Kylee Strader
kbs005@marietta.edu
One of the best things about producing a play that is not well known, is that most of your audience is seeing these scenes for the very first time. Not only does this give the director more freedom with what they plan to do with the scenes because the audience doesn’t know what they are expecting, but the actors also have more freedom because of this.
For example, in Shakespearian plays one does not have as much freedom. Everyone expects the ghost to show up in Hamlet, so it isn’t a jump scare. However, the audience was not expecting Native American Heads to fall out of the bag Jaxton pulled out for his and Caden’s scene.
Being part of a new play was quite enjoyable, because the actors got to play a lot more with their characters. For my role of Alicia, I drew inspiration from basic snobby mean girls I saw on television or in movies who got everything handed to them, such as Karen from Mean Girls and Cat from Victorious. I also looked into the Kardashian sisters, due to their unbreakable confidence. Furthermore, I found myself speaking in a different voice, and trying to adapt to the dialect of someone who was raised in L.A. or worked in Hollywood.
Another thing I worked on with my character was her look. I wanted to make sure she did not look the way I do every day. The makeup needed to be bolder, and sharper, while the hair had to be thicker and more voluminous. For these ideas, I took from the character description of Alicia; that said that she looked as if she would be “cast as ethnic in the 50’s”. Because of this very specific comment about her look, the costume designer and I both decided that it would be interesting to go off of the look of someone who worked in Hollywood in the fifties. This is why I chose a makeup look and hairstyle that were similar to that of Marilyn Monroe.
At first glance, the play seems to be very problematic. The characters all have terrible flaws, and do terrible things, and put on a terrible play within a play. However, the end message is one that is very important; “By doing nothing, we become a part of the solution”. By not stepping in on issues that are not yours to solve, you are doing your job at being a friend to the victims of the situation. The play points out that being an ally does not mean one need to try to fix or control everything. Rather make space for those who need to speak. Which is something a lot of this generation has forgotten. Sometimes it is just not our place to speak.
Overall, the entirety of The Thanksgiving Play was enjoyable. Not only was it a production that most of the audience hadn’t seen before, but it was also a production that made the audience think. The script by Larissa Fasthorse is brilliant, and it was a privilege to get to be a part of the process.
