Residency spotlight: Conversation with danjelani ellis
July 22, 2026
“In all of the pieces there are themes of community, connection, and co-dependency and family, land, and nation. And it’s because of, yeah, what I experienced living in my great-grandma’s house when we moved here, with my great-grandma, my grandma, and my mom. In a co-op!”
Residency Artist danjelani ellis took some time this June to chat with Celia Green, our CSJ Communications Coordinator. They spoke in depth about his epic trilogy Iris Malcolm Housing Co-op, the importance of inviting collaborators into the room before you feel ready, and his great grandmother’s influence on the project.
danjelani ellis is a Tkaròn:to-based artist and artsworker raised in Jamaica by a village of theatre artists, poets, and educators. His art practice is Afrocentric and celebratory, working in performance-installation, playwriting, dub poetry, and acting. danjelani’s work has received accolades including Merritt Award nomination for outstanding performance and 5 Dora Award nominations. Graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, danjelani has been resident artist at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and BAND (Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue) Gallery and Cultural Centre, and is grateful-can’t-done to be in residency here at The Theatre Centre. He is a Siminovitch Theatre Foundation Emerging Artist grant recipient in playwriting. He is the artistic producer at Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading culturally-specific theatre company centering the Black voice. danjelani also steers ad-hoc entity Groundwork Redux – an ever-evolving gathering of artists and projects – creating original art, performance, and community activations.
Iris Malcolm Housing Co-op is a trilogy exploring ambition, currency, and community; featuring the plays Rosie, Kwik Pick, and i-and-i. Set within a housing co-op in Scarborough’s east end, the works speak to the ingenuity of Black dreaming.
What happens to a dream deferred? A question posed in the poem Harlem by Langston Hughes. Hughes asked in 1951 when limitations on Black living, much less dreaming, were unyielding and often violent. IMHC is asking in a context where the limitations manifest more covertly but with the same potent searing of the soul.
“I might feel that I’m not ready for this to be seen by collaborators A, B and C, but this is when I need them to be a part of it. So much more will come out of them being a part of this “mess” and unreadiness.”
TC: Can you tell me a little bit about how this trilogy came about?
dje: I wrote a play, that is now Rosie, that I started in the Playwrights Unit at Obsidian Theatre and felt like I wanted to continue working on it. As I continued to work on that singular play, solving dramaturgical questions and filling out the world, that led me to the trilogy and writing about the whole world of this co-op.
So, I started the Theatre Centre Residency with a draft of Rosie, and proposed doing this trilogy – a second piece called Kwik Pick, which focuses on some of the elders. That was like a series of poems and a few scenes. And then the 3rd piece (I-and-I) was the most infant of the 3. It was a couple pages, lots of questions, images, some poems about one of the residents who’s ostracized in the co-op – he’s at risk of being kicked out.
There were some themes that I wanted to work through as well. This man is perceived as being kind of mad and mentally ill, and he might also identify himself that way, but is also kind of rejecting some of the hegemonic ways of being in society. I wanted to look at that. He’s like – “sure, I’m mad, but it’s intentional”. It’s sort of active. Also, the ways in which he expresses and understands masculinity is, like, counter to how other folks in this Scarborough co-op experience and express masculinity.
TC: Where did the impulse to make I-and-I come from?
dje: In Rosie, which is the first play that was more complete when I started, there’s a cis man who’s really gender fucking and like, dresses up in drag at home, and is flirting with the idea of going out in drag.
And for more context – I was really inspired by Hosanna by Michel Tremblay and was like, I wonder what that would look like with two Black guys who are, like, really young who live in Scarborough who are from a low income. Because Hosanna has these French Canadians who are also marginalized within their community. So I was like, what would that look like in a Scarborough couple?
One of them is hyper masc, and then the other one’s like a bit femme-y, but the focus is on Rosie, who’s the femme one. So I was like, yeah, that’s done. But I was kind of curious about the other side of the binary. Like, what is this guy who is more traditionally masculine as far as his presentation and performance, but him being this weirdo mad artist makes people question his masculinity.
TC: I’m curious about the universe around this project. Could you name a few people who have been influential, whether they’re collaborators, or people who have supported you otherwise, or loved ones, or your dog?
dje: Yeah. Oh, I love this question.
