Ugly

I now realize that this title may be a bit misleading. You probably thought it was about how we perceive beauty in our society this day in age, which is important, but not quite what I'm writing about today. I'm writing about a character in the show Honk! that I'm currently in.

Honk! is the musical adaptation of the Ugly Duckling. That's fancy for saying: The Ugly Duckling with music. It's a terribly funny show but it has a big takeaway at the end that you start to feel towards the middle.

Backstory time:

Before I was cast, I didn't know what Honk was and I hadn't read the Ugly Duckling in a while, so I did some research. It seemed like there was a lot of controversy about how the story's bad for kids because Ugly isn't actually a duck. He's a molting swan the entire time- and then he goes through the change to be a beautiful swan- but humans are either "pretty or ugly" their entire lives. Not quite the message we want to plant in our kids minds. It's depressing and doesn't leave hope for the rest of us.

Allow me to set the story real quick.

In the last song the cast sings, and to Ugly- who **SPOILER ALERT** is now a swan- the last lyrics are:

Now that you're back on the lake, promise you won't leave, your examples there to take

((Then to the audience))

Just belive in yourself, don't be left on the shelf, feeling that all hope is dead and gone- and you may find in your own way, you're a swan.

I think that's pretty uplifting. They're saying- don't be afraid to be you, because if you think you're "ugly", it's just a phase and you'll get through it. And maybe you'll find that you were just a molting swan the entire time.

Regardless if you're a swan or not, I think we all have something special we bring to the table, and that shouldn't be disregarded.

Until next time,

Emma