The Prettiest Duckling, a new dark comedy, now published by YouthPLAYS
Happy to share my new dark comedy play, THE PRETTIEST DUCKLING, is now published by YouthPLAYS!
Two adorable ducklings plot the ousting of their gray-feathered sister in my new play, THE PRETTIEST DUCKLING
Gorgeous and Cutesy weren't born yesterday. In fact, it's been minutes since they hatched, but they're already facing big bird problems: One of their fellow ducklings is "ugly." Yes, that one. Gorgeous would never dream of harming the strange sibling they love "so so much," but Gorgeous doesn't want to end up exiled to the sewage swamp like the goose family with the red-eyed gosling. On the other hand, if they got Cutesy to do something about the problem, that wouldn't be so bad, right? Cutesy's a certified good egg, but can the youngest duckling stand up for their cross-species sibling, or will Gorgeous get the ugly outcome Gorgeous wants? - YouthPLAYS
"In The Prettiest Duckling, Tara Meddaugh channels Hans Christian Andersen via Mean Girls to give us a hilarious twist on a classic fairy tale. The characters are so riotously funny that it's easy to forget that they're up to no good. Even then it's almost impossible not to laugh out loud at their witty repartee, clever zingers, and Machivellian scheming."
~Kevin Christopher Snipes
Creator of The Two Princes for Gimlet Media & author of Milo and Marcos at the End of the World
DETAILS ABOUT THE PRETTIEST DUCKLING
RUNNING TIME: 20-25 minutes
CAST: 2 any gender
AGE: Great for teens, tweens and young adult
SETTING: Near a pond
DESIGN: The characters are ducklings, but their personalities are all human. Designers and directors can have fun going as big or as minimal as they'd like in bringing this world to life.
"Being gorgeous is also, like, kind of a burden...I wouldn't wish it on anyone."
~Gorgeous, the duckling
Even Kiwi thinks it’s a good read
She just can’t read.
ON THE INSPIRATION FOR THE PRETTIEST DUCKLING
This play was conceived as part of a larger collection of fairy-tale tangential plays I wrote (and am still writing). I was brainstorming moments to explore that happened before the fairy tale we all know, and my mind wandered to the tale of The Ugly Duckling (I like writing animals as main characters!).
We know about that famous duckling, but what led to the ousting of the ugly duckling? What about the rest of the family? What would their voices be like?
And what if most of the siblings actually didn’t care that the “ugly duckling” looked different? What if it were just the voice of one powerful duckling that made all the difference, that sealed the fate of the unsuspecting baby swan?
I love writing characters who say some pretty mean things under the pretense of being kind and gracious, and Gorgeous’s voice and energy immediately came as this newly-hatched, but extremely dominant, duckling with a plot.
Production photos by JCP Images, at the Free Space premier production of The Prettiest Duckling, as part of When Fairy Tales Falter, directed by Nathan Flower and starring Jessica Caputo and Buchanan Highhouse, costume design by Georgia Evans.