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 conceived, written and performed by Tanya Marquardt, directed by Fay Nass, and composed by Omar Zubair with coding dramaturgy and design by John Titus, scenography by David B Smith and dramaturgy by Heidi Taylor.

With contributions by beta-testers DB Amorin, Jess Barbagallo, Ethan Brown, Anastasia Clarke, Derek Chan, Sabrina Fonseca, June Fukumura, Díana Garcia, Bobbi Sue McCollum, SJ Norman, Elliott Reed, Moein Shashaei, David B Smith, Patricia Trinh, Michael Wheeler, Derek Chan, June Fukumura, Sam Walters, Anais West, Michael Wheeler, Sacha Yanow and Alice Yorke.

Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep was developed through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Earthdance, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, foldA, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Theatre Replacement, Company 605, PuSh Festival, Hold On Let Go (formally PushOFF), Dani Fecko, NPRs Invisibilia, Harvard University, Deirdre Barnett, Mallory Catlett, Ashley Tata, Maiko Bae Yamamoto, the frank theatre, and the Mabou Mines residency program.

We are grateful to live and dream on the lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Səl̓ílwətaʔ, and Skwxwú7mesh Nations of the Coast Salish peoples, and in Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape people.

Development of Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep through Mabou Mines and Earthdance was created by Tanya Marquardt in collaboration with Barra Levy-Mazie, Stephen O’Connell, Daniel Pettrow, Patrick Bella Gone, David B Smith, Masha Tsimring, and Omar Zubair, and was presented as part of the 2017 Mabou Mines Artist Residency, BAX’s 2016 Upstart Festival, and at The Tank.