Introducing our new Thought Residencies
It’s often hard to find a way to let other people in to an artist’s creative process in a way that feels natural, unstructured and open. Blogs and rehearsal diaries often become a bit of an albatross, something an artist feels like they have to do in order to promote the finished show.
We came across SpiderWebShow’s Thought Residencies through Zuppa Theatre’s Stewart Legere. He’d performed in Pop Up Love Party at Mayfest 2015, and was SpiderWebShow’s Thought Resident in July 2016. We thought the concept was brilliant, a short, 30 second (or so) audio clip, a reflection of what an artist is working on or thinking about, recorded on the artist’s phone and uploaded to a website.
The beauty of the format is that it feels un-pressured and immediate. Thoughts can be, as we all know, banal and profound, sometimes at the same time. Sometimes the thoughts are poetic, like performance texts, sometimes they are reflections or questions or observations on creativity, politics, society.
SpiderWebShow have very kindly licensed the concept to MAYK. Over the next twelve months, we will invite twelve UK artists to be our thought residents. We’ll post their thoughts on our website here. Our first resident is Sleepdogs, the collaboration between Tanuja Amarasuriya and Timothy X Atack, who will be posting throughout November. December's resident will be Richard Allen.
If you want to comment on any of the resdiences, you can comment directly onto Soundcloud or send us an email matthewandkate@mayk.org.uk
We hope you enjoy them.
Photo: Diego PH on Unsplash