LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR E3
The premise of Larissa
FastHorse’s “The Thanksgiv-
ing Play” may be the work’s
zingiest asset. Four adults on
a difficult progressive mis-
sion have gathered in a class-
room to devise a Thanksgiv-
ing pageant for an elementa-
ry school that will pass
muster with today’s unforgiv-
ing standards.
Logan (Samantha
Sloyan), a “teaching artist”
who has infuriated parents
for, among other reasons,
making 15-year-olds portray
down-and-out drunks in Eu-
gene O’Neill’s “The Iceman
Cometh,” is the “woke” ring-
leader. A vegan who feels nau-
seated by the mere mention
of turkey, she is determined to
pull off an unobjectionable
Thanksgiving commemora-
tion in which no animals will
be slaughtered and no Native
people will be demeaned.
Jaxton (Noah Bean), a far-
mers market street per-
former and self-described
“vegan ally,” is Logan’s ro-
mantic paramour and fellow
traveler in privilege checking.
Grateful to be cast in her
show, he pledges (after re-
spectfully performing a de-
coupling ritual), “Nothing but
gender-neutral actor, direc-
tor respect from here on.”
Logan is most excited
about the casting of Alicia
(Alexandra Henrikson), a se-
ductive actress from Los An-
geles, whom she mistakenly
believes is of Native Ameri-
can ancestry. Alicia, who de-
ploys different headshots for
ethnic roles, takes a wily
pride in her lack of intelli-
gence. (“I’ve been tested,” she
says, matter of factly.) Her
power comes from elsewhere.“I know how to make people
stare at me,” she explains, as
Jaxton hungrily gazes in her
direction.
Rounding out the com-
pany is Caden (Jeff Marlow),
a history teacher and frus-
trated playwright whose
dream is to have his scrupu-
lously vetted historical
scripts performed by semi-
professional actors. Smitten
by Alicia’s simple-minded ra-
diance, he gallantly offers his
impressive research skills toa woman who has the intel-
lectual curiosity of a mari-
gold.
Sounds like a blast, no?
Alas, “The Thanksgiving
Play” promises more fun
than it can deliver. Buried in-
side this 90-minute show is a
winning episode of “Port-
landia.” The satire has mo-
ments of sharpness, but
mockery can hold our inter-
est for only so long. The hu-
man dimension of the come-
dy is virtually nonexistent.In the production that
opened on Tuesday at the
Geffen Playhouse’s smaller
Audrey Skirball Kenis Thea-
ter, the actors, under the di-
rection of Michael John
Garcés, are unflagging. But
the energy of the audience
noticeably dips.
The laughter goes from
robust to ghostly. By the end,
it’s not so much humor as the
idea of humor. FastHorse
keeps churning out chuck-
ling lines about heritage
month hypocrisy, soy cheese
and the nutty politics of arts
grants. But the characters
don’t have enough granular
reality to deepen the jokes.
The classroom antics start to
grate.
These flailing PC do-
gooders and thespian wan-
nabes are walking lampoons,
repositories of exaggerated
attitudes, and credible onlyas easy targets. With the ex-
ception of Marlow, who
draws out Caden’s schlepy
sympathy, the actors com-
pound the flatness of the
characters.
FastHorse, a Native
American playwright whose
work has challenged blind
spots in America’s historical
narrative and cultural pre-
sumptions, isn’t setting up
straw men. The disagree-
ments and spats among the
characters reveal entrenched
conflicts and prejudices that
continue in a sanitized form
the Pilgrims’ erasure of indig-
enous reality.
“The Thanksgiving Play”
incorporates as interludes
skits that are taken from ac-
tual lesson plans and class-
room ideas for Thanksgiving
activities posted by teachers
on Pinterest. The casual rac-
ism, exhibited in silly songs
and playful reenactments,
would defy credulity were it
not so deeply ingrained.
But the accuracy of
FastHorse’s satiric critique
doesn’t absolve the work’s
conspicuous playwriting
weaknesses. As the farce ac-
celerates and Sara Ryung
Clement’s classroom set be-
comes as messy as a school
cafeteria after a food fight, a
numbing effect takes hold.
If “The Thanksgiving
Play” could see its characters
as more than the butt of
punchlines, the skewering of
cultural mind-sets might
provoke more collective soul-
searching than tired titter-
ing.THEATER REVIEW
Thanksgiving becomes politically apolitical
A satire about ‘woke’
thinking is well staged
at the Geffen yet
emerges lukewarm.
CHARLES McNULTY
THEATER CRITIC
A DRAMA TEACHERportrayed by Samantha Sloyan enlists her actor-lover,
played by Noah Bean, to help present a Thanksgiving pageant for schoolkids.Jeff Lorch‘The
Thanksgiving
Play’
Where:Geffen Playhouse,
10866 Le Conte Ave., Los
Angeles
When:8 p.m. Tuesdays to
Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m.
Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m.
Sundays. Ends Dec. 6
Tickets:$30-$120
Info:(310) 208-5454,
geffenplayhouse.org
Running time:1 hour,
30 minutesthat in order to commit fully,
you have to convince your-
self that what you’re doing is
the best version of what it
can be,” Wong says. “It be-
comes your reality and what
you think of as the truth.
There’s no such thing as any-
thing else. Any acting class
will tell you that you have to
be 100% in it.”
Last year, Wong was fully
committed to Taibi Magar’s
take at Atlantic Theater
Company’s 98-seat site, sans
set pieces or costume
changes.
“There’s something nice
about the audience being
right there, for better and for
worse,” Wong says. “If some-
one is having a slow day and
nodding off, you see that and
have to process that while
performing. On the other
hand, you do see people on
the edge of their seat, com-
pletely engaged. And in a
play where I speak directly
to them, that’s really nice.”
