Thought Residencies

Today I am thinking about the contrast between a long weekend and time not working and over scheduling myself, uhh, 13, 14 hour days. No space for umm a lot of processing thoughts, ahh, and that is what I am thinking about. 

Hi, it's a long weekend and I am thinking about how I almost forgot, ah, to do this. I am also thinking about how wonderful it's been to have sun for most of the weekend and I am thinking about why people need to be such jerks. When given the opportunity and the space to be honest, I don't understand why some people opt not to. And I know I am being vague but I guess what it comes down to is when...

Today I am thinking about how taking one morning off each week has been one of the best things I have ever done for myself. Uhh, giving myself time to organize my schedule, catch up on emails, umm, just organize myself mentally, wrap my head around all of the different projects that are coming up, umm, it's been really great. And that's what I am thinking about. 

I have been thinking a lot about thoughts since I've been doing this project. And it's interesting how much they change throughout the day and how much they are influenced by my feelings. This morning I was thinking about how nice it was to be up so early and how quiet it was and calm. And then in the middle of the day I was consumed with sadness and heartache. And then tonight I was thinking, uhh...

Hi again. Today I am thinking about when I was on the TV set last week, umm, and how interesting it is to be a beginner and new. Ah, I don't think I have heard ever in (laughing) my life as many times in a few hours "Erin don't ever do that again" Uhh, I felt like I just kept making mistake after mistake. Umm, it was a great experience but in my regular life I am kind of the boss and, ah, that was...

Erin again. Today I am thinking about sun and spring, business, deep tiredness. I'm thinking a lot about the vulnerability of recording my voice. I write a lot, I put it out there a lot and for some reason this feels much more vulnerable and I can't quite place it just yet. 

Hi it's Erin again. I know that there are a lot of really horrible things, ah, in life and the world and just for this moment I am, umm, not focusing on those. And I am thinking about the randomness and awesomeness that sometimes is life. Umm, this week I am going to be on my first TV set and I have also been asked to write about an adaptive sailing event. Two completely different scenarios that I...

Hi it's Erin. Today I am thinking about paying Disabled people. When a non-disabled person and a Disabled person do the same amount of work for the same amount of time, and one person gets paid quite well and the Disabled person gets paid next-to-nothing, as if, like ah, I don't know, " here you go, thanks so much for volunteering your time, of-course-you-don't-work" kind of way, this is bullshit....

Hi, it's Erin. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts. I am thinking about nervousness at doing something new. And excitement and how similar they are, yet one, I seek, and the other feels icky. I'm also thinking about how movement helps with nervousness and particularly being upside down. And I am currently in a handstand trying to think (a bit of giggling)

I saw a brilliant play by Sheldon Elter last night. I don't think I've ever seen comedy used in so many ways: bouffon, standup, clown, parody, satire, wit - but underneath was a undercurrent of pain, loss, love, systemic violence, and moments of naked beauty. The play was personal. The play was political. The play was about the past and now and the future. I was left with an unsettling feeling tha...

It's nice to dig into a new project with a dramaturg I've worked with before. Having Bob White sit beside me during the first read of a new play was reassuring. I know that he fundamentally knows how I write and what I'm going for with this very fresh piece. Yay for dramaturges.

I'm at the Banff Centre right now working on a new play. This place is amazing - the mountains are beautiful, the staff is lovely, and there are forest creatures prancing by the window of my studio. Everything about this place makes an artist feel valued, which is a strange sensation. We're so accustomed to working in dirty, underfunded facilities on projects that at times seem only driven by pass...

Day 7:  Crosspollination Like most artists I know, I always have many projects on the go at the same time. As I move between them: from a project in rehearsal to a project in a first-draft reading to a project in a dream phase to another in research mode, I try to keep them separate. Inevitably, however, an idea or a line or a character will pop from one play into another, creating this strange so...

I've spent a lot of time with theatre students lately. At John Abbott College, Bishop's University and The National Theatre School. I've been struck by their curiosity, intelligence and challenging questions, some of which I truly struggle to answer with the same level of curiosity and intelligence. They are thinking deeply about how we treat one another, respect one another, deal with our past an...

I felt a growing sense of dread as I watched the video clips: smoke billowed, the spire toppled, flames leapt from the City of Light.  -      Notre Dame's on fire, I told my daughters. -      Has anybody died? -      No. No, I don't think so, I said and felt a moment of relief.  It's then I thought of the Hunchback. 

The most challenging thing in my life is learning and living in French. Every day is a risk to speak, to be understood, to connect, to try to find subtlety where I don't have the words. Here are some things I have done in French: a theatre Q&A, a presentation on playwrighting to a grade one class, made dentist appointments, signed up for swimming classes, looked for books on traditional Chinese co...

I haven't lived in Toronto for five years now. When I return, I notice the shifts in the urban landscape. On my walk from Factory to Tarragon today I saw the Honest Ed's demolition site. In the middle of it all were two attached, three story buildings. These once-homes, once-shops stood bare and vulnerable in the rubble of the past. Alone, but for one another, they stand in defiance of a future th...

A play is a wish, a hope, a longing; a series of thought experiments and arguments; surges of emotion and frustration, pain and longing, fear and desire; coordinated whispers and secrets and touches; and deep, purposeful spaces of unknowing. Until ... the first day of rehearsal. Looking forward to another beginning. Tomorrow.

I've been thinking a lot about the ceaseless battle over women's bodies and the seemingly insatiable desire to control or legislate what women should or should not be wearing. There's Premier Legualt's imminent ban on "religious symbols" for public sector employees in Quebec, which is a thinly veiled attack on the freedom of Muslim women. Then there's unhealthy capitalism  which has coopted female...

I'm not entirely sure how I became a producer.  I think it had to do with my impatience.  And I wonder what my life would have looked like if I had been more patient. If I'd still be in theatre or if I'd be doing something else.  I think about that a lot and I wonder what else I'd be doing.

I made the decision to move to Poland partly so that I could raise a child in a society that didn't want the Jewish people to exist here. There's a kind of defiance in this decision. But I also wonder if I'm making the right choice for my child, constantly, when my family made the choice to move to Canada so I wouldn't have to experience being marginalized.

Today my friend and coworker Clayton Lee was named the new festival director for the Rhubarb Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. And I'm very proud of Clayton. I've been working with Clayton for many years. And it's an amazing step and accomplishment that he's got this position. So congratulations Clayton!

Don't make promises that you can't keep. Because when people ask you to then honour the promise that you've made and you can't, it makes you an asshole. And if you get angry with the people who are asking you to honour your promise, it makes you an even bigger asshole. And you're the one who created the mess in the first place.

I've had the most successful few years on my life ... with Counting Sheep and starting CanadaHub. And my own play. But I can't understand why things feel like they're only getting harder when I thought they should start to feel like they're getting easier. And I wonder who else feels that way.

I see a lot of young artists who have early success get really pushy with their ambitions. I'm curious about that. Im not saying it's the wrong approach, but you're liable to frustrate a lot of people that you're dealing with. So unless you're confident that your initial succes will translate into more and more and more success and you won't need to care about what other people think about you. Yo...