The Thanksgiving Play

As JAXTON and LOGAN prepare for their big day, LOGAN discovers a small cotton bag.

Is this for me?

JAXON. Happy first day of rehearsal.

Jaxton, you didn’t have to get me anything.

JAXTON. I know this gig is important to you so I want you to have something extra special.

Oh. Wow. It’s great.

JAXTON. It’s a water bottle.

Sure.

JAXTON. It’s made with recycled glass from broken windows in housing projects.

No way? That’s amazing!

JAXTON. I know.

Where did you find it?

JAXTON. At the farmers market. It’s symbolic of the way we’re going to create this play. We start with this pile of jagged facts and misguided governmental policies and historical stereotypes about race then turn all that into something beautiful and dramatic and educational for the kids.

It’s perfect. Thanks for getting me this gig. I’m not going to screw it up.

JAXTON sits and pulls out a wedge of cheese

What’s that?

JAXTON. What’s what?

Is that soy cheese or coagulated cheese squeezed from a cow?

JAXTON. Coagulated. You know I’m a vegan ally, but I’ve come to realize that I like cheese on my crackers.

I already struggle with the holiday of death.

JAXTON. If you’re planning on The Holiday of Death as the title of our Thanksgiving play, you’ll lose your job for sure.

This is far more than a Thanksgiving play no. I got the Race and Gender Equity in History Grant, the Excellence in Education Theater Fellowship, a municipal arts grant, and the Go! Girls! Scholastic Leadership Mentorship.

JAXTON. I know parents, to get them back on your side, you need to kill a turkey.

I’m a vegan.

JAXTON. You’re a teaching artist with a three hundred parent petition to fire you.

I am staying in the positive. This kind of talk isn’t helping.

JAXTON. OK. Sending you nothing but light.

Thank you. I have a surprise too. I also got that Native American Heritage Month Awareness Through Art Grant.

JAXTON. Really?

They gave me funding so I could hire a professional actor.

JAXTON. Finally! Thank y-

And I was able to bring the perfect one to town. She elevates the whole project.

JAXTON. She? Professional actor right here.

Are you, technically? I mean you volunteer for these school plays.J

JAXTON. I get paid for that show at the farmer’s market.

Yeah but you do it on a street corner and get paid in a coffee can.

JAXTON. Exactly.

Jaxton, I value your work, I really do, but this woman is from Los Angeles.

JAXTON. Here we go with Los Angeles again. It’s not the center of the acting world.

It kind of is.

JAXTON. The commercial acting world. Be grateful you didn’t make it there. It shows what kind of person you are.

The kind of person who wasn’t beautiful enough or sexy enough to comete?

JAXTON. Don’t let your head go there Logan.

Well, wait until you see this actor. She’s so beautiful. Cheekbones like glass. So LA.

JAXTON. What is beauty?

A social construct.

JAXTON. That we don’t believe in. We value talent and art, not looks. And you were a talented actress.

Even better, I’m a director now.

But I still let my past in LA color my present, don’t I?

JAXTON. You' can’t reach new lands until you let go of the shore. Or in this case return to old lands, but as a more enlightened person because of the journey to the other land that was new but is now old and needs to be let go of.

Exactly. I think I can be a mentor to this woman. Help her recover from the false value places on her sexuality because I’ve taken that journey. Show her how much more she can be. Thank you for that self awareness.

JAXTON. You are one of the most self aware people I know.

Since knowing you.

JAXTON. I just do my best and hope to Buddha that my karma makes up for the rest of it.

It’s almost time for rehearsal. We should decouple.

JAXTON. Nothing but gender neutral actor, director respect from here on.

I’ll get rid of the cheese.

No, I can handle it.

CADEN. Am I in the right place for rehearsal?

Welcome Mr. Green. I’m Logan, she/her/hers. I’m the director and your fellow collaborator.

CADEN. Please call me Caden. I’m only Mr. Green to my students.

This is Jaxton Smithton, he/him/his. Caden was generously assigned to us by the school district as our history specialist.

CADEN. I took a personal day and saw it at Washington Elementary. I’m a huge fan of your work. (To LOGAN) And I’ve seen every show you’ve directed since you got to Jefferson High. The Iceman Cometh was made so much more relevant with fifteen-year-olds.

I appreciate that.

CADEN. It didn’t deserve to be shut down.

Three hundred parents disagree.

CADEN. I’m especially excited because the email said this is a devised piece. So we’re all contributing, right?

Yes. But as the director I have the final say in the construction.C

CADEN. This is a dream come true for me.

