BY BRITTANY DANIELLE for WEEKLY VOLCANO 4/24/26 |
As a musician and a songwriter, I often run face first into a creative wall. Call it writer’s block, “uninspired,” loss of the muse, what have you. It is a common creative problem. Often, for creatives, it can cause us to quit entirely.
Recently, I tried out a new technique to identify blockages and get the ideas flowing.
I call it “artistic cross-training.” In the world we live in as entertainers, we are constantly reinventing the way we do things. Many of us get lost in trend chasing instead of defining who we are.
In the modern age, we have new tools for networking and visibility: organization, notes, calendars, reminders, apps, apps, apps. These digital tools have their use, obviously, but nothing breaks someone out of a creative blackout like a new angle. An angle that might scare you is even better, because getting out of your comfort zone opens new horizons.
I took a class last week with Lakewood Playhouse. I was feeling stuck, a little uninspired, and experiencing a lot of “friction” to create something new while also feeling like everything was a repeat. I was lacking the focus, passion, and vulnerability I have been preaching to other musicians.
The class is titled “Breaking Your Mold” and is a six-day course in stretching your legs in writing, singing, and dialogue.
The class is run by Joseph Walsh, Producing Artistic Director at Lakewood Playhouse, and Elijah Bellis, musical director and designer. The pieces the students were tasked with putting together are, as Joseph says, “A part of a one-person show, a draft of a part of something bigger that might, someday, become something else, possibly.”
The idea of imperfectionism is terrifying to a lot of us. The idea of not having something complete by the end of class is foreign. The idea of sharing that with others at the end can be mind-blowing. However, at the end of the class, we had all grown in such a way that we wanted to share with friends, family, and strangers.
Joseph Walsh is incredible at creating a safe space to explore and excavate your creative blockage, pushing you to think for yourself and trust yourself while creating your own art, the art that you want to say, the art that you need to get out, the art that is real, that hurts, that causes reactions. Our shadow selves.
Over the six days, I became the most vulnerable I think I ever have been in front of strangers. I already see changes in how I present my music, how I write my stories, and my body language onstage.
Each of my classmates had a different wall to tear down, and it was inspiring to have a group of people willing to share themselves with each other. No competition. Pure collaboration on us all winning the war against our own demons.
Jim: “Creating something in five days, performing it on day six, that encapsulated a part of your life was all at once exhilarating and cathartic.”
Luke: “… It’s a really unique setup in that it’s also a collaborative process, having your classmates giving input. I think the short, intensive time frame is also a very important part of what makes it feel, not tense, but vital. There’s a deadline and an understanding that it won’t be a finished, perfect product…”
As a Puget Sound musician, I am not afraid to go dark and pessimistic. Maybe that is related somewhat to working alone most of the time. Maybe it is the weather.
Looking back at the workshop, I have nothing but gratefulness in the way we were so scared, yet eager to get to know ourselves. The theater is different in that the environment is very supportive and positive. Though stories were personal and sometimes sad, there was joy in each of us finding ourselves and laughing together.
In music, I often feel a push to be finished and perfect. Verse, chorus, verse.
During this class, we learned to speak in “drafts,” that there were no definitive answers, no final countdown. We can just breathe and be, and that was enough. It was refreshing.
Ally: “Looking back at the workshop, I have nothing but fondness in the way we were so scared, yet eager to get to know ourselves once more. It is a precious thing to pour out love and feel loved back. What we learned night after night, from 6 to 9 p.m., was that we matter. We came, different in our own ways, but we matter regardless.”
The six-day intensive workshop never felt too long. Perhaps we began the workshop as individuals, yet by the end, we found ourselves in each other’s work. Unintentionally, our lives crossed, our loneliness and desires no longer so isolating. A beautiful collaboration of differences together.
It has been days after my final showcase, and I am still brimming with joy and satisfaction from doing something new, stretching creative muscles I did not realize I had.
As I was writing my “one-woman show,” I could not escape a certain topic, one that I have explored in various ways in my music. It can be hard to explain, but developing it in this new format with these theatrical collaborators was different and satisfying. Now I feel much less stuck in my own songwriting process.
Kerri: “I am so happy I signed up for this course. I learned so much about cabaret and about myself. Joseph and Elijah have a way of making you feel the perfect mix of empowerment and comfortability. It was incredible to see how I and my classmates grew so much over five days. For months I had been feeling blocked and uninspired creatively. I came out of the experience with a new passion for performing.”
Sage: “Knocking down a fourth wall that I created and felt very comfortable behind. It was wildly uncomfortable and freeing. As uncomfortable as it was, I felt more okay getting those knots out alongside my fellow ensemble members.”
Follow Lakewood Playhouse on social media and their website. They will have this class again. Go see their performances: www.lakewoodplayhouse.com.
