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COOS BAY — With great beauty comes great license to act like a jerk.

Royalty, likewise, carries its own get-out-of-jail-free card.

For families raising a beautiful princess, this can be a double whammy that creates a “mean girl” monster.

In “The Ugly Duckling,” a short play by “Winnie the Pooh” author A.A. Milne, a mystical godmother/aunt devises a scheme to help her niece grow up with character, despite another aunt having bestowed the gift of beauty on her: The girl’s beauty shall remain hidden until she’s married.

Like King Arthur learning the value of equality by growing up a commoner, the princess will be protected from popularity-fueled arrogance, for the duration of her formative years, by her ugliness. Then, when she finds the right person, the first aunt’s gift can safely arrive, like an unexpected Christmas present.

Less than a week before Thanksgiving, Marshfield High School presents a collection of six one-act plays, tied together by the holidays that come before and after this one: Halloween and Christmas.

“The first three plays are all sort of Halloweenish, and the second half has a Christmas/romance theme,” director Erika Meidl said.

Only the final play, “The Gift of the Magi,” is linked explicitly to one of the holidays, but “The Maker of Dreams” and “The Ugly Duckling” similarly use the idea of romance as a gift, and the first half is full of death and horror.

‘The Lottery’

It’s an annual ritual that brings together residents of a small farming community, though they’re unfailingly vague on what the tradition is about. In the opening scene, when two boys (Wyatt Gieselman and Esteban Lugo) pick up balls of paper wadded around the ground, it helps to know that the paper balls are supposed to be rocks.

Groups of men (Joel Griffin, Bret Bynum and Joe Wilson) and women (Alyson Marshall, Jacqui Sneddon, Megan Gray, Jordan Edwards and Vanessa Brum) discuss how things are going to change with the pending lottery as they wait for the man who runs it, Joe Summers (Brady Esch), to arrive. His sister Belva (Jen Andrew) comments that many of the younger residents don’t really understand the tradition, which Old Man Warner (Josh Carter) says has something to do with ensuring the corn harvest.

Mr. Hutchinson (Zach Jones), bringing his 6-year-old son Davey (Connor Bryant) to the proceedings, notices that his wife, Tessie (Courtney Henry), is the last to arrive. While the other townsfolk appear to take the onset of the lottery in stride, Tessie is clearly shaken by it, having told Davey to hide at home and noting the number of nearby towns that have abandoned the tradition.

As the lottery unfolds, she grows increasingly agitated, until it becomes clear she has plenty reason to be afraid.

‘Sorry, Wrong Number’

After intercepting a phone conversation between two men plotting a murder, an old, bedridden woman, Mrs. Stevenson (Edwards), becomes frightened and does all she can to stop the murder through the only means she has available: her telephone. Pestering anyone she can get on the line, she brings the matter to the attention of an operator (Chelsee Bright) and several other phone company and police department employees, only to be repeatedly dismissed. As she relays what she knows about the case, she realizes she’s a match for the profile of the victim and shifts her focus to getting protection.

‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’

On his wedding day, a state senator in antebellum New Hampshire, Jabez Stone (Esch) comes to terms with the secret that took him from a barren field to success in farming, politics and life, culminating in his wedding to Mary (Henry), attended by distinguished guest Daniel Webster (Jones), New Hampshire’s U.S. senator. Ten years prior, Jabez sold his soul to the Devil (Davien Carter), who has come to collect.

Though Jabez is resigned to accepting his consequences, Mary’s insistence on finding a way out prompts Webster to take the case. The plaintiff, who goes by the name Scratch, summons a judge (Josh Carter) and jury from the netherworld.

Webster argues an American can’t be held subject to a foreign prince; citing slavery and the treatment of the Indians, Scratch assures him that Darkness is every bit American. Besides, the openly biased zombie jurors continuously remind him that the conclusion is foregone.

Despite the preponderance of characters who come from hell, the play is mild, especially compared to the evil demonstrated in “The Lottery.” Eventually, a lighter ending paves the transition to the second half.

‘The Maker of Dreams’

Practical Pierrette (Melissa Childs) nurses a crush on idealistic Pierrot (Bryant), her partner in a musical act, until a mystical visitor (Noelle Novotny) comes to make both their dreams come true.

Also in the second half, a princess (Novotny) finds her prince (Wilson) in “The Ugly Duckling,” and a couple (Childs, Carter) sacrifice prized possessions to buy gifts for each other in “The Gift of the Magi.”