Arts & Entertainment

Severna Park Middle Student Wins Playwriting Competition

Madeline Viteri's play is being performed at the Twin Beach Players Kids Playwriting Festival.

Severna Park Middle School student Madeline Viteri is just 12 years old, but is already quite the accomplished playwright. 

The rising seventh-grader won the Twin Beach Players Kids Playwriting Festival and is having her play Booked performed in the eighth annual festival in North Beach.

Every year, the Twin Beach Players host a playwriting competition, open to all school age children in the state of Maryland. The entries are judged and then six winners are picked to have their plays casted and performed during the festival. The winners also receive $100.

Madeline’s play was one of the six winners.

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“It was pretty exciting,” Madeline said. “We were at a baseball game and my mom got the text on her phone saying who the winners were. When she showed it to me I was so happy. I could have run around the stadium a 1,000 times.”

According to Madeline, Booked tells the story of a girl named Macy who reads a story and is unhappy with the ending. A dream council then allows Macy to go into the book and change the ending.

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“I just always thought it would be fun to go into a book and become the main character,” Madeline said.

After Madeline found out she had won the playwriting competition, she then got to cast her play.

The casting weekend was held June 14, and every Tuesday since then Madeline and her crew have attended rehearsals.

“It was really fun seeing all the people interpret the characters in different ways and see how different people played the characters,” Madeline said.

Booked opened at the festival last weekend, and will run again this weekend. Madeline said the opening weekend went extremely well.

The entire process has been a whirlwind of fun for Madeline, who said she one day hopes to have a career as a writer. However, getting to see one of her plays come to life for the first time is an experience she won’t soon forget. 

“Everything has been my favorite part because it has been so much fun,” she said. “But I think seeing my plays performed and seeing my ideas come to life is the best part.” 

To learn more about this weekend’s final showing of “Booked,” click here


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