A ten-minute play written by senior Madison Wiser has been selected by a prestigious organization, the Boston Theater Marathon, to be performed alongside professional playwrights at their annual charity event.

In October of 2017, Wiser, along with the other members of her playwriting class, submitted a ten-minute play titled Despite Everything as a homework grade for her class. These plays were then submitted anonymously to the Boston Theater Marathon by their teacher, Westford Academy Theater Arts director Michael Towers.

“I kind of thought that [Mr. Towers] was just doing it so that my class could get experience with submitting to festivals […] In all honesty, when I submitted it in October, I kind of forgot about it […],” said Wiser.

According to Towers, Madison was one of more than 500 submissions selected by the Boston Theater Marathon.

“It’s just a thrilling thing for   anyone, much less an eighteen-year-old high school student,” said Towers.

The Boston Theater Marathon is an organization that throws an annual charity event based out of Boston that includes 50 ten-minute plays produced by 50 different theater companies in ten hours. This event is funded by Boston University Humanities Foundations along with others who are into the arts, and this year is their 36th season.

Wiser’s play, inspired by the recounting of her father’s interaction with the nurses after Wiser’s birth, follows the story of an twenty-year-old Maggie, who is giving her child to Victoria, a thirty-five-year-old woman whom Maggie believes will give her daughter a better life.

Wiser started writing plays at the beginning of senior year, when she joined Towers’ playwriting class. Over the summers, Wiser would write short stories, so the opportunity to be in a class that analyzed and wrote plays was exciting for her.

Wiser is ecstatic about this achievement and for the fact that her play was selected to be put on alongside so many adult playwrights.

“I feel incredibly honored. […] I feel super grateful for the opportunity […] It’s super crazy. [I am] super honored. Very excited for it,” said Wiser.

While Wiser is excited to have her play be selected, she’s also scared to have to go and make major decisions for her play.

“I know that I have to go down there for the rehearsals and the casting and stuff like that and, you know, also be there the day of, and these theatre companies […] they’re going to ask me questions,” said Wiser.

Wiser has always known that her career would involve writing, and according to Wiser, this event could be what starts her career.

Despite Everything will be held on April 15 to 18 from 7:00 to 9:30 and the play will be performed on May 6 during the 3-4 block of the festival by the Nora Theatre Company at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in Boston’s South End.