Residencies at The Watah Theatre unfold through three stages of development resulting in monodramas that emerge out of the Sorplusi Method. The plays are workshopped and featured at three culminating public presentations and published in Watah's anthology of new Black theatre.

Dec 14-20, 2015 Mikey Smith Raw Works Festival

Session One — focused on Self-Actualization — runs from October to December. Artists-in-residence explore the questions Who Am I? How Am I? What is my purpose? The session culminates in The Mikey Smith Raw Works Festival, named in honour of  Jamaica’s brilliant, dynamic, prophetic and political dub poet Michael Smith. Smith, born September 14, 1954 was stoned to death on August 17, 1983 for his humanitarian views and voice.

February 23-28 & March 8-13, 2016 Audre Lorde Works-In-Progress Festival

Session Two — focused on Art Creation — runs from January to March. Artists-in-residence explore the questions What is the relationship between myself and the art that I create? What stories Have I been told? What Stories do I perpetuate? The session culminates in the Audre Lorde Works-In-Progress Festival named in honour of the African-Caribbean-American radical feminist lesbian poet Audre Lorde. Lorde, born February 18, 1934, died November 17, 1922 of breast cancer. Lorde’s work inspires us to continually undo the fibres of our oppressively-conditioned being. She insists that as Black wimmin and Black people we must self-care, as this is a revolutionary act of survival. Watah is rooted in both her ethos and her theories.  

June 13-19, 2016 Word! Sound! Powah! Festival of Monodrama

Session three of the residencies  — focused on Mentorship and leadership — runs from April to June. Artists-in-residence explore the questions What is the relationship between the art that I create and the communities I am accountably responsible to? How do I define the sacred? What does integrity mean to me? The session culminates in the Word! Sound! Powah! Festival of Monodrama named in honour of Jamaica’s Rastafarian tradition of truth, rights and justice.