Reviews
The Thanksgiving Play
by Larissa FastHorse
November 29-December 16, 2023
Run Time: ~90 minutes
Rib-tickling satire hits all the right notes (and some wrong ones)! Feast on offensive (but hilarious) Thanksgiving songs as this Holiday story skewers political correctness, social wokeness, and cultural stereotypes. A high school drama teacher stirs up trouble when she hires an elementary school teacher, an actress, and her yogi boyfriend to cook up a culturally sensitive play. Will a pageant about the first Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month save her teaching career? Pull up a chair!
Reviews:
“Very, very funny. Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play skewers liberal pretensions with glee – this clever satire is something for which to be truly thankful.”
–Hollywood Reporter
“FastHorse effectively roasts her characters as turkeys, trussed by their own self-consciousness. In a swift 90 minutes, The Thanksgiving Play delivers solid laughs at the expense of targets that are admittedly, at this point, not unfamiliar: clueless liberals so busy holding space that they don’t get around to filling it with anything. What the play doesn’t do is provide much sense of a better solution to the questions that its hapless theater folks are stultified by. This absence leaves you with a question, at the end, that is double-edged: Where the representation of identity and history are concerned, is nothing good enough?”
–Adam Feldman, Time Out New York
“…by the time the bloody tale of the Pequot massacre is enacted onstage, you may find yourself agreeing with Logan, of all people. Being a vegan, she already struggles with the “holiday of death”; I wanted to disown it entirely, from the turkeys all the way back to the Pilgrims. But The Thanksgiving Play is not primarily a brief for correcting American history. Like Tracy Letts’s The Minutes, which also uncovered a horrific massacre hiding in the clothing of civic pageantry, FastHorse is interested in how new information (new only to some people) might change the stories we tell in the future. The first step, to judge by the absurd crew onstage, will be to change the storytellers. FastHorse being the first Native American woman known to have a play produced on Broadway, maybe we’ve finally started.”
–Jesse Green, The New York Times
3 SHOW PASS
SINGLE
TICKETS
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CAST
Jaime is an actor, director, puppeteer, and movement/fight director. After receiving her BA in Theatre Arts from Boise State University, Jaime spent the next ten years building a new company, HomeGrown Theatre, alongside Artistic Director Chad Shohet. HGT was monumental in her growth as an artist. It’s the place where she learned to wear the many hats she does. At HGT, failure wasn’t feared, and risk was celebrated. Aside from the dozens of times, she performed with HomeGrown, she has been on stage with Alley Repertory Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theater, and is thrilled to be returning to Boise Contemporary Theater for her third production with the company. Some favorites have been: Julius Caesar and Hamlet (ISF Shakespearience), Abram, Romeo and Juliet (ISF and GLT), Quincy/Lisa, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play and Dunn, Men on Boats (HGT), Celeste, Every Man Shift (For All the Rest) (an HGT Original Production) and Gibbons, Rabbit/Moon (BCT world premiere). Jaime is committed to making theatre that creates an opportunity for humans to grow closer to themselves, to question their beliefs, shift their perspectives, and increase their empathy, making this world a better place.
Jon is honored to be returning to the stage after a brief hiatus. He is thrilled to make his debut with BCT! After graduating from Juilliard, he longed for the loving embrace of nature and found his way back home to Kentucky. There, his passion for Shakespeare blossomed with The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, where he played Hamlet in Hamlet, Macbeth in Macbeth, and Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love. He has appeared on screen in Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Turn: Washington Spies, The Good Wife, and the unreleased film M30 Oxy. Jon would like to dedicate his performance to the memory of his father, who taught his son to always say yes to adventure.
