A number of alumni appear in The Thanksgiving Play, a production which marks the debut of the Davis Repertory Theatre on Nov. 13 and 14 at 2 p.m. in the Village Homes Amphitheatre, 2655 Portage Bay East in Davis. 

Ryan Gerberding (B.A., theatre and dance, ‘18), Jennifer Bateman Grace (M.F.A, dramatic art, ‘21) and Lucas Hatton (M.F.A., dramatic art, ‘17) appear in the production which honors Native American Heritage Month.  Jasmine Washington (B.A., theatre and dance, ‘18) serves as assistant director. 

Larissa FastHorse’s satire, The Thanksgiving Play, skewers actors, teachers, historians, and other well-intentioned White people engaged in what FastHorse calls “performative wokeness.” In honor of Native American Heritage Month, three teaching artists convene to create a new children’s play about Thanksgiving. With the help of a professional actor from LA, they aim to tell the complicated story of our national holiday from a Native American perspective, incorporating real historical material, and keeping the content “age appropriate.” It doesn’t go well.

The play contains descriptions of graphic violence and is recommended for audience members over ten years old.

To allow time for audience conversation, Davis Repertory Theatre is presenting an abbreviated staged reading of the show (roughly 45 minutes), followed by a presentation by Anthony Burris about local efforts to correct the way California history is presented to the public. Burris, a faculty member at CSUS and PhD student in Native American Studies at UC Davis, will discuss his recent efforts related to “truth-telling” at Sutter’s Fort and James Marshall Gold Discovery State Park.

For more information, visit the Davis Repertory Theatre website. 

Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp (consulting producer) and Hatton (co-artistic director) are founding members of this new company.