Thought Residencies

TRANSCRIPT: Hey I'm Jajube Mandiela. Thought 11. Genres. So, in theatre, I find, there's mostly just the big, big genres like musical theatre and like drama and like indie theatre but like those don't always help. I often want more nuance, at least at the indie level I find we don't tend to codify or use the genre system and in comparison with like film at both the mainstream and the indie level t...

TRANSCRIPT: Jajube Mandiela. Thought 10. On Bios. So, I really enjoy writing bios for myself to include in programs as an actor and as a director, but it's something that I have started to enjoy over time as my resume builds. And then I will come across people who either sometimes have good resumes or are really, really budding in their careers, and they hate writing bios. And then I came across a...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey I'm Jajube. Thought 9. Public intervention. So this fall we are bringing our first show ever that launched the entire company 25 years ago… "dark diaspora... in dub". But…it's going to be a public intervention show called "diaspora Dub" with parading imagery and, uhhh, we have toyed with what if we don't use the word public intervention? What if we use street theatre? But people as...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey, my name is Jajube Mandiela. Thought 8. Pool hopping. I live in Toronto and pool hopping is a thing. Public, public pools late night after dance, after bar, whatever…especially on heat wave nights. And I am thinking… "What if there was like late night theatre hopping, what if there was late night street performance or public intervention, like just something really underground and...

I'm Jajube. Thought 7. Woke. On Saturday I had a very brief conversation about the term "woke". I came across it about a few years ago and I really love it because it makes me think of Plato's philosopher's cave…where there are people who think that the shadows on the wall is reality…but actually, there are other people creating those shadows…and only a philosopher king can wake these people up to...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey, this is Jajube Mandiela thought 6. Hip Hop Theatre. So back in 2104 at bcurrent we co-produced a show called Brotherhood the hip-hopera by Sebastien Heins, and uh, recently at that event that I went to on Sunday… I was speaking about in thought… 4 Donna Michelle St Bernard did some hip hop and it just got me thinking about Hamilton about In the Heights obviously about Brotherhood...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey, I'm Jajube Mandiela thought 5. Instagram. So I've been on social media - all kinds - for about two to three years and my favourite is Instagram. I like to be a bit of a voyeur then post every once in a while then post every once on awhile and comment every once in a while with people I know and people who are out there in the world that I don't know at all…and organizations. But w...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey, I'm Jajube this is thought 4. So, on Sunday night I went to RiseUp! It was an event featuring Indigenous and Black artists, sharing theirs joys and their rage and their solidarity between the two communities and all the proceeds from that event went to Black Lives Matter Toronto. And it made me think: Hey! Solidarity between those two communities is also solidarity between differe...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey, I'm Jajube: actor and artistic director of bcurrent. To festival or not to festival? So…I was going to talk about like, why, why they exist, but I realize that is really obvious they exist to experiment, take risks, to get picked up for future mountings and then I was thinking what do I love about music festivals? They're. for me, rare, huge, great vibes and I've never been but I...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey I'm Jajube: thought number 2. So I'm a person who has you know like some liberal views and some conservative views and I've never liked nudity onstage but recently I was talking to someone who… she's a big advocate for it and was like we need to get used to people's bodies just being nude and what I realized in that conversation was what I don't like is when it's used as a gimmick,...

TRANSCRIPT: hi i'm stewart legere and this is my 8th thought. Well...thought 8.1. I cheated today and I have two. 8.1. what to do? go dancing, go to shows, see friends, go to things or get in the car and leave. go camping. visit my mom. find a lake. this feeling: when i'm in a city a need to be part of it compelled to get out, to sit in cafes, show up at events, be an active participant in the fra...

TRANSCRIPT: Hey my name is Jajube Mandiela, I am an actor, director and artistic director of bcurrrent performing arts. This is my thought, number 1. So… I have recurring dreams and recurring nightmares, one of the ones that's awkwardly more pleasant, in a certain sense, is one where I am performing in a dance or a play and I have forgotten the script, I've forgotten all the lines, directly correl...

TRANSCRIPT: hi i'm stewart legere and this is my 12th and final thought i have a tattoo on my back, in between my shoulder blades. it's four words, stacked on top of each other: believe behave behold become it's something a mentor said to me years ago and for whatever particular reason whatever alchemy they have always had a profound resonance with me for years, before i went onstage, i'd reach my...

