‘The Thanksgiving Play’ Kicks Off Ensemble Theatre’s Season
Native American Playwright Larissa FastHorse Portrays Stressed-Out White People Trying to Be Better
Native American playwright Larissa FastHorse was struggling to get her work (about the Native American experience in America) produced due to the lack of Native American actors appropriate for the roles. Committed to telling the stories of her ancestral culture, FastHorse found a loophole — and wrote a play about stressed-out white people who are clumsily trying, in the face of an ugly historical legacy, to be “better.” The resulting comedy, The Thanksgiving Play, is the first production of Ensemble Theatre Company’s 2023-2024 season.
Logan (Devin Sidell) is a high school drama teacher in hot water for producing theatrical material inappropriate for the maturity level of her teenage students. The parents have signed a petition to have her removed, but she has one last chance with a project with the potential to save her job and overhaul her reputation: a Thanksgiving pageant written and performed for local elementary school children. “She’s an artist,” says Sidell. “She loves to create pieces that have an impact. She has a lot at stake, trying to keep her job and create a piece of art that’s appropriate for the time we’re in, that will make the audience think and feel something.”
Logan enlists her boyfriend and a school colleague to help her write and produce her Thanksgiving masterpiece, and these thoughtful, overcompensating, “woke” artists face the challenges of creating a Thanksgiving play that simultaneously honors historical accuracy and pays tribute to Native American Heritage Month. “Hilarity and chaos ensue,” says director Brian McDonald. “These are good, well-meaning people making themselves crazy by trying to be incredibly sensitive and woke and PC. That’s what’s so enjoyable about it. Fun characters that are very likeable. I think anyone who desires to be a better human being in this world is going to recognize that struggle within themselves.”
Experience The Thanksgiving Play October 5-22 at the New Vic Theater (33 W. Victoria St.). See etcsb.org.
Will Block, Devin Sidell, Adam Hagenbuch and Ashley Platz star in the ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY production of “THE THANKSGIVING PLAY,” directed by Brian McDonald and opens on Thursday, October 5 at the NEW VIC THEATRE in Santa Barbara. | Credit: Zach Mendez 
Adam Hagenbuch, Ashley Platz and Will Block star in the ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY production of “THE THANKSGIVING PLAY,” directed by Brian McDonald and opens on Thursday, October 5 at the NEW VIC THEATRE in Santa Barbara. | Credit: Zach Mendez 
Adam Hagenbuch, Will Block and Devin Sidell star in the ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY production of “THE THANKSGIVING PLAY,” directed by Brian McDonald and opens on Thursday, October 5 at the NEW VIC THEATRE in Santa Barbara. | Credit: Zach Mendez 
Devin Sidell and Adam Hagenbuch star in the ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY production of “THE THANKSGIVING PLAY,” directed by Brian McDonald and opens on Thursday, October 5 at the NEW VIC THEATRE in Santa Barbara. | Credit: Zach Mendez
