THE THANKSGIVING PLAY Will Reopen the Olney Theatre Next Month

Native American playwright Larissa Fasthorse's (Sicangu Lakota) comedy The Thanksgiving Play makes its DC premiere as Olney Theatre's season opener. Directed by Raymond O. Caldwell, performances begin September 29, 2021 and run through Sunday, October 31, 2021. A gala celebrating the re-opening of the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab will mark Opening Night on Saturday, October 2.

This return to the stage is also a homecoming for the cast of The Thanksgiving Play, featuring a quartet of actors returning to Olney Theatre. Megan Graves (Oil) is Logan, a high school drama teacher charged with creating a Thanksgiving play for the school district that satisfies the parents calling for her ouster and meets the criteria of a Native American Heritage Awareness Month grant. Parker Drown (A Chorus Line) is Jaxton, her yoga-bro friend who aggressively wants everyone to know how sensitive he is to the politics of representation. David Schlumpf (Elf, South Pacific) is Caden, an elementary school history teacher enthralled with playwriting and historical accuracy, and Dani Stoller (The Crucible, The Humans) is Alicia, an "authentic" indigenous actor from L.A., whose appearance is underwritten by the aforementioned grant. The result is a comic quest to represent the story of a people who are excluded from the actual creation of that story. While the laughs come quickly,. FastHorse's play asks probing questions about the limits of white liberals' best intentions.

Larissa Fasthorse (Sicangu Lakota) is an award-winning playwright. FastHorse'sLarissa's produced plays include The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons, Artists Rep), What Would Crazy Horse Do? (KCRep, Relative Theatrics), Urban Rez (Cornerstone Theater Company, ASU Gammage, NEFA National tour 2019-20), Landless and Cow Pie Bingo (AlterTheater), Average Family (Children's Theater Company of Minneapolis), Teaching Disco Squaredancing to Our Elders: a Class Presentation (Native Voices at the Autry), Vanishing Point (Eagle Project) and Cherokee Family Reunion (Mountainside Theater).

The show is directed by Raymond O. Caldwell, artistic director of DC's innovative and acclaimed Theatre Alliance. Born in Wiesbaden, Germany and raised all over the world, Raymond O. Caldwell (he/him/his) is an award-winning director who has directed for Round House Theatre, Imagination Stage, Mosaic Theater, The Kennedy Center, National Players/OTC, Solas Nua, CulturalDC, and the Hegira. Prior to leading Theater Alliance, he was a faculty member and resident director in Howard University's Department of Theatre Arts for six years, and spent six seasons as the Community Engagement Partnership Manager at Arena Stage.

The creative team features Scenic Design by Milagros Ponce de León (Matilda), Costume Design by Jeannette Christensen, Lighting Design by Alberto Segarra, Projections Design by
Kelly Colburn and Dylan Uremovich, Sound Design by Tosin Olufolabi, Stage Managed by Tashiana Quiñones. Understudies are Conor Patrick Donohue (Jaxton/Caden) and Mishy Jacobson (Logan/Alicia).

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