Submitted by the John Glenn Middle School Performing Arts Department
HONK! JR., a musical retelling of the Ugly Duckling fairy tale, will be presented by the John Glenn Middle School Performing Arts Department on April 5 through 7 in the JGMS Auditorium.
The musical takes audiences down on the farm for “A Poultry Tale,” where we meet the residents of a small duckyard. Mama Ida and her ne’er-do-well husband, Drake, eagerly await the hatching of their new brood of ducklings.
But one duckling—nicknamed Ugly by his siblings—is, well, different from the rest. Ida is devoted to her unusual son, but the rest of the duckyard doesn’t know what to make of him.
Ugly’s search for acceptance leads him to seek help from a squadron of flying geese; a chummy bullfrog and his froglet backup dancers; and a cat who pretends to be his friend, but really has more nefarious plans in mind.
The cast and crew have been working hard since January to bring the show to life. Just over one hundred middle schoolers are involved in the production, both on stage and behind the scenes.
Sixth-grader Cate Galante leads the cast as Ugly, with eighth graders Molly Goldfarb and George Rackey as Ida and Drake. Ellie Mitchell is the villainous Cat, while Kai Etringer and Sophia Mola play the military geese, Greylag and Dot, and Tyler Rauch is the Bullfrog. More than fifty other students make up the rest of the cast, as ducks, hens, geese, quails, frogs, snowflake dancers, and even a turkey.
The crew is led by co-stage managers Hugh Gilroy and Nicholas Guetersloh, with Suzie Marcus and Annie Bernstein co-managing lights and Quinn Ricci managing sound. Astrid Yerardi manages the props crew, while Kathrine Surgay manages costumes. Twenty-eight more students round out the various crews backstage and in the booth.
Performing arts teacher Amy Budka directs the production, assisted by science teacher Barbara Ferri and SPED teacher Marlee Cassell. Linda Aiken serves as music director and JGMS parent/GrooveWrx founder Jennifer Buckley is the choreographer.
Performances run Thursday and Friday, April 5 and 6, at 7:00 pm; and Saturday, April 7, at 6:00 pm. An invitation-only sensory-friendly show will be held on Tuesday, April 3, at 4:00 pm; please contact Lariza Panagiotou at [email protected] for information. Reserved tickets for the evening performances are $11 per person and available for purchase through https://www.showtix4u.com/ (search for “Bedford” or “Honk”). The show is appropriate for all ages and will run approximately one hour and 45 minutes, including intermission.
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