Emporia State Theatre showcased their production of The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse Nov. 20-23. Dee Byrd-Molnar, a Kansas City-based actor, director and theatre producer, was brought in to direct the show. 

Byrd-Molnar was born in Springfield, Missouri, but raised in Houston, Texas. She received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Theatre from the University of Houston. 

For over 20 years, Byrd-Molnar lived in New York to hone her skills and craft. While living in New York, she co-founded South Brooklyn Shakespeare, a highlight of her career. For over six seasons, the group built sets on a Brooklyn street, performed free shows of a work of Shakespeare and tore down the set all within five hours.

For the past five years, Byrd-Molnar and her husband, fellow theatre professional Paul Molnar, lived in Independence, Kansas, working with the William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College. There, Byrd-Molnar was a coordinator of the William Inge Theatre Festival and ran the festival for three years. The couple recently moved to Kansas City. 

Some of Byrd-Molnar’s favorite directing credits happen to be those held at Independence Community College, including “A Christmas Carol,” adapted by Howard Dallin, and “Endgame” by Samuel Bennet.Her connection to Independence is partially what brought her to direct The Thanksgiving Play at ESU. 

Through her involvement with the William Inge Theatre Festival, she got to know the family of Independence-native and ESU’s Director of Theatre Aubrey Wilson. Later on, Byrd-Molnar spoke with Wilson at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. 

Wilson told Byrd-Molnar that she wanted to do something “different” and have a guest director direct one of their productions. Byrd-Molnar said she would love to do it.

“The Thanksgiving Play” is a satire written by Native American playwright Larissa FastHorse that follows four white people in a post-2020 world as they attempt to devise a children’s play about Thanksgiving. The director of the play, a drama teacher, wants to make sure that she uplifts the voices of Native Americans and their perspective on the holiday. This presents a challenge as they realize that there are no Native American actors in the cast. 

Byrd-Molnar said she “loved” her seven-week experience working with the ESU theatre program and its students. She described the students, from the cast to the crew, as “wonderful.” She commended the actors on their ability to execute the satirical nature of the play, a difficult genre to act in, she said.

In her director’s note, Byrd-Molnar wrote that the play highlights the “performative wokeness that we have brought into our culture.”