THE PRETTIEST DUCKLING
A one-act dark comedy
by
Tara Meddaugh
An adorable duckling plots a not-so-adorable ousting.
"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 Machiavellian scheming."
- Kevin Christopher Snipes, creator of The Two Princes for Gimlet Media and author of Milo and Marcos at the End of the World
“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
DETAILS
Cast: 2 any gender
Age: Tween-young adult
Genre: Dark comedy, heightened, allegory, mean-girl, fairy-tale
Setting: By a pond
Length: 20-25 minutes
Time period: Contemporary
Great for: Due interp, competitions, festivals, high schools, middle schools, colleges, theaters, conversations, fairytale tangential
Click here for a free excerpt or click below for the complete play, THE PRETTIEST DUCKLING.
CLICK HERE for other ANIMAL PLAYS.
CLICK HERE for other SMALL CAST PLAYS.
Photos from premier production by Free Space Theater, as part of When Fairy Tales Falter directed by Nathan Flower, starring Buchanan Highhouse and Jessica Caputo. Photos by JCP Images.
