Completed Works:

Science Fair

A play for young audiences (5w, 2m)

It’s the sixth-grade science fair. Sign up at your peril. The theme this year is “Enigma,” so you’re your presentation has to have an element that’s, at least at first glance, especially difficult to explain—a secret (something there might be more than one of in this story.)  In Rachel Hilbert’s Science Fair, Emerson, a fire waiting to start, Leighton, a chiller with a flair for riling other people up, Ryan, a competition junky, and Charlie, a walking dictionary find themselves working together on their science fair experiment. But it’s hard for things to go according to plan when you don’t really have one.

 

The Price of the Planets

A play for young audiences (4w, 4m)

Once upon a time, Lilla Price was a storyteller. Once upon a time, her brother wasn't quite so indecisive, and their sister wasn’t quite so angry, and their mother wasn't quite so lost. Once upon a time, the Price family had a dad. In Rachel Hilbert’s new play, The Price of the Planets, the Price family grapples with their grief individually, floating farther apart with each passing day. When Lilla tries to escape her sadness by traveling to Saturn, her family pursues her, throwing all four into a colorful, cosmic, planet-hopping adventure through space and time in an effort to find themselves and each other once again.

 

Dance Lessons

A play for young audiences (3 m, 2 w)

Kayden’s just started at a new school halfway through fourth grade. His welcome buddy, Jake, the fiercely competitive son of the gym teacher, introduces him to Freddie, a kind-hearted kid who loves rules, and Gigi, a gymnast with an affinity for applause. They seem nice enough, maybe even new friends, but recess after recess, another girl, Libby, stands at the edge of the parking lot with her eyes closed, completely still. Kayden can’t help it—he has to know what she’s doing. As these five navigate dodgeball tournaments, dance lessons and talent shows, they start to realize what friendship and winning really means.

 

What Stays the Same

A ten-minute fable (7w, 4m)

This is not a particularly pleasant story. In fact, it’s what you might call a big bummer. But sadly, it’s the ten Palango children’s story today, and they have to tell it in case it makes any difference. You see, when these ten unhappy children went to bed last night, they wished that everything about their lives was different. And, most unfortunately, they woke to find their mother missing. Perhaps if they go back to beginning of yesterday and tell it all again, they can bring her back? Or is disappearance a curse that might befall them too?