Theater Group Reviews Original Thanksgiving

The first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Harbor in 1621 was a feast, but that wasn’t the thanks giving--the Pilgrims’ religious sect fasted to give thanks.

The folks from the Mayflower almost certainly did not celebrate with roast turkey, instead likely consuming cod, mussels and perhaps a few mangy pheasants and some venison, courtesy of the native inhabitants. And the dinner invitation for Wampanoag Indian chief Massasoit was not without ulterior motives.

“You know why they invited him to the first Thanksgiving?” said Ventura resident John Rutherford, a direct descendant of the chief. “They wanted him to deed more land. They didn’t do it out of kindness.”

It was a day for erasing common fallacies about the traditions behind the most American of holidays Saturday at the Theater by the Sea reading theater production of “A Plymouth Thanksgiving” at Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor.

Liz Harris, founder and artistic director of the small theater company, dressed as a Pilgrim and read children stories of what it was like during that first harsh winter.

Rutherford, one of perhaps 2,500 remaining descendants of the Wampanoag tribe, dressed as one of his ancestors might have, but the 55-year-old environmental consultant made a concession to modesty, opting not to don the scant animal skins favored during the period.

He was not as reticent about exposing misconceptions about the period.

“He has to walk a fine line between being historically accurate and bumming people out,” Harris said.

Camarillo resident Ellen Oncken, who primed her three children for the holiday by reading them “The Bobbsey Twins at Plymouth Rock,” stopped by the production to get a more authentic taste of Thanksgiving.

“When they came here, it’s just like their books came to life,” she said of the children.

For Rutherford, the event was important to let children know that Thanksgiving is more than just sanitized history.

“There’s history and there’s myth and there’s truth, and someplace it’s all in there together,” he said.

The Theater by the Sea production will be held again at noon today at Fisherman’s Wharf. The event is free.