Ugly Sweater

Synopsis

Act 1:

During the Christmas season of Ruby's senior year, she visits a thrift store with her charismatic best friend, Alice. Alice gifts Ruby an Ugly Sweater they find while shopping.

Strangely, Ruby begins experiencing animated anxiety dreams about college, the high expectations of her parents, and the comparison with her golden-child sister, Leah, while wearing the sweater. This leads her to believe the sweater is to blame for her internal struggles.

Anxiety trickles into her waking life as she falls in love with her doting boyfriend, Blake, leading to a panic attack and a pregnancy scare. Ruby asks her mom to wash the sweater, hoping the cosmically symbolic dreams brought about by the sweater will stop, and her anxiety will be washed away.

After a moment of bliss with her friends at an Ugly Sweater party, Ruby's anxiety heightens again. She becomes consumed by excellence, shifting her childish love of space into an intense academic pursuit of astrophysics. She distances herself from her best friend, Alice, her loving boyfriend, Blake, and her family.

Ruby embarks on her journey to college after being accepted into her dream Ivy League institution, leaving everyone behind.

Act 2:

Ruby returns home for the holidays from college, hoping to see Blake and Alice. However, her prolonged absence and neglectful behavior have caused wounds in their relationships. Recognizing the fractured state of her friendships, Ruby attempts to mend her bond with Alice. To her dismay, Ruby discovers that Blake and Alice are now dating, further intensifying her sense of loss and confusion. With everything changed, Ruby comes to a profound realization: her dream alone lacks the fulfillment it promised without a solid support system by her side.

Ruby's big sister, Leah, also home for the holidays, swoops in with an intimate conversation about balance and how she struggles with the pressure of success as well. Now presented with an opportunity for personal growth, Ruby sets out to heal her relationships with her friends, family, and most importantly, herself.

Ruby decides what the Ugly Sweater revealed to her was actually helpful in finding inner peace, and donates it back to the thrift store, in hopes it can help someone else. She learns the importance of moving on literally and figuratively. Ruby then initiates the family tradition of putting up Christmas decorations. She returns to college with a refreshed sense of identity and purpose.

Through this book-end holiday journey, she learns the value of forgiveness, rest, and her own meaning of success.

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