Thought Residency: Audrey Dwyer

Thought Residency: Audrey Dwyer

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Hi! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my fifteenth thought.

I’m thinking about celebration, joy and bliss. About creating space and time to mark meaning. How there are traditions that are mainstream and well known. And then the ones that one creates for themselves, for their families, chosen families, friends. These unique moments that are ultimately so personal, so tied into need, want, recognition, time, achievement, remembrance. Things unseen. How we can walk around with these private moments, create our own cheer, build on time.

Hi! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my fourteenth thought.

I’m thinking about ideas and idea generation. Where ideas come from, how they come to be and what ideas are in response to. Intellectual beginnings, imagined beginnings, historical beginnings, advocacy beginnings. Where people go to get their ideas. How idea generation can be nurtured, challenged, pushed. Who do our ideas serve?

Hi! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my thirteenth thought.

I’m thinking about playwrights – young and old, near and far, all over the planet.

I’m thinking about where ideas come from for playwrights, how long it can take to write a play. I’m thinking about playwriting, hunched backs over desks, waking up in the middle of the night with an idea.

So many ideas, so many playwrights all over the world working working working to get things just right.

Hi! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my twelfth thought.

I’m thinking about theatre programming, morning meetings and coffee.
I’m thinking about opening nights and audience reception and I’m thinking about mandates and mission statements.
I’m thinking about the power of theatre and theatre that is uh… effervescent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my tenth thought.

I’m thinking about catharsis and the news. How the news impacts their audience in terms of climax and catharsis. How news watchers are taken through that process throughout the day. I remember the 80s and the little girl who fell down a well, people fixated on television sets to find out what happened in real time. What happens for people following the news when the climactic moment doesn’t happen? Where do we all sit collectively when we don’t have that climax? Ever? What happens to us if we don’t get that release with the stories or the moments that are incomplete? What happens to us if we don’t get that feeling of catharsis day after day after day?

 

Hello! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my ninth thought.

I’m thinking about how stories have the potential to uplift us and to inspire us and to connect us. I’m doing research on a web series right now. Life is so unpredictable and it can take us down so many roads. I’m thinking about how our curiosity in childhood and / or teen-hood impacts our choices as adults. About how being resilient and taking care of your own needs can inform how one advocates for others in their adulthood.

 

Hello! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my eighth thought.

I am thinking about coffee, autobiographies, video communication, buying books and how we learn. I’m thinking about mornings that look like nights and the consistency of the sun rising and setting and the full moon. I’m thinking about the world around me. I’m thinking about the things that change, the things that change that one knows will change and things that stay the same, time and time again. I’m thinking about history, relationships, foundations, and forgiveness.

 

Hello! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my seventh thought. I am thinking about The Golden Rule and how similar it is across religions. I just read about The Bronze Rule which is “If they are not bothering you, don’t bother them.” And then there is The Platinum Rule, which is “Do unto others as they would like to be done unto”. Then there is The Diamond Rule, which is The Diamond Rule: “Imagine being them, before doing unto them.” 

 

Hello. My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my sixth thought.

I’ve been thinking about checklists, meetings, leadership, mediation, emails and snow. It is supposed to snow at 1 am tonight. I’m thinking of a good night’s sleep and how excited I feel about work, theatre, audiences and ideas ideas ideas. I’m thinking of all the people out there buzzing with ideas, coming up with things, all of my creative friends and chosen family who make art in everything that they do. Feeling inspired.

 

Hello. My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my fifth thought.

I’ve been thinking about initiatives, audiences, finances, theatricality and artistry. I’ve been thinking about the potential and possibilities of theatre, what the exchange is and honesty. What is real? I’ve been thinking about relationships, feelings, wildness and order. And I’ve been thinking about awareness, etiquette and abandon and dance.

 

Hello. My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my fourth thought.

I’m thinking about writing for the camera, first draft completed, theatricality on film and implicating the audience in the story. I just finished watching Fleabag and I can’t stop thinking about the show and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Theatricality on film and being seen. Acknowledging the viewer. I’m also thinking about Lizzo and the lyrics to Truth Hurts.

 

Hi! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my third thought.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we hold space and how we facilitate other people’s processes. I’ve been thinking a lot about therapy and therapists and their self-care and how they process all of the different things that they uh hold, encounter, listen to and um yeah just thinking about safe spaces for everyone to process… trauma

 

Hello! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my second thought.

I uh just got home from dress rehearsal. It’s around one am Um I’ve been up since eight. I’m thinking about what’s on the list of things to do tomorrow, about submitting a grant, I’m thinking about vitamins and how they’re better if you take them with a fat, from what I’ve read thinking, I’m thinking about taxes, um and I’m thinking about delicacy and fragility and flowers.

 

Hello! My name is Audrey Dwyer and this is my first thought.

I’ve been thinking about how we learn and I’ve also been thinking about rituals before you go to bed like what people do that helps them to fall asleep. And if they do the same thing night after night after night or if people switch it up. It’s uh after 1 here and I just got home from a dress rehearsal so yeah just thinking about how people learn and how people get ready for bed.

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About the Author

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Audrey Dwyer is a multi-disciplinary artist with over twenty years of experience. Her acting work includes Tarragon Theatre’s Theory, Young People’s Theatre’s One Thing Leads to Another (Dora Awards - Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Ensemble), The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and Mirvish Productions’ Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, RMTC’s Good People and The Crucible, thirsty at the National Arts Centre, Mirvish/Studio 180's Clybourne Park and The Overwhelming, Canadian Stage's The Tempest, Obsidian Theatre's Black Medea, and Mirvish/RMTC's Medea. She studied comedy at Second City and was a member of their touring company. She has worked as a dramaturge in theatres across the country. Audrey directed Calpurnia (Nightwood Theatre/Sulong Theatre), which she also wrote. She was nominated for Outstanding Direction for The Apology. She was the Associate Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre (2008-2009). She won the Cayle Chernin Award for Theatre (2015). She was the Artistic Director of Cow Over Moon Theatre. She was the Urjo Kareda Resident at the Tarragon (2018/2019) and was also the Tarragon’s Assistant Artistic Director. Most recently, she directed Prairie Nurse at Lighthouse Theatre. She will be directing Women of the Fur Trade at RMTC. Presently she is working on a libretto, a web series with Shaftesbury Films and a few other plays. She graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada.