The First Thanksgiving Play – Truth… or FICTION?
Excerpt from a class newspaper project in Mrs. Kilkenny’s 5th grade class, December 1987
As the theater critic for our class’s only newspaper issue, I know what it takes to put on a good school play. I’ve been in two myself over the years! Ms. Goodwin, who I had the chance to work with last year in an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, has outdone herself, for the most part, on her epic The First Thanksgiving, considering that she has to work with little kids. It premiered a week ago and Thanksgiving is over, but it remains fresh in my mind.
Clocking in at 15 minutes, which is a long time for first-graders, this play takes the audience from the humble beginnings of Thanksgiving, to how we celebrate it in modern times, and it even has a family a lot like ours at the end, baby and all!
The production quality and costumes were great for a school play, and some of the lines were thought provoking. Ms. Gomez did a good job as the narrator, even though she forgot some of what she was supposed to say. Ethan McDonald [sic] was a good choice for the lead pilgrim, who is a really nervous leader worried about his people dying, and that really came through and felt real. Another highlight was my cousin Cody, who said her three lines with intensity. The way she held onto her corn cobs for dear life because she knew her people would otherwise starve was captivating. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my cousin!
There were some weak points, however. My brother Arlo was also in the play, but his effort in playing the lead Indian did not leave me convinced. He was way too happy about it and even laughed after some of his lines. I do not think the real Squanto would laugh like that or say his lines so badly when he was supposed to be a brave and serious leader. It brought me out of the play and made me wonder how much of it was based on reality.
The play was also nearly ruined at the end when the turkey boy fell and almost brought down the curtain, but that was obviously not in the script so I will not blame the director for that one.
Despite a few problems, I know how tough and annoying little kids can be especially when they just won’t do what you tell them to, so I have to give Ms. Goodwin’s The First Thanksgiving two thumbs up and three and a half out of five stars!