A-State’s theatre program returned to the stage this past weekend with “The Thanksgiving Play.” 

“The Thanksgiving Play” is a satirical comedy that focuses on a group of well-intentioned educators trying to write Thanksgiving pageants without any Native American representation, but they get trapped in a loop of political correctness, being socially aware and trying to do what they believe is ‘the right thing.’ 

After reading the play three or four times, Dallas Martinez, the show’s director, began developing a directorial concept to guide him and the designers toward what they wanted to achieve with this show. 

“This one is just like ‘escape room of good intentions.’ They’re just trying to find a way out, but they can’t, all based on one another and their political correctness, and trying to be socially aware, and it just seems to be a never-ending trap,” Martinez said. “So, let’s play into that. They’re literally confined, entrapped if you will, in this classroom that we’ve created, and it’ll be a neat experience for the audience, because I’m not sure the last time we’ve done it in the round.”

Joanna Crites plays Logan, a drama teacher and director who wants to put on a Thanksgiving play at her school. 

This production will be Crites’ first time playing a lead role in an A-State production. She has played an ensemble-focused role in a previous A-State production.

“I think every show is very different; there’s really no comparing one show to another in my mind. I think that every cast and every crew, every director is different, and there’s just so much to love about each experience that I get to have,” Crites, a junior general studies major from Alma, Arkansas, said.

With the help of her boyfriend, Jaxton, played by Zane Brewer, and history teacher Caden, played by Nico Stark, who is helping maintain historical accuracy, all they need is someone to play a Native American.

Alicia, played by Kamyron Lefebvre, is hired as their Native American representative, but it later turns out she is not Native at all and portrays many different ethnicities to book roles. Now the four have to come up with a way to tell the Thanksgiving story as four white people. 

The production takes place in the Black Box Simpson Theater, where the audience is very close to all sides of the stage. While the Simpson Theater is used once almost every season, it has not been set up in this style in the past four seasons. 

Brewer has been in four A-State productions in the past, but this will be his first in the Simpson Theater.

“The audience is always going to see you. So it’s thinking about all sides at all times. Making sure you’re sharing the love with everybody. So I think getting to do such an intimate show in this immersive setting has been my favorite,” Brewer, a senior theater major from Conway, Arkansas, said. 

Martinez and the actors really play on the idea of how far to the left you can be before it starts getting ridiculous. The show is full of humorous lines generated from how politically correct the characters try to be. 

Logan delivers most of these lines, whether it’s referring to Thanksgiving as ‘the holiday of death,’ or showing her exasperation by saying ‘oh my goddess.’ 

But she’s not the only one. Jaxton also has more than a few moments that had the audience laughing.

The four realize they cannot play Native Americans, resulting in chaos as they scramble to tell the story of the first Thanksgiving with zero Native American representation.

Nothing can prepare the audience for what they come up with in the end. 

“We need an audience, because I’ve seen it. I’ve laughed. I know the jokes. I know the lines, you know what I mean? So we need people to be in there,” Martinez said. 

There will be three more performances, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, in the Simpson Theater. 

Categories: Life