The Thanksgiving Play

Larissa Fasthorse wrote The Thanksgiving Play in 2015 as a response to repeated assertions that her previous plays were unstageable, as they required (often only one) Indigenous actor(s). The satirical comedy about the well-meaning ineptitude of all-white attempts at activism on behalf of Indigenous people has a cast of only four white characters, although Fasthorse does encourage theaters to consider white-passing people of color for the roles. As if to prove Fasthorse’s point, this stunt paid off. In 2017, the play was featured in the top 9% of The Kilroys’ List, which highlights unproduced or underproduced work by women and trans playwrights. The Thanksgiving Play wasn’t Fasthorse’s first play honored by the list, but it was the play that catapulted her into mainstream acclaim, suggesting the longstanding neglect of Indigenous playwrights by the American theater. When the play made its New York debut off-Broadway in 2018, Fasthorse became the first Indigenous American playwright to be produced by Playwrights Horizons, which is one of the most prominent theatrical organizations in the city that focuses on nurturing new playwrights. In 2019, The Thanksgiving Play became the first work by an Indigenous American playwright to make American Theatre’s list of the top 10 most produced plays in the country. In 2023, it became the first play written by an Indigenous American woman to appear on Broadway (and only the second Broadway play by an Indigenous American overall). The play provides a satirical critique of “performative wokeness,” or the practice of signaling one’s virtue rather than participating in more tangible (and less visible or glamorous) activism. It also explores themes of Historical Accuracy and Cultural Memory and Stereotypes and Constructions of Indigeneity.

This guide refers to the acting edition of The Thanksgiving Play published by Samuel French in 2019.

Content Warning: Both the play and this guide contain extensive discussions of anti-Indigenous racism and the genocide of Indigenous Americans, and the play features an episode of anti-Indigenous mock violence and suicide. This guide also reproduces the play’s use of misogynistic and racial slurs only in direct quotations.

Plot Summary

The play takes place in a high school classroom where Logan, the drama teacher, has received several grants to devise a politically correct Thanksgiving play to be performed for elementary students. She has invited her boyfriend, Jaxton, who is a street performer and fancies himself a local celebrity; Caden, an elementary history teacher who has grand aspirations as a playwright; and Alicia, a professional actor who was hired to be the Indigenous voice in the room. Their story plays out in the even-numbered scenes, while the odd-numbered scenes feature examples of traditional Thanksgiving pageant performances inspired by real and recent lesson plans posted online and full of stereotypes of Indigenousness.

The stakes for success are high for Logan, as her job is on the line; a fiasco of a high school production of The Iceman Cometh has hundreds of parents calling for her termination. Logan, who gave up on her dreams of acting after six weeks of living in Los Angeles made her feel too unattractive, believes that she can mentor the beautiful Alicia about putting less stock in her appearance.

Logan emphasizes to Alicia that she wants to empower her as an Indigenous person in the creation of the piece. However, their first rehearsal screeches to a halt when Alicia clarifies that she isn’t Indigenous. She just plays Indigenous characters (as well as other characters of color) due to her ethnically ambiguous appearance. All four of them are, in fact, white people. Logan decides that they must forge ahead since she doesn’t know any Indigenous actors or how to find one. She enlists Caden’s help, and the characters attempt to find a Thanksgiving story that doesn’t include Indigenous Americans, even though one of Logan’s grants is for National Native American Heritage Month Awareness Through Art.

The two men go off to work on an idea that relates to a battle in which the Pilgrims slaughtered hundreds of Indigenous people. Logan works with Alicia. She tries to mentor her, but Logan comes to realize that Alicia’s unreflective mentality allows her to be content, whereas Logan is fraught with stress and overthinking. Logan agrees to let Alicia stick to acting rather than writing. Later, Logan tells Jaxton that Alicia should be mentoring them.

The men return with a gruesome post-battle scene that would certainly lead to Logan being fired. However, Caden has a play’s worth of scenes written. Logan is struck with the idea that they could highlight the absence of Indigenous people via a dinner scene in which the Pilgrims interact with the unoccupied space where Indigenous people should be. Caden resists, as he is determined to hear all his words spoken by actors. This leads to a comical scuffle, which Logan interrupts to exclaim that the empty space in the middle of the stage, where everything is equal and equitable, is their play. Proud of themselves, they end rehearsal. Jaxton comments that they should be doing more of this nothingness, as that is true activism.