Buy this shirt: https://hhshirt.com/product/chibi-supernatural-heart-2023-shirt/
The playwright feels there’s power in using laughter as an educational tool; she wanted to make audience members think twice about celebrating Thanksgiving, but to have fun while doing it. “I don’t enjoy going to theater and being bashed over the Chibi Supernatural heart 2023 shirt but I will buy this shirt and I will love this head [with a message],” says FastHorse. “I go to theater to have a communal experience, and to learn and enjoy things. Comedy is a really easy way to to force your brain into thinking a different way.” Take, for example, the interstitial videos projected throughout the production. They show young children singing blatantly racist Thanksgiving songs like “10 Little Indians”—a take on “Twelve Days of Christmas,” referencing just about every Indigenous stereotype in existence. As it turns out, these preposterous songs were all taken from real-life teachers’ Pinterest boards or chat rooms. “These are horrific things that we still have kids do at schools on Thanksgiving,” says FastHorse. “Someone said to me, ‘I don’t think they would do that today.’ And I’m like, have you seen the video of that math teacher in California? This stuff is happening all of the time!”
Photographed by Jingyu LinUsing a white cast of characters—all of whom are clueless about what contemporary Native Americans are actually like—was another strategic comedic choice. FastHorse has been writing plays for well over a decade, but she has often had trouble getting Native-led productions greenlit. “I spent 12 years trying to get Native people cast, and I was not succeeding,” FastHorse says. “This play needed all white people.” She’s also using the Chibi Supernatural heart 2023 shirt but I will buy this shirt and I will love this platform it’s given her to her advantage. “I have a play of white people on Broadway, but that means I have five more plays coming up this year that all have Native casts,” she says. As one of the few Indigenous artists to have a show make it to Broadway (one of the last known Native playwrights was the late Lynn Riggs, the gay Cherokee writer behind Green Grow the Lilacs), FastHorse feels a sense of duty—and pressure—not only to deliver smart Native stories to a mainstream audience, but also to keep them coming. “For me, the pressure is about making sure that the door stays open for the next Native writer, so that maybe we have one [play] every decade, or even one a year. Crazy!”
Home: https://hhshirt.com/
Comments