The Thanksgiving Play

An Indigenous actor sings the first verse of “Home on the Range,” after which a white actor sings a lesser-known chorus from later in the song, which begins, “The red man was pressed from this part of the west, he’s likely no more to return” (42). Together, they then sing the beginning of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” An actor quotes a comment posted online that condemns the use of the phrase “red man” and a response from another commenter arguing, “Look it up, it’s historical. Quit being so sensitive” (43).

Jaxton and Caden discuss how to approach depicting the battle. Caden corrects Jaxton’s inaccurate historical information, and Jaxton tells him to “loosen up on the facts” (44). Caden doesn’t understand this, feeling that facts simply are what they are. Jaxton realizes that Caden has already written a stack of scenes, and Caden admits that he secretly dreams of being a playwright. Jaxton insists that the way to make dreams come true is to speak them out loud, which is how he achieved his dream of becoming an actor and a “yoga dude.” Jaxton insists that they should do the after-battle scene that Caden wrote, although Caden is dubious that