'The Thanksgiving Play'

Perseverance Theatre, based in Juneau, brought their showing of The Thanksgiving Play to Anchorage. Written by Larissa FastHorse, the production was directed by Frank Henry Kaash Katasse. The show ran from April 4 to 13 at the UAA Fine Arts Building Mainstage.

“The Thanksgiving Play” is a satirical comedy about a group of white theater actors attempting to make a culturally sensitive Thanksgiving play. The play is a critique of virtue signaling, and does not shy away from being blunt or vulgar during the performance.

A unique element of the show were the cutaways from the main cast to prerecorded videos. The show features a few of these cutaways, with young children singing “Thanksgiving songs” inspired by real lesson plans from educators in the United States. 

These songs are problematic, serving to reinforce stereotypes about the Indigenous peoples of America.

The show began with a cutaway then moved to introduce Logan and Jaxton, two of the four main characters. 

Logan was a vegan high school performing arts teacher and had over 300 parents petitioning for her dismissal following a disastrous play. 

Jaxton is a straight, white, male, yoga instructor, Logan’s boyfriend and concerned with the political correctness of those involved with the production.

Attempting to salvage Logan’s reputation — and hopefully keep her job — she and Jaxton aim to create a culturally sensitive play about the First Thanksgiving. To fund the production of the play, Logan applied for a diverse spread of grants. 

The most notable grant was the “National Native American Heritage Month Awareness Through Art” grant, which required Indigenous representation in the play. 

Since both Logan and Jaxton are white, Logan hired Alicia to bring an “Indigenous voice” to the play. Alicia was an actress who is portrayed as fairly absent-minded. Logan also hires Caden, a history teacher who aspires to be a playwright, to preserve the historical accuracy of the play.

As the four main cast members settle into their roles, tensions arise. 

A committed vegan, Logan had several moments in the play where she expressed disgust at the tradition of serving turkeys on Thanksgiving.

Jaxton and Caden were both attracted to Alicia, who is a stereotypically attractive Los Angeles actress. 

Jaxton wanted to be the leading actor in the production but was frustrated when Alicia was cast by Logan as the leading actress to promote her “Indigenous voice.”

Caden was upset with the historical accuracy of the play and for wanting the group to use the script he wrote.

As the group comes together, it was revealed that Alicia is not an Indigenous person. Instead, her agent had her take photos portraying various ethnicities, and Logan selected her based on the photo where she “dressed Indigenous.”

Logan and Jaxton claimed to not know any Indigenous actors, and said they cannot be expected to knock on doors to find one. This common claim by professionals in theater was the inspiration for FastHorse to write the play, according to an interview with NPR. 

Instead, the group aims to rewrite the play without including any Indigenous people in it to avoid wearing “redface” while still being “culturally sensitive.”

The group splits up to speed up production. Caden and Jaxton attempt to write a war scene while Logan tries to break through to Alicia and convince her that beauty is internal.

When the groups come back together, everything becomes even more chaotic. Logan is unsuccessful in changing Alicia’s perspective. Instead, Alicia convinces Logan to apply makeup on herself to be more “conventionally attractive.” 

Caden and Jaxton put together a war scene involving the severed heads of Indigenous people. They act this scene out with Alicia, who uses one of the heads as a bowling ball. 

Appalled by the other three actors, Logan stops the group to have them improvise a more “wholesome” scene for the First Thanksgiving. In the first improvised performance, Logan voices Chief Massasoit and Samoset while the others play colonizers.

On the second improvisation, Logan did not voice the Indigenous leaders. This led Jaxton to claim that not including the voice of Indigenous actors actually makes the play unequal for white people as the absence of voice had “too much weight.”

As the actors poke at each other, a fight erupts. Logan tells them all to stop and look at the empty middle of the room. It is this empty space that the group determines is “equal” to all ethnicities. 

The conflict is then resolved, and the actors come to the conclusion they will be part of the solution if they simply do nothing.

“The Thanksgiving Play” will have you howling with laughter the whole way through, and that is its intent. By making the audience laugh at the satirical nature of the events taking place, audience members are more likely to walk away from the play reflecting on their own behavior.