“The Thanksgiving Play,” by Springs Ensemble Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Nov. 17-24, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18-24, The Fifty-Niner Speakeasy, 2409 W. Colorado medium, between $15 and $25; 719-357-3080, springsensembletheatre.org.
The first Thanksgiving did not look like what is described in the history books.
Native American playwright Larissa Fasthorse delves into tradition and truth with her satirical show “The Thanksgiving Play.” Springs Ensemble Theater will open the production Thursday at The Fifty-Niner Speakeasy. It will run until November 24.
“When you think about the real first Thanksgiving story, it’s not appropriate for children. “It’s scary and sad,” said director Kate Hertz. “We have romanticized a vision of what pilgrims and natives were like sitting around a table, but that didn’t really happen.”
Logan, a high school drama teacher, is tasked with writing and producing a first Thanksgiving play that is appropriate for children and also historically accurate and culturally sensitive. She is joined by her partner, a hippie actor; an elementary school history teacher who acts as a history consultant, but secretly dreams of being an actor; and an actress from Los Angeles, hired because she looked Native American in her headshot, but who looks completely different when she appears.
“These are white people trying their best and, for the most part, they mean well,” Hertz said. “It’s funny to see them stumble and make mistakes because they’re not handling this the best way. Very chaotic things happen when they try to portray history without having enough knowledge.”
First-time director Hertz was drawn to the play because of the characters’ awkward and embarrassing words.
“I can’t believe they said that,” he said. “Also, I’m a person of color who operates in a lot of artistic spaces, and these characters are definitely larger than life and exaggerated, but true to life in many ways. When I read the script I thought someone had told me exactly that. “I was relating to the source material.”
‘ This article may contain information published by third parties, some details of this article were extracted from the following source: gazette.com ‘
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