Madeline Hill, poet, playwright and actor, penned her play “Everything You’ve Got” at age 15. Now, four years later, the 10-minute play is being developed into a full-length production.
The show runs from Friday, June 13, to Sunday, June 22, at The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre at The Historic Y, 738 N. Fifth Avenue, Suite 131.
“Everything You’ve Got,” inspired by a viral internet meme, centers on a woman who has been granted immortality and her interactions with a snail while she’s stuck on Earth as the sun explodes.
“It’s based on a famous internet post … what if you were immortal, but there was also a snail that was immortal, and it was constantly chasing you,” Hill said.
“I’m always kind of embarrassed when I tell people it’s based on a meme, but it’s taken on a life of its own.”
The play will star actress/producer Gretchen Wirges. Wirges and Hill met during the “Young Playwrights Competition,” when Hill was still only 15.
“She wrote this play, but it was only 10 minutes long and I directed it for the competition,” Wirges said.
“I was so impressed. At the age of 15 to have written something like that, it just blew me away.”
Hill said she was surprised by the play’s emotional impact on the audience during its initial 10-minute performance.
“People were crying,” she said. “It has really meant a lot to me because at the end of the day, it’s this dumb idea I came up with when I was a kid.”
Hill grew up as she wrote the script, which also evolved.
“I was writing about … love and loss and grief, but I hadn’t really experienced these things,” she said.
Now, she has had relationships and more experiences, which she applied to the script. That task is challenging, she said.
“It’s easy to write something that’s interesting for 10 minutes, but it’s a lot harder to make it interesting for an hour,” Hill said.
The play is directed by Samantha Cormier and produced by The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre, where Hill took Wirges’ acting classes.
“I picked her (Cormier) because I know that she knows how to tell a story, and she knows how to take any script and make sure that what you see is the person and the humanity behind it, not just the story,” Wirges said.
The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre is a Tucson-based nonprofit, founded in 2016. They share diverse stories and create “imaginative” experiences for audiences.
Although the play contains some mature language, it is suitable for audience members aged 12 and older.
“Honestly, I think if you have a mature kid … it would be up to the parents,” Wirges said.
Audiences can expect a “tour de force” performance with an “incredible story and an emotional journey,” Wirges added.
With numerous pop culture references, this one-woman show aims to tell the story of the individual and her life’s emotional and physical journey.
A GoFundMe campaign at bit.ly/MadelineHillPlay raises funds to produce and stage the play.
Expect an epic ending to “Everything You’ve Got.” “I love to write things that have an ending that really feels like a punch to the face. I feel like a good ending should leave you sort of dizzy,” Hill said.
“Everything You’ve Got”
WHEN: Various times Friday, June 13, to Sunday, June 15, and Friday, June 20, to Sunday, June 22
WHERE: The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre at the Historic Y, 738 N. Fifth Avenue, Suite 131, Tucson
COST: $20
INFO: scoundrelandscamp.org
