Fun fact: my new phone says "Scam Likely" when I get one of those phone calls. Delightful!

I spent all day today (minus meetings) until 2:40 p.m. finishing off the latest Important Documents project. Then went through the emails and was all "oh, hey, nothing much in here, huzzah." I basically cleared out everything I could of Important Documents. It's bizarre how freaking industrious I was today compared to oh, yesterday. Go figure.

And now I am on what the Brits might call a "minibreak" for four days of vacation! I'm plotting out what to do, both for these four days and for my sixteen days off in December. I think I'm going to make a schedule of projects. In "real life" I would have been doing different things in other places every day, but maybe this year I can do a different activity instead of traveling.

Tonight I watched "The Thanksgiving Play" by Acme Theatre. I've seen this one before IRL (can't recall when), but never before have I seen this many disclaimers about well, race, Native Americans, violence mentioned in the play, whose land was stolen from, that some people of color are going to play well meaning white characters in this one, etc. etc.... Also, they've only worked on this one for a week? Wow. (Though let's face it: if you don't have to memorize lines, it's a lot easier.) They also said you're welcome to pretend it's a radio show.

As I recall, the time I saw it live (a year ago?) they had video of kids' previous plays. In this one, two members of the cast (added to the main four usually in the show) pretends to be kids in paper "Pilgrim" hats first. while singing "On the nth day of Thanksgiving, the natives gave to me...."

They have various school-ish posters up behind them. I especially like the one that says "Wash your hands. Stay safe."

There's one kid in Acme--who's in it tonight--who I especially think is very pretty. I feel terrible thinking this of a teenager, but seriously, their face is so like, sculpted and noble and their skin is so pretty...

"Let's put that in the simmering pot for now" amuses me, as one person (the history prof) is obsessed with having actual fires on stage.

* "I was the third understudy for Jasmine." "Wasn't she Middle Eastern?" Having seen this play before, I am amused at the foreshadowing.
* "The Pilgrims landed in Florida? I did not know that! That's why Disney is there!"
* "I might be a little bit Spanish." (Go check Ancestry DNA, girl.) More foreshadowing about the ethnically...vague... "professional actress" Alicia.
* Who uh, is not Native American, she just dresses up in braids per her agent.
* "Stay in this moment!" "This moment sucks!" Bwahahahaah.
* I love how these people are all "It's absolutely disrespectful for white people to play Native Americans," and "We can't find any Native Americans to do this play," but at the same time, "trying to do a play without Native Americans doesn't work." (And yet kind of ironic when half the cast is actually of color.)
* "I don't want to learn!" whines Alicia, to a teacher.
* "People leave you alone when you study the ceiling." God, Alicia is a walking vacancy sign.
* From the chat: Larissa FastHorse found all of these interlude songs & lessons on the internet, many of them on the Pinterest boards of current U.S. elementary school teachers.
* "YOU'RE A STREET PERFORMER! YOU'RE A BAD STREET PERFORMER!"
* As Caden bitches about people who can't spell theater correctly, Alicia pipes up: "It's re, right?" "That's a very interesting debate I'll tell you about either."
* "Alicia jumps right back into sexy Pilgrim poses." "Alicia joins the scuffle while still being sexy."
* I love a good slap fight over Zoom!
* And finally, the director finds a solution. "The entire play is nothingness?" "Four white people can't do a piece that doesn't piss off" (virtually everyone.)
* What's a dramaturg? No one knows, but it's the Holy Grail of theater titles.

Afterwards they had a panel with many professional people. One of whom is wearing a shirt that says "my dog thinks I'm f*cking." (I assume it might be "my dog thinks I'm fucking awesome" but I can't see the last word.) I love that she's wearing this to a teen production, but let's face it, we all know the words.

I didn't super take notes, but some overall points:
* This is a play meant for white people. (Literally, because Larissa Fasthorse was running into the same "we can't find any Native Americans" issues.)
* "I didn't learn a lot from it but I did get inspired to do a lot of research afterwards/discussion."
* "I can't believe I'm saying this, this is awful." -the two people doing the play interludes *
* "I'm like the white person who this was made for."
* The panelists are "so darn grateful anyone's talking to us" that they're complimenting the actors and yet not wanting to be totally blunt about how they feel about the play.
* "I've been traumatized from K through 12."

You know what, I really love me some Larissa Fasthorse. Found this interview with her here. How does she summarize the play? "I make fun of white people for 82 minutes."

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