Every year in between the fall musical and the spring play, RM’s Black Maskers put on a series of One Acts, short pieces put on by the students. One Acts is an opportunity for students to explore different themes, participate in theater, and submit their own work. This year, Elise Steenburgh has taken this opportunity to a new level by submitting and putting on her own musical, “Writer’s Block”.

“Writer’s Block” is written by Steenburgh, and tells the story of a woman trying to write a musical by her deadline, without much success. As she writes, characters act out the scenes she comes up with, “but then in the middle of the scenes she’ll cut it off, give up on that idea, and start a new one,” Steenburgh explained. Steenburgh’s inspiration: her own life.

“I [have] had the idea to write a musical One Act for about two years now,” Steenburgh admitted, but she struggled to come up with the right script. Her breakthrough finally occurred this winter: “Two days before the deadline for turning in the script…I was freaking out and then I finally had this epiphany that I should just write a musical about not being able to write a musical.” The musical turned into Steenburgh’s own personal story of trying to write a musical to please others, but finally realizing that she should just write what she would enjoy.

Each scene in the musical is actually an idea that Steenburgh had while she was trying to write her script. The scenes include old tunes like “Fly Me to the Moon” and “I’ll Be Seeing You”, and each one seems like a good idea until Steenburgh, or her alter ego in the play, scraps it for one reason or another. Along with the ideas that made it into the show, Steenburgh had also drafted multiple scripts about everything from serial killers to jazz musicians at coffeehouse.

Once Steenburgh found out that her musical would be part of One Acts, she became completely immersed in the production. Steenburgh and her team rehearsed three times a week until four thirty, in addition to other band practices that could go until six. “Every day I’m working on it in some form or another, if it’s directing or rehearsing, or if I’m refining the script or creating sheet music for the band members or clarifying stuff for the actors,” Steenburgh said.

For many, the thought of writing original music may seem daunting, but for Steenburgh, it came naturally.  “I’ve had a passion for trying to write my own music, just playing music. I play jazz inside and out of school, so I really wanted to incorporate my hobbies of jazz with my hobbies of dramatics, and combine that into a musical One Act,” said Steenburgh. And writing her own musical allowed Steenburgh to solve problems she had seen in other shows: “the casts were too small but also too big, so many people would be ensemble but not that many people would get leads and I thought, you know, why can’t there be more opportunities for that since there’s so many talented singers?”

For Steenburgh, the experience of getting to finally put on her own show has been a memorable one. “It’s such an amazing feeling of fulfillment and pride,” Steenburgh gushed. “Yesterday, we had our last tech rehearsal before the show, and just seeing it come to fruition is such a happy feeling, and I actually did cry, and I know I’m going to cry on show night after it’s all over.” Despite the intensity of the experience, she has found it rewarding and fulfilling, and her advice for other students is, “if you have any interest in creative writing or directing or having that type of leadership role, it’s a good thing to do and try out.”