Thought Residencies

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 advice, parentheses, to heart Last year I did it again I wrote myself a poem and read it aloud to myself at midnight. It read "This year, a reminder, you are mostly the inside parts."

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 someone – I forget who. On my fridge a card that says if you can practice even while distracted you are well trained. On my fridge a picture of me drawn by a friend's kid in it I am holding a glass of wine as big as my head. A piece of origami I bought from a kid at the market she says it was of a dinosaur's foot, but I honestly don't see it. The beautiful writing desk, given to me by Tyler before he left for Chicago. A painting of a swing set balancing on the edge of a volcano. I used to have another one in the series of a swing set floating in deep spaceI wonder where that went.

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 is my star. Water bearers. Slow learners. Bipocalyse. A picture of me eating a popsicle. Text Karen. Sound advice. Never mirror. A picture of Snow White singing with a caption under it saying "this could be you" underneath. Your money is under the mattress. A drifting hunter. A picture of an empty room. A naked picture of myself. Women's hats through time.

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? How can I be more easy? How can I break my patterns? How can I have a good time at the barbeque? How listening is hearing something I don't agree with and not immediately opening my mouth. Can you give up without losing?

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 putting my thoughts out into the world. But it is something that I have had a lot of fun doing and I am very, very again grateful for the opportunity.

TRANSCRIPT: This is Ashlie with fourteenth thought. This morning we started rehearsals for "Into the Woods" here at the Playhouse. A piece that I first fell in love with as a 10-year old when a friend brought over a VHS recording of the PBS Broadcast of the original Broadway production. It's a piece that has been part of my life ever since then, and its one that I dearly love. Now as a director looking at it with dramaturgical, textual, musical analysis I have realized how much those first experiences watching it as a child affected me. This piece really has shaped how I think about theatre but also how I think about life. Everything from relationships to the relationship between parents and children to the difficulties and benefits of growing up, growing older, growing wiser and changing. So I feel very lucky over the next month to be delving deep into this favourite musical of mine So feel very lucky for the next month to be delving deep into this musical

TRANSCRIPT: This is Ashlie and my thirteenth thought. On Monday evening I was at the Dora Mavor Moore awards. And this has led me to think a lot about community. Even though I now live in Gananoque, 3 hours up the 401, I no longer reside full time in Toronto, I still very much part of that community and feel very, very grateful for that.

TRANSCRIPT: This is Ashlie and my twelfth thought. Today I am thinking about patience. Out of all the virtues this is the one that I have tried the most to cultivate in my life both personally and professionally. I really actually also mean how to develop patience for myself. It is obviously easy to be patient when things are going well but when things are tougher where does this patience come from? Something that I am working on every day.

TRANSCRIPT: This is Ashlie with my eleventh thought. I spent this morning driving from Gananoque to Toronto to attend a workshop of our final production of the season: You Are Here. And in the car with me was my dear friend and colleague, Jason Hall, who is a playwright and director, and we talked about everything from art to politics to our personal lives. It made me realize how lucky I am to have people like that in my life. Hard to sum up our conversation in 30 seconds. But important to have people who you can these big deep conversations with, sometimes agree with sometimes disagree with. And I feel very fortunate.

TRANSCRIPT: This is Ashlie and my tenth thought. This morning I am thinking a lot about artistic focus. And that is because last night at our studio S concert - which is our classical music series here at the playhouse - We had the amazing young Italian pianist Luca Buratto come and play for us. Last night there was also a huge thunder and lightning storm and at one point during the concert we lost power – I'd say we only lost it for maybe 10 or 15 seconds, maybe a little bit more. And what happened was, even though the theatre was in complete pitch black, Luca carried on playing his music not missing, literally a beat. Not missing any moment musically and also physically, completely being at one with the piano. I was really impressed with that and I have been thinking a lot about that this morning, how when we meet as theatre artists, different challenges or bumps in the road how do we keep that artistic focus and carry on .