Review: THE THANKSGIVING PLAY at Ephrata Performing Arts Center

No good deed goes unpunished.  This could be the official slogan of EPAC’s current comedy, The Thanksgiving Play. The show centers on a small group of creatives who yearn to produce the world’s most woke elementary school play. Leading the group is Gabrielle Sheller as Logan.  Logan serves as the hippie-dippy amateur director who is more interested in making oppressed people feel good rather than exploring any sense of dramatic truth. 

Sheller has a lot of fun with her character, and uses her voice and mannerisms like a walking, talking exclamation point.  Her outraged facial expressions when confronted with something particular offensive (which happens often) is especially hilarious.

Sean Caldwell serves as Logan’s crunchy boyfriend and renowned street performer, Jaxton.  While Caldwell’s character was used very effectively in group scenes, Jaxton seems to be the least well-defined.

Bobby Checchia serves as history teacher and aspiring playwright, Caden.  Checchia conveys an awkward shlubbiness with his character which is used to great effect.  Caden  would probably be played by Louis C.K. if they made The Thanksgiving Movie.

Last, but not least, we have Gabi Hondorp as Alicia.  Alicia is a professional actress and assumed Native American.  Through a bunch of miscommunications, we learn that the extent of her heritage was once being cast as the understudy for Jasmine in a production of Alladin.

Nevetheless, Alicia was my favorite character and provides a lot of insight.  She is not the smartest person on the stage, but she is the happiest.  She lives a simple life and looks after herself.  She might be considered shallow or superficial, but she seems to be a genuinely caring person.  The play wrestles with the idea that with great intelligence comes great discontent. As if the more we know about our world, the more we realize change is beyond our control.  By staying in her bubble, Alicia has the bandwidth to help others by first taking care of herself.

Director, Ben Galosi keeps the laughs coming in this 90 minute intermission-free show.  The humor is derived not only from the characters’ excessively bleeding hearts, but also hilariously random moments of aggressive chaos and mayhem.  A special salute to the EPAC stage crew who have a lot of cleaning up to do at the conclusion of each performance.

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