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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.