1. When reading this play, I couldn’t really hear the humor at the beginning.

I thought of each of the

characters as caricatures of some stereotypes I would commonly see in TV shows or movies. For
example, when Logan says, “Is that soy cheese or coagulated cheese squeezed from a cow?”, I heard it
in the tone of a person who vehemently argues for veganism in a very rude or stuck-up manner almost.
However, as I read more, I could begin to hear the humor when Alicia was introduced and in Scene Two,
she says, “Have you ever taken a bus? It’s impossible. I mean literally, it is not possible.” I began to
compare the characters to the regular TV tropes I encounter and I could start hearing the humor.
Overall, I felt like it wasn’t too hard to read

2. I thought that the songs added to the satirical comedic nature of the play. The songs were about the
traditions and history of Thanksgiving, except that they were retold in a satirical. For example, the song
in Scene Three depicts the act of killing three turkeys after they were dreading the coming of
Thanksgiving. I thought this song was a good addition because of how sudden the turkey’s killings were.
I thought it would have been dragged out longer, but the sudden nature of how the turkeys were killed
was really unexpected and made me laugh.

3. I think the play is about making fun of the extreme lengths people can go to try and celebrate racially
sensitive holidays, using Native American Heritage Month and Thanksgiving as a prime example. The
emphasis on having a Native American actress for this play was a big plot point and led to the characters
scrambling to celebrate both holidays without having Native American characters in the play, which was
not normal since most Thanksgiving plays would include them. This led to the ending of this play, which I
thought was really funny and ridiculous because of their solution. To me, it also sent the message that
you don’t really need to do anything big to celebrate the holidays. The audience I think would have a
similar response to mine because of the irony of the ending. It turned out that the best Thanksgiving
play was to not have one at all.

4. 1. The revelation that Alicia was not a Native American actress was a big point of conflict

2. When the characters decide to scrap Caden’s script and go with miming the play out instead

3. Logan’s inner conflict of learning how to be content

5. I learned how involved she was in the process of creating all the aspects of the play, but also how she
let her colleagues express themselves because they also empower her to become a better playwright. I
also drew some parallels between Logan and Larissa Fasthorse because they both have similar
backgrounds. They both started in TV and film in L.A. but moved on to theater. This tells me that The
Thanksgiving Play also has aspects of Fasthorse’s past experiences of becoming a known playwright.