sure you tell them you love them every time you say goodbye, because you never know if it will be the last time you see them." I like to think that it is not just about the meaningfulness...

My name is Milton Lim and this is my first thought residency. This first thought goes out to all the torchbearers I have been thinking a lot about what diversity in the arts feels like the usual feelings of an uphill battle, of hurt feelings, of misunderstandings, of people struggling to have their voices heard, fighting against being made invisible. I am currently performing a show called "King o...

RANSCRIPT: Hey, I'm Jajube Mandiela. Thought 14. VR (virtual reality). So I don't know much about VR. I have, one time, put on those goggles and experienced something that was like a video game, 360-degree camera style, and been like "what's happening?!" and then I have also seen a VR music video I thought that was really cool. But this whole virtual reality, I'm thinking, is TV, though, really go...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey, I'm Jajube Mandiela. Thought 13. It's a secret. So. Two years ago I joined snapchat, and I was doing a show on the farm, and I had a lot of free time, I loved to send snaps and watch snaps, and there was something about it, it made me, and it reminded me of theatre that's so live, it would disappear, it's not meant to be kept, other than screen grabs, but I won't get into that, bu...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey I'm Jajube Mandiela. Thought 12. Dub Theatre. This past summer I realized that Dub Theatre is a home grown Canadian theatrical form. Dub poetry originated in the Caribbean, and then in the 90's is when the first dub poetry script was ever staged by our founding artistic director, ahdri zhina mandiela, and yes, it's also been done in England after that, I don't know much of it…if it...