Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep by Tanya Marquardt

Participants converse via text with an artist’s sleeping and waking selves.
Attended via cellphone from May 30-June 13, 2021.
Written and performed by Tanya Marquardt
Directed by Fay Nass
Composed by Omar Zubair
Coding dramaturgy and design by John Titus
Dramaturgy by Heidi Taylor
Contributions and beta-testing by Jess Barbagallo, Ethan Brown, Sabrina Fonseca, Diana Garcia, Chris Harder, Evan Medd, Bobbi Sue McCollum, David B Smith, Elliott Reed, Anais West, Adrienne Wong, Michael Wheeler, and Alice Yorke
Additional artwork by David B Smith
Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep is the true story of how sleeptalker Tanya Marquardt discovered a ‘sleeping self’ named X through their iPhone. Imagining what might happen if their ‘waking self’ and ‘sleeping self’ met, conversed, and maybe even healed, the piece invites the audience - called “experiencers” - to contemplate the dream world through a years’ worth of sleeptalk recordings. A devised, transdisciplinary, digital/analogue performance about PTSD, sleeptalking and healing, Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep is written and performed by Tanya Marquardt, directed by Fay Nass, and composed by Omar Zubair with coding dramaturgy and design by John Titus and dramaturgy by Heidi Taylor.
Presentations:
  • Festival of Live Digital Arts / Kingston, ON. / May 30-June 13, 2021.
  • Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program / Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, New York, NY. / June 3, 2016 (Workshop version).