The Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts Music Department at Northwestern State University of Louisiana in collaboration with creative writing students in the Department of English, Languages and Cultural Studies will present “Outspoken: Collaborations in Story and Song.” The performance will be held at the Magale Recital Hall promising an evening of entertainment and passion.

This event combines the live narration of original works by creative writing students with the performance of original compositions by student composers, bringing their creations to life for the stage.

Madison Prattini, a second year master’s student in music performance, organized the show and wanted a large-scale collaboration with another art discipline at NSU.

“There is one nonfiction story, one fiction story and a poetry suite. Each has its own unique score to accommodate the themes addressed in each. The themes include love, loss, death and relationships,” Prattini said.

Prattini reached out to Melena McLaren, professor of music, and collaborated with Rebecca Macijeski, associate professor of English, to plan out the logistics of this event.

“I wanted to bring life into the stories through the use of musical score,” Parttini said. “I thought about how different forms of media can be emotionally impactful. In the case of film or audiobooks, the musical score can amplify the emotional impact of the story and help the audience really feel the emotions the writers are expressing.”

Prattini has been behind all the decision making throughout the whole process to ensure the show is just how she imagines it.

“I selected the composers, musicians and conductors for the event while Dr. Macijeski selected which writing students were to be featured. She and I worked together on event promotion,” Prattini said.

Rebecca Macijeski, creative writing program coordinator and associate professor of English, has been working alongside Prattini.

“I was instantly excited to work on this project, because I also have a background in music. As an undergraduate I double majored in music and creative writing, so I was ready,” Macijeski said.

Working on a production like this has had Macijeski eagerly anticipating the performance day, where she hopes the audience has a great time and is able to take something from the student pieces.

“I hope that they feel part of a really strong, artistic expression that is the first thing that I want them to take away from this. Of course, being a coordinator of programs I also hope people might see ‘oh that’s cool I could do more creative writing’ and maybe we get more people excited to take more classes with us,” Macijeski said.

Izzy Plauche, a senior English major with a creative writing concentration, is one of three students selected to participate in the “Outspoken” performance. As Editor-in-Chief for NSU’s Art and Literary magazine, Argus, she is more than excited to bring her very own writings to the stage.

“I am really excited for the audience’s reaction because this means so much to me, I don’t want to say the highlight of my career, but this is a big project and I have been working on it for a long time now,” Plauche said.

Plauche has written three pieces with the intention of having music built behind them. Straying away from her previous works, she focused on bringing in something new.

“It’s three pieces, each one is a movement and it is very pretentious. I wrote them with the idea of the three essential experiences to the human condition,” Plauche said. “Which in my opinion are rage, love and loss, because we all have differences but we are all connected by those three essential experiences.”

Prattini, Macijeski, Plauche and all those involved have been working hard to bring the best performances in hopes to connect the audience through this immersive experience of storytelling. The “Outspoken” performance will be held on Oct. 26, 2023 in Magale Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. Be advised that some parts of the production may be intense.