My trip to New York last December missed Larissa FastHorse‘s THE THANKSGIVING PLAY at Playwrights Horizons by less than a week, and I was pretty sad about that. I'd heard the play and the production were both amazing, but there was nothing to do about it but wait until either the play was published OR time machines became available for general consumer use (and were affordable, am I right?)… BUT THEN, American Theatre published FastHorse's play in their February issue and my need for time travel lessened considerably.
All week I've been trying to read this play, as my kids took turns being incredibly sick (my son ended up in the ER on his birthday with a temp over 103, the flu, AND strep throat), my husband was out of town, and then we had this gnarly huge snow day! It took everything in my being just to (barely) keep up with deadlines and feeding myself. All week, the February issue, with THE THANKSGIVING PLAY has been teasing me from out of the corner of my eye, knowing how much I wanted to read that play! Anyway, last night, I decided to stay up way past my bedtime and give it a read. AND I AM SO GLAD I DID!
THE THANKSGIVING PLAY by Larissa FastHorse is hilarious and contains wonderful and biting criticism from start to end. Reading the script, of course, only made me wish to see a fully produced version even more. But I have high hopes… It's a play that should be going up and filling up theatres across the country. It's a slam dunk holiday play that will make you laugh AND think, which is kind of the holy grail of plays, let alone holiday entertainment.
So Salt Lake! Or San Francisco or San Diego!… I can be flexible, but let's make this happen. Produce this play this coming Thanksgiving for me and for your audiences. You will not regret it. And, if you're looking to read this fantastic new play, go get yourself the February issue of American Theatre!
Happy Saturday! Here's to hoping next week is better than this one.