TRANSCRIPT: hi i'm stewart legere and this is my 11th, and penultimate, thought which is really just a memory about three years ago i was artist in residence at videofag the - now closed - queer performance space in kensington market, in toronto. i was sitting alone in the middle of the space in the middle of the night at a table, drinking wine writing it was valentine's day. it was the night elle...

hi i'm stewart legere and this is my 10th thought i took the sentence "what would we do without each other" and put it into an anagram generator an anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another. people often interpret the new word or phrase to deepen their understanding of the original. often these same people believe in god or astrology or psychics or that the moon land...

TRANSCRIPT: hi i'm stewart legere and this is my 8th thought. Well...thought 8.1. I cheated today and I have two. 8.1. what to do? go dancing, go to shows, see friends, go to things or get in the car and leave. go camping. visit my mom. find a lake. this feeling: when i'm in a city a need to be part of it compelled to get out, to sit in cafes, show up at events, be an active participant in the fra...

TRANSCRIPT: hi my name is stewart legere and this is my 8th thought today i worked in a building from early morning until nightfall twelve hours i arrived when the building was full, and didn't leave until long after it emptied out so that has me thinking about life-spans and i'm reminded of my parents' marriage and how flowers open and close and about fruit flies dead friends dead friendships bad...

TRANSCRIPT: Hi, I'm Stewart Legere and this is my seventh thought. There is a tall curved restaurant that sits on top of a hotel in my home town. A few years ago I was walking down the street and it came into view, and I thought…hunh…that's not a rotating restaurant. I'm 33 years old. As a child I must have learned that rotating restaurants were round and this building is round so I just assumed,...

TRANSCRIPT: Hi, I'm Stewart Legere and this is my sixth thought. I have a game with my friends, list funny things to do while crying: Crying while peeling an orange, crying while playing marbles, crying while swimming. Now I am thinking about all the different things that can make you cry: Ending a relationship, death, stubbing your toe, fear and cutting onions, nostalgia, on and on. The first tim...

TRANSCRIPT: Hi, I'm Stewart Legere and this is my fifth thought. An example of something I might say to myself or share with someone else so they could say it to themselves… if either of us thought we needed it, and if we thought that it was true. Hey, sit calmly inside whatever you do. Outside that is chaos but inside that is calm and inside the calm a fucking storm and inside the storm a dead si...

TRANSCRIPT: Hi, I'm Stewart Legere and this is my fourth thought. This morning I woke up thinking about new year's. I really don't make resolutions because I am HO, guilt is bullshit and a very poor motivator, But I do love new years I love the arbitrary reboot of intention A few years ago, in a moment of weakness, I broke tradition and resolved this at midnight This year Don't take unsolicited ad...

TRANSCRIPT: Hi, this is Stewart Legere and here's my third thought. I have been away from home for 2 months, and last night was the first full night I spent home alone in my apartment. I looked around and these are some things that stood out to me. On a shelf a ceramic urn I took from my grandmother's house before she died inside there's 2 dried roses one for me and one I was supposed to give to s...

TRANSCRIPT: Hi, I'm Stewart Legere and this is my second thought. If I have to remember something fast, I will send myself a text. And these are the last number of texts I have sent myself. A Montreal phone number. What appears to be an Oklahoma phone number. Send Sue updated bio. The book of salt. The Salvation army. Bike rack. He can split a nine-dollar bill into 3 parts. Dress from Louisa. This...

TRANSCRIPT FOR STEWART LEGERE'S 1st THOUGHT: Okay. How my body and is about how I always think about it. Am I good son? How can I tell you if I didn't like it? How often do I lie? How I was really, really attracted to that statue at the park. How I cried at the parade. How love is love misses the point which is actually more just sex is sex. How can I excuse myself from exhausting conversations? H...

TRANSCRIPT: This is Ashlie with fifteenth thought. Happy Canada Day everyone. It has been a real pleasure doing this thought residency and I am so grateful for the opportunity, it has taught me a lot about myself. Mostly about how I feel, um, like I go from one problem or idea or solution or thought very quickly to the next, and so I have learned that I am not always great at recording them, and p...