We were lucky to catch up with Natalie Lall recently and have shared our conversation below.

Natalie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Two years ago, I was supposed to stage a one actor, one audience member play at my local acting studio. It was a 20 minute piece I had done in college that I never felt like I fully understood. I had been seeing a ton of immersive theatre, and wanted to make something of my own and was really enamored by this intimate way of experiencing theatre. It felt more like an encounter, than a play. I was totally jazzed to do it when after some rehearsals with the playwright, I realized our values were not in alignment… I was seriously disappointed, but determined to still do an immersive show. After feeling some big feelings, I resolved to write my own immersive show and put it up at my acting studio with the goal to explore what my own theatre of encounter could be like.

It’s difficult to put into words just how transformative the process of creating my own piece of immersive theater was. It started off with draft after draft of a rough script. I was starting something from absolutely nothing. I was writing short stories that were inspired by dreams and these little Intuitive hunches I would get. I don’t know when it happened, but while I was writing, I also decided that rather than put this show up at my acting studio right away, I would playtest it in the spare bedroom of my apartment. So I started to redesign the room to be my theater. I had this idea that I could invite intimate audience into our apartment and practice this theater of encounter at home. The very first thing I made in the room was a giant papier-mâché tree. I had no clue why I was making it or what it would become, but I trusted that it would all make sense later (a theme that emerged again and again throughout this entire project). I cut out hundreds of scraps of construction paper. I went through a hundreds of scraps of cardboard and a couple hundred dollars worth of fake moss and hot glue, and slowly slowly over the span of many months I created a cozy, ethereal, hand-crafted, cave-like space in my apartment. Now the difficult part was figuring out what to do inside this really tricked out room.

I spent months trying to make sense of all these things that I had painted and crafted and slowly, slowly stories started to emerge from these objects I had created. Long story short, I started to playtest this experience with friends of mine, having no clue what I was doing. But the story of the room began to reveal itself to me. Each step of this process was an enormous risk. It was stepping into something completely unknown and totally cloudy and trying to trust that things would work themselves out. My mantra became “Everything is exactly as it should be. You are right, where you need to be.” It was really difficult to believe that, but after almost a year in development, I premiered this original show with original music and sound design at my acting studio. I followed through on this promise to myself that I would do an immersive show at this studio, and it was the most rewarding process of my entire life that has inspired everything I am currently working on including an album and a bedtime stories podcast.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’m a multidisciplinary artist from Kenosha, Wisconsin and I’ve lived out in LA for four years. My first love in this life was music and I was very fortunate to grow up in a community that really cherished music and art. I learned from a lot of really extraordinary teachers who supported me in growing as an artist early on. I moved out to LA to pursue acting and throughout my time here I have become an immersive theater maker, a singer songwriter, and a myth maker.

Everything I’m currently up to, I feel like I’ve fallen into. A teacher of mine used to say “creativity flows downhill,” and I deeply believe that to be true. I’m really passionate about seeing where creativity takes me. Engaging in the creative process feels absolutely vital to my own transformation and evolution as a person. Through the acting studio I used to study at, I ended up going on a retreat to Ireland a couple years ago to study acting. But while I was there, I met an acting teacher who was also a trauma therapist. She worked in something called Organic Intelligence (OI). She used what she learned in this trauma therapy framework and applied it to her acting teaching and it was just magnificent. I learned so much.

When I returned to LA, I could feel something shift in me. I became fascinated with OI and after some months of working with an OI coach myself, I decided that I wanted to enroll in the training to become a certified OI coach. I’m now about halfway through that training and I’ve applied everything I’m learning into my creative process and into the volunteer work I do with creative students. Working with kids has always been something I’ve really enjoyed. These days, however, I’m finding more inspiration than I ever have in mentoring young artists and offering them support through my own experience and now through all of the learning I’m doing in the OI course.

At this point in my life, I see my artistic practice as my way of building community, of supporting people’s physiologies, spirits, and minds. Creatively, I’m currently finishing up my debut album: “MULTIRACIAL PRINCESS!” It’s a storytelling concept album where every other track is a narration, like an audio book. The goal is that if you close your eyes and listen to the album, you could imagine you were listening to the audio of a movie. To me, the story is about the heroine’s journey– a journey of falling downwards, about falling into creativity. and being open to where it might take you. It’s a metaphorical origin story for the artist that I feel I have become today and I’m so excited to start sharing it with people later this year! I feel like it symbolizes all of the work that I hope to continue doing both in myself and with others: this work of going down into the dark, mysterious unknown, and trusting that there will be a guiding light, trusting that this is how the process of transformation works and that this process is always easier to do with others.

I’m really excited about weaving all of the trauma-informed work I’m exploring in OI with the music I’m making and with the mythologies I’m creating in a way that feels playful and full of joy. Art has always been healing for me and I feel so grateful that I’m in a place where I can really explore the intersection of art, healing, play, and spirituality.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

It is every person’s right to express their creativity, but in order to freely do that we need a basic level of stability. The biggest challenge facing every artist I know is balancing their creative work with the work that pays the bills. So to be frank, one of the best things society can do to support not just artists, but all people, is universal healthcare. When our bodies are taken care of and supported, we have room for not just survival. We need communities of mutual aid, of skill-sharing, and service swapping. Where art isn’t made to compete, but made to feel whole. It’s difficult to allow yourself the freedom to create without an attachment to material success, however, when you’re worried about your survival. Then, your art needs to be a hit, you have to get 15k followers, you have to make it perfect….on and on and on it goes. The best thing we can do for each other is enjoy one another’s work. To let ourselves be moved by the expression of other human beings who are vulnerable enough to share a piece of themselves with the world. To soften enough to really delight in art. Imagine a world where we all have room to delight in art. And the best part of that is even as we work towards universal healthcare and more just systems, we can slow down and practice this enjoyment right now even amidst seriously imperfect conditions. But it inspires me to remember that this is the work, and that it is enough.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

“This Jungian Life” is a podcast hosted by three Jungian analysts and it has profoundly impacted the work I’ve been up to these past couple of years. They explore Carl Jung’s work by discussing depth psychology, dreams, archetypes, and interviewing guest speakers. Their conversations are rich with wisdom and have inspired much of the storytelling I’m doing today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://natalielall.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natalie.lall/

Image Credits

Caleb Knowles