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Hide and Seek 2
Hide and Seek
Synopsis: Mandy, a high school junior who should be studying for
the SAT with her friends, only wants to play “Hide and Seek.”
She finally admits that she‟s afraid of what is coming in her
future (including, ultimately, her own death). Hide and Seek is
her way of escaping to a simpler time.
Themes: Ultimate meaning, escapism, purpose in life, human
mortality.
Characters: 1 male teen (Derek), 2 female teens (Mandy and
Taylor).
Running Time: 10 minutes.
Staging Needs: Center stage, there is a couch with a coffee
table in front of it. There are books and folders scattered
around the room. No special lighting or sound effects.
Acting Difficulty: Difficult.
Tone: Dramatic dialogue.
Can It Stand Alone?: No.
Author’s Comments: Why are we here? What‟s our purpose in these
few years we have on earth? Mandy is forced to confront those
questions by the death of her grandfather. This is a heavy
script, but it can be very rewarding for the actors--and it just
might give the audience something to think about.
Performance Tips: Let your actors have fun with the opening
“Hide and Seek” sequence--because after that, the heavy lifting
begins. Much of the conflict arises from Mandy‟s recent (unseen)
experiences with her relatives. Try improvising some of the
experiences referenced in the script (e.g., her father leaving
the family, her grandfather passing away) during rehearsal. The
actress playing Mandy needs to spend time wrestling with what
her character is thinking and feeling.
Hide and Seek 3
Hide and Seek
By George Halitzka
(In a comfortable-looking living room, a group of
teens is playing Hide and Seek. Against one wall,
MANDY stands and counts with her eyes hidden.
DEREK is lying on the couch, completely covered
with a blanket except for his feet. TAYLOR vainly
tries to curl up under the coffee table, but
she‟s clearly too tall for the space. On the
table and scattered around the room are various
textbooks and folders.)
MANDY
. . . 46 . . . 47 . . . 48 . . . 49 . . . 50. Ready or not, here
I come!
(uncovering her eyes and stepping away from the
wall)
Derek--Taylor, you‟re not hiding!
DEREK
(taking off the blanket and sitting up)
I tried--
MANDY
Like an ostrich. Your feet were out--
TAYLOR
Last time I played, I fit under the coffee table.
MANDY
--And you were six--
DEREK
--Which begs the question, “Why are we playing at sixteen?”
MANDY
Because it‟s fun!
(DEREK rolls his eyes.)
You have to try to have fun.
Hide and Seek 4
DEREK
(to TAYLOR)
Is she serious?
MANDY
Taylor, you count this time.
TAYLOR
We better get to work--
MANDY
Derek can study if he wants. I‟ll hide, and you--
DEREK
Play preschool on your own time.
TAYLOR
(to MANDY)
After Saturday, maybe?
MANDY
Every party has a pooper--
TAYLOR
Could I get some--water? I‟m kinda thirsty.
(A short pause. MANDY sighs.)
MANDY
Sure, back to the SAT. Wouldn‟t want to destroy our futures.
(She starts to exit.)
TAYLOR
Derek, do you want anything?
(DEREK shakes his head, and MANDY leaves for the
kitchen.)
DEREK
“Let‟s study at Mandy‟s. She‟ll help us with the hard stuff--”
TAYLOR
I didn‟t know she was . . .
DEREK
Losing touch with reality?
Hide and Seek 5
TAYLOR
She isn‟t usually--
DEREK
How‟d we get from SATs to Romper Room?
TAYLOR
I think Mandy is . . . stressed.
(MANDY returns to the room carrying two bottles
of water. She hands one to TAYLOR.)
Let‟s do equations, okay?
DEREK
Shoot.
TAYLOR
Area of a triangle.
DEREK
One-half base times height. Gimme a hard one.
TAYLOR
Volume of a cylinder.
DEREK
Pi-R-squared times height. I said hard.
MANDY
Do you remember when this stuff was fun?
TAYLOR
Mandy, here‟s one for you. Quadratic formula.
MANDY
Remember when math was fun?
