Madelyn Streisfeld is a creative with an eye for cognition.

 

As an experiential producer, neuroaesthetics researcher, and dramaturg, her work centers on one common theme: how can we craft artistic experiences that connect us with what makes us most human? 

 

Madelyn is a senior at Carnegie Mellon University, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Science and Arts in Neurobiology and Dramaturgy. Madelyn has been recognized by the American College Theater Festival for her dramaturgical work which spans new play development, curated research websites, and immersive lobby displays. Most recently, she dramaturged workshops of The Gettysburg Test by Maguire Wilder (City Theater Momentum Festival, 2025) and Wildness by Noah Haidle (CMU Center for New Work, 2025). Production dramaturgy credits at CMU include Alistair McDowall's X (dir. Matthew Kereama, 2026), Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice  (dir. Daniel Bamdad, 2026), and Titanic: The Musical  (dir. Telly Leung, 2025). 

 

Madelyn's original musical Paradise Profound premiered at CMU Drama’s Playground XXII Festival of Independent Student Work in 2024. She has also worked as Script Editor at the Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts leading collaborative workshops to devise and produce new musicals with youth artists. Madelyn is a strong communicator with cross-industry experience, from conducting editorial evaluation, marketing, and copywriting for the Carnegie Mellon University Press to heading the TEDxCMU Speaker Curation team. She was awarded the 2023 Miami Herald Silver Knight in English & Literature for promoting artistic activism and literacy in secondary education. 

 

Madelyn’s neuroscience background stems from a deep curiosity regarding how we remember, imagine, and learn. Her analytic approach to problem-solving manifests in lab work just as in script consultation. She is a year-round Research Assistant with the Kid Neuro Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, and in summer 2025 was awarded CMU's competitive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship to craft an independent research project analyzing mental rotation strategies using eye tracking and fMRI. She is excited by practical research and seeks to push the boundaries of form, translating findings into the art that she makes. 

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Madelyn is constantly dreaming up ways to engage the emotions. Her favorite experiential activations and professional events that she has developed include a formal banquet at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, a vintage-inspired interactive audio guestbook station in the Purnell Center for the Arts lobby, a multisensory Titanic exhibit in collaboration with CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, a two-story Toy Story walkthrough attraction designed and built by sorority sisters, and a life-sized board game pop-up marketing pitch for Hasbro Games. 

 

Narrative is at the heart of Madelyn’s work. In her free time, you can find her reading books, visiting theme parks, practicing photography, and spending time with her two aussiedoodles.