“For now we gotta zero in on a compelling story,
then we’ll put all the facts in that you think we need, OK?”
Production Sponsor: Tri-M Foundation
The Thanksgiving Play
by Larissa FastHorse
directed by Artistic Director, Philip Lehl
March 8 - March 24, 2024
Director Sponsor: John E. Drewer and David A. Jaqua
Opening Night Sponsor: Carol Sugimoto and Jim Zimmerman
An elementary school teacher assembles a group of four well-meaning white creatives to write and produce a Thanksgiving play that is both historically accurate and culturally sensitive. However, their attempts to do so are repeatedly foiled by their own ignorance and lack of understanding of Native American culture and history.
Hilarious and timely, THE THANKSGIVING PLAY exposes the absurdity of well-intentioned attempts to address cultural sensitivity and diversity.
"Satire doesn't get much richer than [this]." -The New York Times
"Uproarious, clever, and very, very funny." -Hollywood Reporter
SPECIAL PERFORMANCES:
Thursday, March 7 | 7:30PM
PREVIEW PERFORMANCE
Friday, March 8 | 7:30PM
OPENING NIGHT
Sunday, March 17 | 3PM
OPEN-CAPTIONING & POST-SHOW ACTOR TALKBACK
Monday, March 18 | 7:30PM
PAY-WHAT-YOU-WILL
CAST
Logan
FAITH FOSSETT
Jaxton
BRANDON HEARNSBERGER
Caden
SANTRY RUSH
Alicia
ALICIA BEARD
CREATIVE TEAM
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Kirk Domer | Set Design
Alan Gonzalez | Costume Design
Rosa Cano | Lighting Design
Robert Leslie Meek | Sound Design
Kalin Menzel | Production Stage Manager
Frankie Outlaw | Properties Design
Bob Beathard | Assistant Director
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Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation) is a 2020 MacArthur Fellow, award winning writer/choreographer, and co-founder of Indigenous Direction, the nation’s leading consulting company for Indigenous arts and audiences. Her satirical comedy, The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons/Geffen Playhouse), is one of the top ten most produced plays in America this season. She is the first Native American playwright in the history of American theater on that list. Additional produced plays include What Would Crazy Horse Do? (KCRep), Landless and Cow Pie Bingo (AlterTheater), Average Family (Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis), Teaching Disco Squaredancing to Our Elders: a Class Presentation (Native Voices at the Autry), Vanishing Point (Eagle Project), and Cherokee Family Reunion (Mountainside Theater).
Over the past several years Larissa has created a nationally recognized trilogy of community engaged plays with Cornerstone Theater Company. The first was Urban Rez, the second project, Native Nation, was the largest Indigenous theater production in the history of American theater with over 400 Native artists involved in the productions in association with ASU Gammage. Their current project, The L/D/Nakota Project is set in Larissa’s homelands of South Dakota. Her radical inclusion process with Indigenous tribes has been honored with the most prestigious national arts funding from MacArthur, Creative Capital, MAP Fund, NEFA, First People’s Fund, the NEA Our Town Grant, Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and others.
(For the full biography, visit hoganhorsestudio.com)
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View the digital show program at this link.