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.
This is Rhiannon with my sixth thought.
Oh man oh god oh man oh GOD OH MAN OH GOD
[ Video for reference : www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9KyBdPeKHg ]
One night after I performed a one woman play about sexual assault (that I had written), a college bro came up to me and said “yeah, I really enjoyed your piece. I like to write about dark stuff too.” I was crying and smoking a cigarette at the time so I just nodded.
I was looking at my Facebook memories : two years ago I posted a video about drunken wax-wing finches in the Yukon.
Three years ago I thought about failure.
Six years ago I was on student council and had 10 ratty friendship bracelets tied to my wrist.
Today I’m not quite sure what’s up.
Good Morning this is Rhiannon with my 5th thought.
The violet plant in my room started flowering even though its bud was pressed up against the cold glass of the window. I think I am afraid of theatricality. I’ve noticed a tendency to shy away from it in my writing, and cling to naturalism in my speech patterns. I think it’s because theatricality makes me feel vulnerable as a writer. I worry about being too much.
My new play is a gothic science-fiction x-file about abortion, and still, I worry about my dialogue being overly dramatic.
It’s a crisp afternoon in Montreal and this is Rhiannon Collet here with my fourth thought.
My friend had a bad fever last night & I sat with him in bed and wondered if I was going to start shivering too.
I wondered if I was going to start freezing & burning at the same time.
I also wondered if putting pink streaks in my hair will make me feel fun & new again. I hope so.
Leonard Cohen died on Thursday & right after I found out I read my play to a room of poets.
I wonder what the difference is between poetry and playwriting, and how both can exist in my mouth at one time.
Good morning – Rhiannon Collett here with my third thought.
I’ve been thinking a lot about diversity in theatre this week & how diversity on stage breeds empathy. And by diversity on stage, I don’t mean one black, indigenous or person of colour tokenized per season, per show. I’m talking about the people who make the artistic decisions. I am talking about directors and playwrights.
Having an entirely white theatre season should be seen as nothing less than a failure. Having an entirely white theatre season is the upholding of white supremacy in our arts institutions.
Call it like it is.
Rhiannon here with my second thought.
A truly terrifying night last night.
I fell asleep at midnight & woke up at 2:30 and it was over.
I dreamt I was trying to direct my play, but my teeth kept falling out. I spat them into the sink and the front of my face caved inwards. I began to home hunt – I found apartments with beautiful skylights, but had to hide my teeth in my pockets. Had to spit them, soft, into my palms.
I love you. Good morning.
It’s 7:58 AM in Montreal Quebec on the day of 2016 American election & this is Rhiannon Collett with my first thought.
10 000 hours is approximately 13.6 months. How many abortions could you do via Coca Cola in 10 000 hours? Is 9,999 abortions a more horrific number? What would make you want to do that many abortions? What is the perfect abortion? How can you perfect that kind of death? 10 000 abortions are probably only… 10 minutes a piece when you’re using Coca Cola.
“I didn’t want to do it coat hanger style, you know, I wanted it to be like Nair, for your womb.”
I am scared today.