I’m going to rely on you quite a bit. History is not my strength.

We’re waiting on one more actor. Have some refreshments while I text her.

ALICIA. Are you the director?

No, I am.

ALICIA pointedly turns away from CADEN.

We met at your Zoom audition.

ALICIA. I though you were the casting director.

We don’t have casting directors for elementary school shows. I’m the director director.

ALICIA. Oh. I’m Alicia. Alicia.

Yes, I remember. I hired you. I’m Logan, she-

ALICIA. Me?

Her.

ALICIA. Who?

What?

Um. This is Caden and Jaxton.

ALICIA. Where’s my script?

As my email said, we’re devising the piece together. That’s how I work.

ALICIA. I’m an actress.

We work as a team to come up with ideas, try them out, improv some scenes, and then I put the connecting parts together and type it up.

CADEN. The bus itself is literal.

The devising process is meant to empower the actors.

ALICIA. Do I get paid extra for empowerment?

No. But I want you to know that your voice is the most important one in this play. More important than mine. We could not do this without you.

JAXTON. Really?

Absolutely. And personally, I’m here for you.

CADEN. Oh. Yeah.

Anyway, let’s get started.

CADEN. I combed through all of my research from grad school and came up with some ideas. Did my homework.

Let’s start with your research then. Good drama is at its core, truth.

JAXTON. It’s not my place to tell you how to express yourself, but sound waves travel you know.

As our Native American compass, Alicia is allowed to say what she wants about it.

JAXTON. Native American?

I told you we got that grant. To hire the professional actor.

JAXTON. You didn’t say it was for a Native American actor.

It’s the Native American Heritage Month Awareness Through Art Grant. I thought it was implied.

JAXTON. I will.

This is a good time to mention, in the interest of full disclosure, that, especially now, since the tragedy of George Floyd, there are so many factors, including grant and school board requirements, that we need to consider with this piece. Which also means… Thanksgiving. I am a vegan so that subject is especially sensitive for me. However I want to lift up the acknowledgement that although my sensitivity about the slaughter of millions of animals, including forty five million turkeys, is valid, I am conscious of not allowing my personal issues to take up more space in the room than the justified anger of the Native people around this idea of Thanksgiving in our post colonial society. I want to make that crystal clear. Especially for you Alicia.

ALICIA. Um… OK.

If there is anything you want to say on the subject, please know we are holding that space for you.

ALICIA. I’m good right here.

OK. This bit of research is great Caden and helps fulfill my Excellence in Educational Theater Grant. But I wonder if the best place to start a forty five minute Thanksgiving play for elementary school children is four thousand years ago?

ALICIA. I like turtles.

Thanks for lifting up that awareness Jaxton. Coded language is an issue we need to be conscious of, especially when dealing with the next generation.

CADEN. Of course they weren’t called “Native American” then. Coded language, thank you Alicia. We show that both these cultures were already celebrating harvests on both sides of the Atlantic. Two people on a parallel track for centuries before they collided as settlers and Wampanoags. History is so dynamic. I mean it’s really perfect for theater.

Yes. It is. I’m feeling your passion, Caden, and I love that. But here’s the reality, it’s just the three of you.

CADEN. OK

And it’s a school show. Like all the other ones you’ve seen. So… fire won’t fly.

CADEN. Then I’m not clear how you plan to depict anything, even up to the “traditionally” recognized Thanksgiving, since all of their lighting, cooking, and warmth was fire.

We’re going to have to imagine that part.

CADEN. So, we open on the two civilizations having feasts on opposite sides of… the imaginary fire?

Let’s put that in the simmering pot for now.

CADEN. But to make it simmer-

Let’s move forward in history. What can we do to break down the myths and stereotypes of Thanksgiving in forty five minutes with three people? Create a revolution in their minds?

ALICIA. Forty five minutes seems kinda long.

Well, it’s a play. So actually it’s quite short.

ALICIA. But an average show at Disneyland is twenty minutes. That’s what they think kids can handle.

Um, we can consider that point of view but I don’t think Disney-

JAXTON. Mine too.

I hear you Alicia, but the standard commission from this school district is for a forty five minute show, so we should probably trust that they know a little something about children. Even if they do feed them slaughtered flesh and genetically enhanced garbage every day.

ALICIA. I guess.

Caden, what can you tell us about the first recognized Thanksgiving in America?

CADEN. I imagined the third scene three thousand and five hundreds after he first. 

What year?

CADEN. 1565.

That sounds close.

CADEN. That’s just one scene.

