The Thirty
by Tanuja & Tim
March 29, 2026
A long time ago, in a galaxy of hope and possibility…
We devised a creative exercise that we called ‘The Thirty’. Essentially, it was the two of us talking through a list of 30 ideas that we felt were current or somehow fascinating. They might have been as broad as an area of research, or as well-formed as an ongoing touring show, or as nebulous as a phrase we simply liked as a title. It was a tactic for forcing us to keep difficult ideas on the table, ensuring that strong ideas – ambitious, or impossible, or small, or troublesome – never got left behind.
It was a way to develop a slate of projects, pitches, stories that were thought-through enough for fast turnaround commission opportunities or unexpected meetings with magic money people.
It also helped us give complex stories time to grow into the right shape. We are both wilfully interdisciplinary as artists, and ideas often get remixed from one form to another as they develop. Ultimately, we want to find the heart of each story and find the best form with which to share that with an audience. So what started out as an idea for a novel, might grow towards being a film, and then a theatre show, and then a piece of music, and then a theatre show again.
We chose ‘Thirty’ because the first time we did it, we got to the mid-20s and figured we may as well push on to round it up. And that push beyond all the viable ideas we thought we had arguably became the most valuable aspect of the whole process. We had to stretch ourselves and ask: what was missing on our slate? What lies deeper, taking root? What is the thing we haven’t yet done – the unthinkable project?
Also, thirty is obviously TOO MANY IDEAS. It’s not realistic. So don’t worry about being realistic. Surprise yourself. Take yourself seriously as an artist. Be ambitious. Dream. The wildest ideas have to start somewhere.
The process would usually take a couple of full days. We had to properly interrogate each other’s offers. Each one had to earn its place. Every one had to be a spark we genuinely wanted to fire up, even if we couldn’t yet articulate why, beyond: that image just won’t let me go.
When we first built a company website, we decided we’d publish the Thirty each time we updated it. Accountability innit. These had to be ideas that one or both of us could stand by if anyone asked (and occasionally they did). Projects that came to full fruition left the list. Sometimes ideas would just fall off the list unexpectedly; the Thirty process revealing that we just weren’t alive to them any more. But sometimes those ideas would return just as suddenly, in a new shape or the same shape.
2026
We’d have an ‘It’s The Thirty’ session once a year (twice a year for the first few years). It’s probably the most impactful creative process we’ve used -
Until it wasn’t…
…Well, not for us anymore – but other artists still tell us how they’ve started using it themselves, or created their own versions of The Thirty process, which is a beautiful thing to hear (thanks guys!).
So though we’re retiring The Thirty from our day to day, if it’s the spark of an idea that you want to run with, go run.
The ones that never went away
Two titles were on every single Thirty list we made:
Babel’s Cupid
and
I Will Do It For Science
The ones that never went anywhere
And here are some that got lost in time:
