Maddie Powell

Maddie Powell is a Chicago-based playwright, actor, and lover of Dungeons & Dragons. In 2025, a reading of her play WE SENT HER TO THE SEA will be produced by The Understudy in Chicago. Other works, including CROCS! THE MUSICAL and 101 REASONS BETH MILLER NEEDS A DOG have been produced by Lipstick Theater, Hudson Guild Theater, Bergen County Academies, and Bergen Community College. Maddie is a recipient of the Helen G Scott Prize and was a top-ten finalist for SHU's National Playwriting Competition. Maddie studied Theatre and English at Northwestern University, where she discovered her love for experimental theater and TYA, which she sees as two sides of the same coin.

Maddie Powell is a Chicago-based playwright, actor, and lover of Dungeons & Dragons. In 2025, a reading of her play WE SENT HER TO THE SEA will be produced by The Understudy in Chicago. Other works, including CROCS! THE MUSICAL and 101 REASONS BETH MILLER NEEDS A DOG have been produced by Lipstick Theater, Hudson Guild Theater, Bergen County Academies, and Bergen Community College. Maddie is a recipient of the Helen G Scott Prize and was a top-ten finalist for SHU's National Playwriting Competition. Maddie studied Theatre and English at Northwestern University, where she discovered her love for experimental theater and TYA, which she sees as two sides of the same coin.

Scripts

We Sent Her to the Sea

by Maddie Powell

Synopsis

In eighteenth-century Europe - well, eighteenth-centuryish “Europe” - difficult women are sent to the seaside, where they are kept out of sight and out of mind. Five such women find themselves at The Sea, a remote treatment center spearheaded by the absurd Mr. Doctor (who may or may not have actually studied medicine?). From the melancholic to the homosexually-inclined, the Sea’s newest inpatients quickly become...

In eighteenth-century Europe - well, eighteenth-centuryish “Europe” - difficult women are sent to the seaside, where they are kept out of sight and out of mind. Five such women find themselves at The Sea, a remote treatment center spearheaded by the absurd Mr. Doctor (who may or may not have actually studied medicine?). From the melancholic to the homosexually-inclined, the Sea’s newest inpatients quickly become disillusioned with their treatment and decide they want out - but how many hysterical women does it take to screw the patriarchy? Powered by irreverence, hijinx, and a passion for musical improv, Maddie Powell’s new comedy We Sent Her to the Sea explores how we tend the garden of progress, and what we can do when we discover rot in the roots.