Given a finite $p$-group $G$ acting on a smooth projective curve $X$ over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p$, the dimension of the tangent space of the associated equivariant deformation functor is equal to the dimension of the space of coinvariants of $G$ acting on the space $V$ of global holomorphic quadratic differentials on $X$. We apply known results about the Galois module structure of Riemann-Roch spaces to compute this dimension when $G$ is cyclic or when the action of $G$ on $X$ is weakly...