DEREK
Negative B plus or minus the square root of--
MANDY
(to TAYLOR)
Like when we had play money in third grade, and Greg Humboldt
kept picking his nose with it and trying to put it in your desk,
because he knew you were terrified of boogers--
Hide and Seek 6
DEREK
Taylor, do you wanna go back to your house?
TAYLOR
(to MANDY)
The test‟s Saturday, we better--
MANDY
Yeah, and college fair‟s Monday, and Junior-Senior‟s Friday,
and--
DEREK
Taylor, let‟s go--
MANDY
And you know what?
(MANDY picks up a nearby textbook and flings it
across the room.)
I don‟t care. I really do not care.
(Short pause.)
DEREK
What‟s your problem?
TAYLOR
Derek--
DEREK
Seriously, what‟s wrong with you?
MANDY
We‟re studying for this stupid test--
DEREK
--Because some of us wanna find a good school--
MANDY
--And who‟s gonna care in ten years? About quadratic formulas
and Junior-Senior and everything in our whole lives--
TAYLOR
Derek . . . could you get, um, my Trig book out of your car?
Hide and Seek 7
DEREK
There‟s no Trig on the SAT--
MANDY
Taylor--it‟s okay; we‟ll study.
(She crosses to pick up the book she threw.)
Yeah, the quadratic formula. That’s gonna improve my quality of
life.
DEREK
Go to Loserburg Community if you want. I‟m still tryin‟ for
Stanford.
MANDY
And will that make you sooo happy you‟ll pee your pants?
TAYLOR
Derek, it‟s probably in the backseat--
DEREK
Taylor, will you . . . ?
(TAYLOR gives him “The Look.” DEREK sighs.)
Let me go find that book.
(He exits.)
TAYLOR
Mandy, what‟s wrong?
MANDY
Your boyfriend‟s a little OCD.
TAYLOR
Seriously--
MANDY
The SAT‟s not the end of the world, okay?
TAYLOR
Is this about your Grandpa?
MANDY
What?
Hide and Seek 8
TAYLOR
I mean . . . you used to play Hide and Seek, right? With him
and--
MANDY
Yeah, but it‟s not--
TAYLOR
I‟m real sorry about the funeral, Mom was working late--
MANDY
I said no.
TAYLOR
Okay--
MANDY
I‟m just sick of--stuff. Tests and college and prom dresses
and--
TAYLOR
Sorry. I thought--if my Pop-Pop died, I‟d be bawling--
MANDY
Because before Grandpa went to the nursing home, and Dad left,
that‟s the last time . . .
TAYLOR
Mandy?
MANDY
When things were . . . good.
(TAYLOR shakes her head; she doesn‟t understand
where MANDY is going with this. A beat.)
Grandpa came over Saturdays. And that‟s what we did: Hide and
Seek. I‟d grab his arm and say, “I‟ll go first!” Then he‟d
count, and I‟d look for a place I never used before--
TAYLOR
I played sometimes, when I could come. Remember?
MANDY
Remember how bad we were at hiding? Like with our legs sticking
out--
Hide and Seek 9
TAYLOR
You were better; I always used the coffee table--
MANDY
Grandpa would say “Ready or not, here I come” . . . and then I‟d
giggle. Like, every time. But he‟d look somewhere else first,
pretending he couldn‟t hear--
TAYLOR
Your Grandpa was really cool--
MANDY
I thought he was so bad at Hide and Seek. When I counted, he‟d
hide somewhere dumb, like under a sheet! He pretended it was the
best place ever--
TAYLOR
You got so mad; stomped your feet--
MANDY
--But we always played, even like, into fourth grade. I was way
too big, but I got good at hiding places. I just couldn‟t stop
giggling--
TAYLOR
Your giggles drove me nuts--remember?
MANDY
But it was so fun! I loved that game . . .
TAYLOR
So what happened?
MANDY
What?
TAYLOR
It‟s like, you just stopped . . . laughing. You got so serious;
studying all the time . . .
(A pause.)
Hide and Seek 10
MANDY
Because I found out Dad was real good at Hide and Seek. He never
played with me because he said it was immature, but he sure did
with that skanky sales rep. They moved to Colorado in fourth
grade--
TAYLOR
Sorry . . .