The missionaries, Catholicism specifically, are difficult subjects for Indigenous people.

JAXTON. Seriously?

Can we jump ahead to New England?

CADEN. Those that remained, gave thanks.

How is this appropriate for children?

CADEN. The local Indigenous people joined them and caught fish for the feasting.

Fish from the Rio Grande?

CADEN. People in El Paso still celebrate that feast as the first Thanksgiving. Only it’s in April.

Caden, are we getting close to the normal Thanksgiving? The relatively happy one? In November.

CADEN. That’s my next series of proposed scenes. But I warn you, there is drama galore. At least four different dates are vying for the privilege of being “first”. And the reasons behind the feast are incredibly varied. From the gruesome-

Worse than eating fish that ate your drowned friends?

ALICIA. That’s my role.

Alicia, what were you told about the first Thanksgiving in your family?

ALICIA. We just ate food and watched games. We didn’t talk about it much.

Maybe we could do something with that? Use “play” as a universal way to connect with the kids instead of those questionable children’s songs we make them sing every year.

ALICIA. Just the ones that everyone watches.

Right. Is there any chance we could learn about these games with you, as a cast?

CADEN. Mine didn’t.

I can’t believe we did that. Sorry Alicia.

ALICIA. We did do one different thing on Thanksgiving. It came from my mom’s people.

Do you mind sharing it with us?

JAXTON. Like bowling?

With a frozen turkey?

ALICIA. Yeah! That’s what they called it, Frozen Turkey Bowling. It was hilarious. Your hands would be freezing so you’d just chuck the thing and it would go all over the driveway. They call them Butterballs, but they’re not really balls.

This is your family tradition?

ALICIA. My mom grew up in Iowa, so it probably worked better there because it was cold. In LA it would start melting and get all mushy and runny.

Oh my God.

JAXTON. Deep breaths.

We really want to honor your voice and your people’s. What are your people called?

ALICIA. Every actress in LA has different types of shots. My agent told me to.

I wouldn’t do everything your agent says.

ALICIA. He’s my former agent now so I don’t do anything he says. Besides Native Americans like invented turquoise so I don’t see why wearing it in a shot would piss them off. It’s paying them respect.

Them who?

ALICIA. The Native Americans.

But you’re them.

ALICIA. Who?

Native American

ALICIA. I’m English and French and a little Spanish we think.

But I hired you to be the Native American.

ALICIA. Yeah.

But you aren’t?

ALICIA. No.

But you were my cultural compass.

ALICIA. You hired me to be an actress. Don’t worry, I’m gonna act my ass off.

But that’s why your voice was so important.

ALICIA. My voice is the most important. You said so.

Because I thought you were Native American.

ALICIA. Because it’s devised.

But we need a Native American person to do this play. I got a grant.

ALICIA. Look, you hired me off my Native American headshot, so that’s on you. You can’t fire me because of this. It’s a law.

So we’re four white people making a culturally sensitive First Thanksgiving play for Native American Heritage Month? Oh my Goddess.

JAXTON. Do you have any non-Disney references in your life?

I could lose my job over this.

CADEN. I don’t think that Alicia playing Native will be a problem with the school district. There are schools that are nearly all Black, all Hispanic. If they tried to find ethnic-specific roles for everyone to play, they wouldn’t be able to produce anything.

I know about color-blind casting, Caden, I’m the drama teacher. But this is post BLM. And there are grants at stake! A lot of them. The petition! If I’m not a director or an educator or an actress I’m… nothing. I’m-

JAXTON. Lo, stay in this moment.

But this moment sucks! Take five!

JAXTON. I just checked your Native American Heritage Month grant and it doesn’t explicitly say you have to use it for a Native American person.

Really?

JAXTON. As long as we do something honors Native Americans for November, you’re good to keep the money. Problem solved.

That doesn’t seem right. Especially now. Besides I really wanted to have a Native American voice in this play.

JAXTON. Didn’t you check her enrollment card or something?

It’s illegal to ask about ethnic, gender, or religious identification in the hiring process. Which I totally support.

JAXTON. I could tell something was off. She’s not centered enough.

If it’s so important to you, we can add a Native actor. A real one.

She was the only one that applied.

JAXTON. I find it hard to believe that there aren’t any Native American actors around here.

Have you ever seen on? I don’t have the time or resources to go door to door to find one. Alicia cost a lot of money. It’s harder to be a mentor to her than I thought it would be.

JAXTON. She does have a ton of conventional beauty and sex appeal.

Jaxton!