On Monday, Sep. 12, Hollywood gathered to celebrate the performances and achievements of many of their actors and actresses, but on Northwestern State University of Louisiana’s campus, students, faculty and family came to see the first performances of the School of Creative and Performing Arts.
The “New Faces” 2022 showcase took place at 6:30 p.m. and ended at 8 p.m. with a total of 47 individual performances throughout the night.
Performances ranged from monologues, songs and dances. Some were created as original performances and others took recreated scenes and performances of their favorite songs, movies or plays.
The night started with an introduction performance then throughout the night the performers showed their talent, creativity and ended on a “fork ‘em demons” to the crowd to end their first performances of the year.
Since the beginning of the month, CAPA performers studied and prepared for their solo performances that night and their collective intro and outro to their performances that night, Iri Baton, an incoming theater major and freshman, said.
“I just did it on a whim and I just loved it!” Batson said, when asked about what brought them to join CAPA and become a performer.
Each solo performer was assigned a coach to help them prepare and learn how to perfect their talent for the stage for those 5 weeks, but the coach helping was an option to some.
“I just met my coach tonight,” Ryan Bates, a junior and biology major, said.
Bates’ performance was a standout and unique in that it was a flag dance they had written in a day and perfected a week before the performance themselves.
“I was shaking the whole time, but throughout the performance, I just had fun and went with it,” Bates said.
Performances were very well-planned and prepared, such as theater and dance major and freshman Vee Duran’s performance of Jekyll and Hyde song “Bring on the Men,” which combined both dance and singing in the performance.
Duran claims that they had to practice nearly every day with their coach along with singing at home to perfect their craft. Duran was still nervous, but as the practice went on they felt how good the energy of the performance was and that nervousness went away.
The night ended with standing applause to the new members of CAPA and with the audience excited with many of them congratulating them on their work.