He was also all in for Lisa
Peterson’s sized-up version,
mounted at American Con-
servatory Theater’s 1,040-
seat space. “In a bigger thea-
ter, you definitely still feel
and hear the audience,” he
says. “It can be exponen-
tially more powerful, be-
cause that small gasp be-
comes this thing that hap-
pens in the whole room.”
Each director prioritized
different elements, not only
to accommodate each
stage’s size (“Any given mo-
ment of the play has to be
completely reconsidered; it’s
like the difference between a
close-up and a wide shot in a
movie,” says Wong) but also
to meet each unique artistic
vision.
“It’s a rare opportunity
that you get to do the same
part with different actors,
who each bring their own hu-
manity and energy and idio-
syncrasies and sense of hu-
mor,” he says. “You have to
let go of what you had re-
peatedly told yourself was
your truth about this piece,
and open yourself up to new
ideas. As challenging as that
is, I find it feels really good to
do that.”
Wong was approached
about taking on a third stag-
ing in Pasadena while still
starring in it in San Fran-
cisco. Though he’d been
looking for more opportuni-
ties to direct — he previously
wrote and directed a play for
La Jolla Playhouse’s youth
program — his knee-jerk re-
sponse was not to helm
something he’d already
acted in twice. But while
backstage during subse-
quent performances, he lis-
tened to the ongoing dia-
logue and let his mind wan-
der.
“I’d release that ‘actor’
commitment for a moment
and go, ‘If I did direct this,
what would I do?’ ” he re-
calls. Even though he still
had to play the role as he was
directed, he immediately be-
came flooded with new ideas
and an unshakable urgency.
“I thought, ‘I have to direct
this. I have to have this expe-
rience. I need to have my per-
spective shifted com-
pletely.’ ”
Yee is pleased with
Wong’s continued relation-
ship with her play. “He’s ex-
tremely watchable because
he has an incredible amount
of vulnerability and human-
ity onstage, and a generosityof spirit in how he relates to
an audience and lets them
in,” she says. “He also has
such a great concern about
getting the details right, and
he’s always curious and al-
ways learning. And I think
that’s what makes him a
great director too.”
Rehearsing for the 686-
seat Pasadena Playhouse
production — presented in
association with East WestPlayers — Wong doesn’t ex-
plicitly recall his own acting
process, so as not to override
the individual interpreta-
tions of his new cast, but his
experiences with the play in-
form his choices and how he
strategically describes ac-
tions and delivers notes to
his actors.
“The instinct to say,
‘When I said this line, the au-
dience really laughed, and
the way you’re doing it, you
might not get that laugh,’
but that doesn’t work,” says
Wong. “This cast is all differ-
ent people from whenever I
was in it, so there’s no such
thing as doing anything the
same as the shows I’ve done.Instead, you have to start
from the humanity of this
cast person and go, ‘What
are they bringing to it that I
never brought or that I
couldn’t bring?’ Being open
to that has been healthy and
good for me too. I think it
would be really toxic, actu-
ally, to be any other way.”
When directing his friend
and fellow “Mr. Robot” actor
Grant Chang, Wong tries
only to guide him the same
way he does with the other
three actors (Justin Chien,
Christine Lin and James
Eckhouse), even though
Chang is taking on the
“Great Leap” role Wong
played twice.
“Sometimes I’m so intim-
idated because he knows ev-
ery single line!” Chang says
with a laugh. “Because he
has that knowledge from do-
ing two productions, he can
see what works and what
doesn’t work very quickly.
But he’s been really open as
a director and he gives me a
lot of freedom. He’s helping
me encompass everything
this character is, even if it
means doing something he
didn’t do.”
Between run-throughs of
the ambitious scene, Wong
pauses to gather feedback
(“Questions? Comments?
What’s constructive for you
at this point?” he asks thecast) and offer encourage-
ment. He’s a Phil Jackson or
Doc Rivers — coaches who
were also players.
“The thing about actors
is they’re the instrument
they’re playing — they can
never put it in a case or walk
away from it,” Wong says.
“So when you’re giving even
a small correction, you have
to do it in a way that incorpo-
rates their humanity.”
He has acting roles in the
upcoming Comedy Central
series “Awkwafina Is Nora
From Queens” and Uni-
versal’s planned “Jurassic
Park” film, but Wong hopes
to direct more often, in addi-
tion to writing. (He’s co-writ-
ing a stage musical adapt-
ation of the 1995 film “Mr.
Holland’s Opus.”) He ad-
mits it’s a leap he was ini-
tially hesitant to make.
“I’m kind of kicking my-
self that I didn’t immedi-
ately say, ‘Of course I want to
direct this,’ ” he says, prom-
ising to prioritize writing
and directing for the stage
and the screen.
“I’m crossing over into a
time in my life where this
kind of work is really becom-
ing important to me, and I’m
really grateful for the way all
of these different produc-
tions lined up for me. It’s
been an incredible educa-
tion.”Now has the title Coach BD Wong
[Wong, from E1]
Jenny Graham‘The Great
Leap’
Where:Pasadena
Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino
Ave.
When:8 p.m. Fridays, 2
and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2
p.m. Sundays, through
Dec. 1.
Tickets:$29-$92 (subject
to change)
Info:(626) 356-7529,
pasadenaplayhouse.org
Running time:2 hours (one
intermission)BD WONGin character in New York as a Commu-
nist Party officer who readies the Chinese team.Ahron R. FosterPASADENA PLAYHOUSEis about to open its production of Lauren Yee’s “The Great Leap,” about a 1989 U.S.-China exhibition game.