A World Premiere Table | Room | Stage Commission
The Thanksgiving Play
April 1 - April 30, 2018
Morrison Stage
By Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota)
Directed by Luan Schooler
A group of mismatched teachers and actors have been charged by the school district to devise an ethnically sensitive play to somehow celebrate both Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month. In order to be as respectful and accurate as possible, the three white actors defer to the only Native American in the room for guidance and find their expectations of her insights are wildly misguided. In this wickedly funny satire, this foursome must find their way through a hilarious thicket of assumptions, historical perspectives and school district policies as the absurd pageant must go on!
- Provocative Satire
- Multiple Fellowship and Award-winning playwright
- PEN USA Literary Award for Drama
- TABLE|ROOM|STAGE commission
Teacher Resources
STUDY GUIDE! Download it here.
Press
“A razor-sharp spoof of progressive pretense that shows how people can convince themselves that they are doing good by doing nothing at all…”
“…a hilarious illustration of the ineffectiveness of good intentions.”
“…funny, biting, and often much closer to the truth than it’s comfortable to admit.”
“Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, is a beautiful skewering of sanctimonious, upper middle-class white guilt.”
“FastHorse pokes fun at what we might call (to employ the horrid term currently in fashion) the burden of the ‘woke.'”
“The actors are all spot-on in their performances…”
“To do satire well is a balancing act. Many things can go terribly wrong. Rest assured, FastHorse hits the bull’s eye every time she takes aim.”
“This doesn’t happen every season: In Oregon this April, you can see three new plays by Native women produced at major resident theatres.”
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