It feels weird to start with Michel Tremblay… but Michel Tremblay, for sure, because of Hosanna. Obviously someone I don’t know personally -I saw a production in Montreal and was just really taken by it. And then it just inspired all these questions, and the beginning of Rosie, which then began this trilogy. So, big up to Michel Tremblay.
TC: Merci, Michel!
dje: Literally. Um..um.
Pitchy Patchy! The spirit of this ancient trickster that comes out of this practice of really retaining a sacred ritual and bringing it back like an ocean away. And just the power of something travelling from so far and still being alive, and existing in so many places and looking slightly different but is the same spirit.
Hmm who else is in the sky before I come down?
d’bi [young anitafrika]’s direct collaboration, the dramaturgy. Nothing’s been directed because it hasn’t been staged, but has offered really clarifying and grounding dramaturgy. Really beautiful, hard questions.
I worked with Virgilia Griffith early in the pandemic. I’ll never forget, this was one of the – “Well, what? How are we going to do a movement workshop over Zoom?”
That unlocked something for me that day with Virgilia on Zoom. Getting out of my writing head and into my body, and that was really inspiring and took the piece further. I don’t even think she’ll remember! Or she might. But that was huge and helpful.
And then a more recent movement collaborator- and it feels cheap and maybe inaccurate to say movement collaborator. I mean..initially I was like – Esie [Mensah] will help me with movement and like, It was everything. It was movement, and everything else. So much story, and so much incredible dramaturgy as well.
TC: I’m wondering if you can share any major discoveries that happened along the way?
dje: There was a really beautiful learning about collaboration that came out of I-and-I in particular. Me, d’bi and Esie had this time to work in the Incubator, and we were gonna start on a Monday and then by Friday of the week before I’m like…”Okay guys, so I’m gonna be in on Monday, you guys can join on Tuesday.” And they were like “Okay, great”.
And then on Sunday, I’m like “Actually…I think I need you to come on Wednesday.” and they were like “Okayy, no. We’ll see you there on Tuesday”
dje laughs
They were threatening to come in on the Monday and were like – “You can have Monday…but we’ll see you on Tuesday.”
I was wanting it to be, you know, that thing of wanting more than what I had, and also wanting it to be a bit more polished.
TC: Yeah, like wanting to reach a certain state of readiness. even before your collaborators come into the room. I’ve felt that way too. Which is so funny because a lot of the time these collaborators are your intimate loved ones who should be part of the mess…but it can be tempting to try and clean that up.
dje: Yup. yup. And it came through so clear. They should have actually been there on the Monday.
That’s a thing that I honour now in my creative process ever since that last Residency time that we had.
Like, I might feel that I’m not ready for this to be seen by collaborators A, B and C, but this is when I need them to be a part of it. So much more will come out of them being a part of this “mess” and unreadiness.
TC: Anything else you’d like to share?
dje: I want to add – The trilogy is called Iris Malcolm Housing Co-op, that’s also the name of this fictional co-op in Scarborough. It’s named after my great grandmother, Iris Malcolm. She was the first person in my maternal side of the family’s departure from Jamaica. And she brought her five adult children here. She’s the reason why my mom’s side of the family is here, and they’re all here now.
In all of the pieces there are themes of community, connection, and co-dependency and family, land, and nation. And it’s because of, yeah, what I experienced living in my great-grandma’s house when we moved here, with my great-grandma, my grandma, and my mom. In a co-op! But yeah, for sure, Iris Malcolm is another huge-
TC: Major!
dje: MAJOR inspiration.
TC: Thank you so much for this.
dje: Oh my gosh, thank you. I appreciated being able to reflect on the tings.
And not to be cheesy, I’m not saying for you to write it in there, but it really has been incredible being in Residency there. The team are truly good people, and mean what they say. The integrity is singular, you know? Yeah, so that’s part of why I’m planning to never finish, so I can just stay affiliated with them, you know? I love it here.
☆☆☆☆
This interview was done over the phone, and was edited for length and clarity.
You can keep up with danjelani on Instagram @danjelani and @groundwork.redux
The Theatre Centre’s Residency Program is generously supported by:
