A play by Tal Hughes and me
The Girl in the Yellow Dress
A boy who doesn't want to grow up, and a guardian angel only he can see. We wrote it in high school, staged it twice, and rewrote it for four years in between.
- 2021First page written
- 2022Opening night
- 2025Back, rewritten
- 3Newsrooms covered it
Tal got the idea while watching a play: a little girl in a yellow dress helping a teenage boy through growing up. He told me about it when the house lights came up. We were students at Wasatch High, and before long we were pitching our script to Timpanogos Valley Theatre, Heber City's oldest theatre.
Robert moves back to his hometown to start high school and finds that his friends have changed. Sylvia, the friend he grew up with, is in a relationship that's bad for her. Then a girl in a yellow dress shows up. She says she's his guardian angel, and nobody else can see her.
Watch
There are two kinds of angels, Robert. Ones we can't see and ones we can.
The Girl, draft 11
The same scene, years apart
Growing up, in one scene
The first page I wrote for the play was a montage with no dialogue: Robert and his best friend growing up, from school lunches to a wedding to a baby. It's still in the play.
March 10, 2021 The first page
(ROBERT's MOM(/DAD? Whichever one makes food) holds a brown paper bag (with lunch inside, not alcohol, you miscreants) and hands it to a backpacked ROBERT on his way out the door.)
(ROBERT is cooking some Mac and Cheese or something in a pot on the stove. SILVER enters carrying a big box of work papers. She sets a pregnancy test down on the counter, but ROBERT is focused on the Mac and Cheese for a second and doesn't notice.)
March 2022 The first production
(He notices the small stick on the desk, a pregnancy test. We see from the reaction on his face that it's positive. ROBERT turns to SYLVIA, SYLVIA turns to him, the two hug.)
(THE GIRL looks at the audience. She is scared.)
2025 Draft 11
(He asks SYLVIA, who puts her hands on her belly and nods, "yes." ROBERT is ecstatic. He hugs SYLVIA. The two exit, leaving THE GIRL who seems a little sad.)
THE GIRL
I had no idea... that it would all go by so fast.
The fight
Near the end, Robert turns on the Girl. In 2022 the scene ended with both of them on the floor. In 2025 she finally tells him why she came.
March 2022 The first production
ROBERT
Why did you come to save me?
My problems weren't problems, meanwhile Sylvia was hurting enough to... was going to... You shouldn't have saved me. You should have saved her.
(ROBERT falls to the floor. THE GIRL softens.)
THE GIRL
You're not mad at me. You're mad at you.
2025 Draft 11
ROBERT
Teach me what!?
THE GIRL
To be an angel for her!
ROBERT
(Beat) An angel? But I'm not--
THE GIRL
There are two kinds of angels, Robert. Ones we can't see and ones we can. But you just wouldn't listen.
Cut in 2025
The finger-gun fight is in every draft from 2022 to 2024. Draft 11 has fewer, longer scenes, and this one didn't make it. You can still watch it above.
(Beat. ROBERT makes a little finger gun.)
ROBERT
Pew.
JEFF
What?
ROBERT
Pew.
(ROBERT and JEFF slowly start into a finger gun fight. It gets gradually more elaborate.)
(ROBERT accidentally stumbles into his mother; she looks at his face.)
NICOLE
Robert...
ROBERT
What is it?
NICOLE
Nothing, it's just, you're smiling.
Four and a half years of drafts
- March 2021The first yellow dress thing I ever wrote on March 10, 2021
The montage. Robert's best friend is still named Silver. By 2025 Silver is the name Sylvia asks people to call her.
- September 2021Yellow Dress September 2021
The play is split into movements, like a piece of music. Robert throws Ketzel, his stuffed animal, at the Girl.
- October 2021October Yellow Dress
Poinsettia Park, where Robert goes to hide and the Girl finds him.
- March 2022Halfway Frankendraft for Tal to jump in
Then a table read (the file is called "Nathan and Christie read (thank you guys!)"), two Mexico drafts, and the final draft for the first production.
- 2022Opening night
Tal and I direct it together at Timpanogos Valley Theatre, Heber City's oldest theatre.
- November 2022The Girl in the Yellow Dress, Timpanogos Draft
Then the Reading Draft, the Stanford draft and Production Draft 1, all by December.
- December 2022Inbetweequel
A scene with Robert and the Girl at a college party. Tal and I also start Yellow Dress Productions to license the play.
- March 2023Yellow Dress, Tokyo Drift
A screenplay for a short film or TV episode. It opens on the Girl at a bus stop in Carlsbad, California.
- September 2023The Girl in the Yellow Dress, Library of Congress
The copy we sent to register the copyright.
- November 2023Tal's prequel material
Tal starts on what happened before.
- July 2024The Girl in the Yellow Dress Final Draft Hopefully
It was not the final draft.
- November 2025Draft 11
Tal's revision for the second run: fewer scenes, longer scenes, more room for every character.
In the news
KSL.com · November 2025
A yellow-dressed guardian angel
Read on KSL
Park Record · November 2025
It's high school all over again
we wrote the play like a movieTal, on the first version Read the review
KPCW · October 2025
Local playwrights return to Heber City
We learned from it, and our cast taught us things.Me, on the 2022 run Read on KPCW
Read a full scene from the 2025 script, Scene Six, on my blog. More plays and theatre on the stories page.