The Thanksgiving Play

Larissa Fasthorse belongs to the Sicangu Lakota Nation, and she is arguably the most widely known Indigenous playwright in the United States, largely due to the popularity of The Thanksgiving Play. She was born on a Lakota reservation in South Dakota but raised from the age of one by white parents in an open adoption that kept her in connection with her Indigenous heritage and community. Her creative career began with 10 years as a ballet dancer and choreographer, a field that has very little BIPOC representation. However, her time as a dancer was cut short by an injury, leading her back to her longtime love of writing. In 2000, Fasthorse traveled to Geneva with the United Nations, acting as a delegate to speak about the significance of film representation to Indigenous people. She worked briefly with Universal Pictures and then Paramount as a creative executive, and then she shifted into writing and directing for theater. As a playwright, Fasthorse received steady commissions to write for different theaters, including the Kennedy Center and Berkeley Rep. However, she hit a roadblock after these initial productions, finding it difficult to get her works produced. Repeatedly, Fasthorse was told that her plays were impossible to cast, as they required Indigenous actors—even in a play where she only included one half-Indigenous character.