Tag Archives: Jasmine Goodspeed

Nov 29

Don’t Trust Colonizers’ Stories: “The Thanksgiving Play”

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Ohad Ashkenazi, Jasmine Rochelle Goodspeed, Marisa Diamond* and Johnny Gordon; Photograph: Sharman Altshuler

Presented by Moonbox Productions
by Larissa FastHorse
Directed by Tara Moses
Dramaturgy by Kailey Bennett

Featuring: Jasmine Goodspeed, Johnny Gordon, Ohad Ashkenazi, Marisa Diamond
Partnered with the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB)

Nov. 21 – Dec. 15, 2024
Arrow Street Arts
2 Arrow St.
Cambridge, MA 02138

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission

Age Guidelines: Recommended for ages 13+

Content Warning: This production contains adult language, mature themes, racism, redface, violence, and unsettling truths of both Massachusetts’ and America’s history.

Review by Noelani Kamelamela

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — I am Kanaka Maoli, and the mainstream Thanksgiving story never felt quite real to me especially once I became an adult, because the watered-down story we were fed in Hawai’i of how our people were betrayed to the Americans sounded very unlike what we knew. So, I sincerely doubted that the sweet, clean story of sharing and caring in the early British colonies was anything like the reality. I don’t expect theatergoers to glean the full story out of Moonbox Production’s run of The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa Fasthorse. I would love to see this show in rep with another biting satirical work Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee. Continue reading →

Nov 26

Ample Breast, Moist Leg: “The Thanksgiving Play”

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The cast; Photo by Sharman Altshuler

Presented by Moonbox Productions
by Larissa FastHorse
Directed by Tara Moses
Dramaturgy by Kailey Bennett

Featuring: Jasmine Goodspeed, Johnny Gordon, Ohad Ashkenazi, Marisa Diamond
Partnered with the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB)

Nov. 21 – Dec. 15, 2024
Arrow Street Arts
2 Arrow St.
Cambridge, MA 02138 

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission

Age Guidelines: Recommended for ages 13+

Content Warning: This production contains adult language, mature themes, racism, redface, violence, and unsettling truths of both Massachusetts’ and America’s history.

Critique by Kitty Drexel

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Moonbox’s The Thanksgiving Play interprets the white American history of Thanksgiving that MAGA and its ilk want us to forget. Florida’s laws, for example, would keep copies of Larissa Fasthorse’s play out of school libraries just in case a white person might feel sad by its contents. Friends, the purpose of knowing our white, colonialist history isn’t to feel sad; it’s to recognize the white supremacist systems that enabled these atrocities so we can dismantle them. We aren’t responsible for our ancestors’ actions but we are responsible for repairing the damage they caused.   Continue reading →

Sep 30

“We Are the Land” Presented by the Wampanoag Nation with ArtsEmerson

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Presented by ArtsEmerson
Written, created, and performed by members of the Wampanoag Nation 
Featuring: Aiden Andrews, Nelson Andrews Jr., Siobahn Brown, Melvin Coombs, Troy Currence, Hartman Deetz, Jasmine Goodspeed, Audreyana Sterling Harding, Kitty Hendricks, Stephen Hendricks, Vanessa Mendes, Asa Peters, Jim Peters, Paula Peters, Michelle St John, Carol Wynne

Originally produced by the Wampanoag Nation for performance at Theatre Royal Plymouth, UK

September 29 & 30, 2023
Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre
219 Tremont Street Boston
Boston, MA 02116
Running time: 1 hour 15 min approx

Statement by Kitty Drexel
Review by Noelani Kamelamela

BOSTON, Mass. — ArtsEmerson presents We Are the Land. It is an historical account of colonization by the Wampanoag Nation for all audiences on September 29 and 30 at the Emerson Culter Magestic Theatre in Boston. 

It is my great privilege to serve the New England theatre community as a critic. Sometimes, as is the case of We Are the Land, it is my duty to serve as a historian and then step aside to make room for other voices. In a moment, I will cede space to Noelani.  Continue reading →