Just as Lake Highlands High School senior John Magary finished a school performance of the Broadway musical, “She Loves Me,” he was off to Houston to oversee a performance of his own award-winning play.

Magary, a senior at Lake Highlands High School, recently won the 1996 Texas Educational Theater Association’s playwriting contest.

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Magary’s play, “Movements,” will be performed at the association’s annual convention in Houston this month. The play was performed Feb. 1 at Lake Highlands High School.

“I was really happy when I found out I won. It was the first time I had ever written a play,” Magary says.

Magary wrote “Movements,” a 40-minute two-act play, last summer. He is one of two high school students in the state to win the award.

The play, which Magary described as a drama, chronicles three stages in the life of a couple, William and Katherine.

The characters will be portrayed by Lake Highlands High School senior Steven Kirkham and 1995 Lake Highlands graduate Amy Acker, a drama student at SMU. Lake Highlands High School drama teachers Nancy Pointer and Jeremy Golden will direct Magary’s play.

Magary says he hopes the audience enjoys his play.

“I hope they’re interested and get something out of it. I hope it’s not dull.” Magary says.

Magary, who ranks second in his class, has applied to several colleges and hopes to receive an acceptance letter from his first choice – Harvard. He says he will probably pursue a degree in English and will continue to dabble in theater and writing.