The Thanksgiving Play / What Would Crazy Horse Do? - by Larissa Fasthorse (Paperback)

About the Book

The author presents two satirical plays that explore the modern-day Native American experience.

Book Synopsis

The Thanksgiving Play

"Satire doesn't get much richer... A takedown of white American mythology... The familiar, whitewashed story of Pilgrims and Native Americans chowing down together gets a delicious roasting." --Jesse Green, New York Times

"Wryly funny... Deftly makes points that need making about representation and, to borrow a line from Hamilton, the crucial matter of 'who tells your story.'" --Don Aucoin, Boston Globe

A group of well-intentioned white teaching artists scramble to create an ambitious "woke" Thanksgiving pageant. Despite their eager efforts to put on the most culturally sensitive show possible, it quickly becomes clear that even those with good intentions can be undone by their own blind spots.

What Would Crazy Horse Do?

"A nuanced portrait of reservation life... A scalding cauldron of race and resentment, poverty, and mental illness." --Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star

"A timely meditation on the dangers of nationalism tinged with a sad irony as seen through the filter of a Native American lens." --Alan Portner, Broadway World

Twins Calvin and Journey, the last two members of the Marahotah tribe, make a suicide pact to end the Marahotah when the grandfather who raised them dies. Then two white strangers knock on their door and the insular world of the twins is ripped wide open.

Review Quotes

"A scalding cauldron of race and resentment, poverty and mental illness."-- "Kansas City Star on What Would Crazy Horse Do?"

"The familiar, whitewashed story of Pilgrims and Native Americans chowing down together gets a delicious roasting from expert farceurs."--Jesse Green "The New York Times on The Thanksgiving Play"

"Very, very funny... something for which to be truly thankful."--Frank Schneck "The Hollywood Reporter on The Thanksgiving Play"

"A scalding cauldron of race and resentment, poverty and mental illness."

"The familiar, whitewashed story of Pilgrims and Native Americans chowing down together gets a delicious roasting from expert farceurs."

"Very, very funny... something for which to be truly thankful."

About the Author

Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation) is a writer/choreographer, and co-founder of Indigenous Direction, the nation's leading consulting company for Indigenous arts and audiences, which recently produced the first land acknowledgment on national television for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. Larissa is the first Native American playwright in the history of American theater to have a play on the top ten most-produced list, with The Thanksgiving Play. Larissa is the recipient of numerous awards, including a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. She is working on film and television projects with Disney, NBC, and DreamWorks. She lives in Santa Monica with her husband, the sculptor Edd Hogan.