Claire Blackwelder, AEA, is thrilled to be returning home for her second show at BCT. Born in Boise and raised outside DC, she spent several years in the LA TV and theater scene before heading east to DC and New York, where she currently resides. Regional theater credits include The Christians (BCT), Holiday (Arena Stage), The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare Theatre Co.), Disposable Necessities (Rogue Machine – world premiere), IT (Rockwell Table & Stage – Ovation Award), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatricum Botanicum), and The Brat Pack (For The Record Live). TV and Film credits include Hillhead, Her Worst Nightmare (Lifetime), and two seasons of Power Rangers Dino Charge (Nickelodeon – series regular). She has worked as a Teaching Artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Co. and has performed as a professional vocalist at a variety of venues, including the Hollywood Bowl and SoHo House. She received a BA in Theatre from USC and an MFA from The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at GWU. Enormous thank you to the whole Blackwelder-Hennessey-Goebel-Erstad crew! Instagram: @claiblackwelder
Nick Jordan is thrilled to be joining The BCT Family and this brilliant cast in Larissa FastHorse’s hilarious comedy of cringe. Selected Theater Credits: Dracula in Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy (Actors Theater of Louisville); Citizen Wong (Pan Asian Repertory Theater); Incident at Hidden Temple (Theatre Row); Powerhouse (A.R.T. New York). Film: “Mystic Christmas” (Hallmark); “Come Find Me” (Amazon); “The Night Nurse” (ALTER). On the small screen, Jordan has been seen opposite Kevin Bacon in Showtime’s “City on a Hill,” and he stars in the award-winning cop drama “The System.” Jordan received a Best Actor Award nomination for his work in the Midtown International Theater’s In the Shadow of a Dream. When offstage, Jordan enjoys playing tag with his Catahoula Jackson and running tabletop role-playing games. He would like to dedicate his performance to his grandfather and best friend, Robert Jordan, who he knows is with him in spirit. Left hand high. www.thenickjordan.com
Production and Design Team
Director – Jennifer Pennington
Stage Manager – Rachel Kaufman*
Asst. Stage Manager – Kelly Jean Edwards
Costume Designer – Darrin Pufall Purdy
Scenic Designer – Sam Flynn
Lighting Designer, Master Electrician, Light Board Op – Akincana Webb
Sound Designer – Peter John Still
Sound Engineer & Board Op – Brayden Buckley
Props Artisan & Scenic Painter – Lily Kennedy
Carpenters – Duane Brensinger and Nicholas Jules Hewitt
* = Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Show Times
Wednesday & Thursday – 7:00 pm
Friday & Saturday – 8:00 pm
Saturday Matinee – 2:00 pm
Special Performance Dates
Preview Nights:
Wed, Nov 29, 2023 – Fri, Dec 1, 2023
Pay What You Want Night:
Wed, Nov 29, 2023
Opening Night:
Sat, Dec 2, 2023
Educators’ Night:
Wed, Dec 6, 2023
First Thursday Happy Hour:
5:30-6:30 pm, Thu, Dec 7, 2023
Post-Show Convo:
Sat, Dec 9, 2023, & Fri, Dec 15, 2023
Closing Night:
Sat, Dec 16, 2023
Content and Stage Effects Advisory
BCT does not proactively offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person.
If you have any questions about content, age-appropriateness or stage effects (such as strobe lights or theatrical fog) that might have a bearing on patron comfort, please contact the box office at 208.331.9224 or boxoffice@bctheater.org.
Ticket Prices
Preview Performances
(First Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday prior to Opening Night)
All Seats – $28
Regular Performances
Section A – $45
Section B – $38
Section C – $32
Student Tickets
As part of our commitment to keeping theater accessible to everyone, we will continue to offer discounted student tickets to anyone with a valid Student ID. Student tickets are valid in any available seating area.
All Seats – $15
*Prices do not include applicable taxes and fees.
Seating Map
Seating prices are based
on where you sit.
Seats are divided into 4 sections:
Section A, Section B, Section C,
and the BCT BOX.
All seating prices will be based on the Section where your tickets are located regardless of day.
Click on the seating chart below to see the seating sections.
*Preview performances and student tickets are priced at a single discounted rate and not seated according to section.