Thought Residencies

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. Theatre needs to stop being an opiate that pleases the bourgeoisie. Pleases the funders. Pleases the patrons. . . the patrons of the arts. Theatre needs some teeth for god's sake and it needs to start biting.

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 it really good for me to sit for 2 hours bored and disengaged , rolling my eyes and wanting to die? Is it really good for me to bow down reverently to a culture of another country, from another era, from another dead white guy? Bah Humbug.

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 embraces this. Let's not make theatre that requires a passive disengaged audience of distracted observers… you know, a T.V audience. Let's make theatre that endows the audience with an essential role. Let's make them an active part of this exchange. Let's always be always aware of the essential feedback loop of between the performer and the spectator. And let's please acknowledge that everyone in the room is shaping and altering the work.

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 authentic expression of our local narratives are possible…. and maybe even a direct and intimate community engagement can actually take place. I think the trend in Canadian Theatre is not a move toward large admin-heavy institutions, but rather towards the innovative indie theatres that can take on the burden of risk which is required to create new work.

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 response to the dominant practice that seems to prioritize and enables the commoditization of theatre (NOTE: I meant commodification of theatre). You know, theatre has become a kind of consumer item to be produced and sold and consumed. I think how we make theatre in Canada is very formulaic and cookie-cutter, and prescriptive and we've become these experts at the three-week rehearsal process that churns out plays that suit a consumers palate . . . sold, you know, in a 6 play subscription series. Process before product, for me, is a rejection of this notion and of this paradigm- It's an acknowledgement that every work of art demands it's own unique and messy process of creation. If we don't honour process, then - I don't know - I think we risk recreating the same dull play over and over again.

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 - with a fairly good knowledge of how to write plays. I think there's something pretty liberating and also pretty scary about not being associated with an institution as a young creative person. Right now I'm enjoying it. But I just have a hard time... People are like "Oh you have to do a group project" and I'm like uh... I call my mom and I'm like "No Mom I gotta drop out of school again". Like, you know.... Don't tell me what to do.

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 feel like I don't suck... Like suck brutally at writing plays. And it's a really nice place to be! It took me a really long time to get there. Writing a play is really hard. But now I'm realizing that there are all these other things that I want to learn how do that I have no idea - that everyone else has been working on and practicing, and there's something really vulnerable about not knowing what you're doing. So I guess I'm thinking about how to be creatively vulnerable and a creative baby and to continue on learning in that way.

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 out about a lot of projects, and it wasn't really fun anymore, so I decided to just calm down and take some time away from it, and I woke up this morning, feeling really rested, really excited, that I get to spend so much time writing and doing the things I love. Yeah and I think, I've been thinking a lot about creative self-care and how I need so much space and so much time and so much warmth and light and food to create the things that I want to create, in the way that I want to create them. And that in itself is such a key part of the creative process, that sometimes when I want to be really productive I try to ignore

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 through the space with these really cute little boys who were really just excited to be able to play in a space that was unlike the space they usually get to play in. Yeah, thinking about how theatre comes naturally to children, and how story-telling for children and story-telling for teens, I think, is the most vital form of theatre.

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 the ether. But how I like both of those things a lot. I'm thinking about the snow, and how when I first moved to Montreal I learned that you can't walk down the street with your hands in your pockets, because if you do, you'll slip and land directly on your face. Yeah… It's a good season, winter.