MANDY
--And fifth grade‟s when Grandpa went into Springhurst, and Mom
couldn‟t afford the house so we got that tiny apartment--
TAYLOR
No good hiding places there. You remember how we tried?
MANDY
Then Grandpa had a stroke, and he was never the same, and now
finally he dies . . .
(short pause)
Taylor . . . there‟s nothing to laugh about anymore.
TAYLOR
Stuff changes, Mandy. But it gets better--
MANDY
--What about funerals? Do those “get better”?
TAYLOR
No--
MANDY
Everything keeps messing stuff up--
TAYLOR
That‟s life --
(DEREK reenters, carrying a textbook.)
DEREK
Okay, it was in the trunk, but I found--
(He stops awkwardly; looks at the girls.)
Are you done? With Girl Talk?
(TAYLOR looks at MANDY.)
Hide and Seek 11
MANDY
(sighing)
It‟s fine. Let‟s cram some more useless information.
(A short pause. MANDY reluctantly pulls a book
back towards her.)
DEREK
I‟m kinda sick of this, y‟know?
MANDY
Of what?
DEREK
The SAT is useless? You think college is a joke?
TAYLOR
Derek, don‟t--
DEREK
I‟m gonna be something, okay? If you aren‟t, stop wasting--
MANDY
Ooh, “be something.” What does that mean, O Wise One?
DEREK
Gettin‟ away from the losers in this town--
MANDY
Fine, you get into Stanford. Then what?
DEREK
Uh, study? Maybe you‟ve heard of it--
MANDY
Then you graduate, and go work in some cubicle--
TAYLOR
And get married--
DEREK
Yeah, buy a house--all that stuff--
MANDY
Then what?
Hide and Seek 12
DEREK
Have kids, I guess? And if me and Taylor stay together, we wanna
visit Australia--
MANDY
And after that--?
DEREK
Uh . . . we get old?
MANDY
--And you‟ll be like my Dad, and wish you were in high school
again, and run off with some slutty sales chick--
DEREK
„Cause otherwise, I could spend my life on Hide and Seek--
MANDY
--Then you‟ll wonder if working for MegaCorp and making a couple
babies was the best you could do. You get sick and move into a
nursing home and watch soaps all day, then--
DEREK
I hope somebody kills me before that happens--
MANDY
Then you lay around peeing yourself and waiting to croak.
DEREK
But what else is there?
(A pause. MANDY shrugs.)
TAYLOR
Mandy, let‟s call it a night.
MANDY
No, we better finish--
TAYLOR
But you‟re like, SATs don‟t matter--
MANDY
Yeah . . . but I‟m trying to believe they matter, and my dress
for Junior-Senior matters, and college matters, and somehow it‟s
all worth it in the end. Because if not . . .
Hide and Seek 13
(MANDY shrugs helplessly. Pause.)
DEREK
So instead, you pretend you‟re three and a half and hide your
head under the covers?
MANDY
No--
DEREK
I mean, nobody said life was a buncha laughs--
TAYLOR
Derek, can you take me home--?
DEREK
--But it‟s worth it. I wanna finish studying the formulas.
MANDY
Can‟t stop now--
DEREK
--Not in the middle of Hide and Seek--
MANDY
--Because otherwise, we just lay down and . . . well, sooner or
later the count‟s over, and somebody says, “Ready or not, here I
come”--
DEREK
Like the SAT, for example?
TAYLOR
(gently)
Or--like Grandpa?
MANDY
Yeah. Like . . . dying. And then . . . what is there?
(A beat, then quietly--)
So it‟s like Hide and Seek. Ready or not . . .
TAYLOR
Ready or not?
Hide and Seek 14
MANDY
(quietly)
Here it comes.
(Blackout.)
THIS IS A SAMPLE SCRIPT.
It is provided for personal reading and evaluation purposes only. You may not perform this play until you have purchased a
licensed copy of the script from www.dramabygeorge.com.
Copyright © 2011 George Halitzka. All rights reserved.