Director

Scenic Designer

Costume Designer

Lighting Designer

Sound Designer

Stage Manager

Dramaturg

Nisi Sturgis

Leon (li) Kao

Vivian Krishnan Tsabolov

Stephen Moderhock

Hayat Dominguez

Kayla Uribe

Emily Goodell

Cast

#00

#11

#13

#14

#7

#2

#46

#25

#8

Soccer Mom

Greer Durham

Tafadzwa Diener

Julia Gold

Caitlin McDermott

Uche Nwansi / Kathleen sullivan

erin Ryan

Zoe Replinger

Lily Ellora Newton

Jenna Kohn

Allison Moody*

Director’s Notes

“Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”

- Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

For three years in high school, I was on the bench. I was the manager for women’s track, volleyball, and basketball. It was a big deal. I wasn’t coordinated enough to play, but one day in PE class I went up to Coach Taylor, standing there in her track suit and perm, and asked her if there was anything I could do. More than the love of any sport, what I was drawn to, I suppose what I needed, was the Team. Coach Taylor created a position for me, and from then on, every game, every meet—I was there.

As manager, I made sure everybody got where they needed to go when they needed to be there and had water and snacks. And, most importantly, I was funny. I was a good trash-talker and could make everybody laugh, victory or defeat, and they needed me for that. It was the first time I saw girls allowed—even encouraged—to be intense, to be powerful, loud, aggressive, to have agency—to win. I was devoted to them. Here are some things I learned in my three years on the bench:

• People are messy, unpredictable, turbulent creatures. The Team gives order to chaos.

• People are vulnerable. The Team gives us strength and protection.

• People are paradoxes, striving to fit in and stand out. The Team gives our identities space to be and belong.

I wasn’t on the field. I never said, “Put me in, Coach.” But I always knew I was needed. In a way, my investment, my humor, my unique voice completed the Team. Eventually, I discovered theatre, which took me off the bench. I joined what Antonin Artaud calls the “athletes of the heart.” The field has changed, but I still feel the power of the Team.

Here, on this field, our Team is the Wolves.

“In battle, there are no more than two types of attacks: Common and uncommon, yet the variations of the common and uncommon cannot all be anticipated. The common and the uncommon produce each other, like an endless circle. Who can comprehend them?”

- Sun-Tzu, The Art of War

Welcome to a war play. Speaking to us before rehearsals started, Sarah DeLappe made it clear that is what this play is. She has given us a Team of nine vital, complex warriors on the cusp of womanhood and a battlefield where they can face opposing forces from without and from within.

The Team provides organization and unity, but there is chaos and cacophony here. As Sarah told us, this play is a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure. We in the audience are curious observers, flies on the wall. We won’t necessarily hear every word or mark every moment. The polyphonic voices of these nine young women rush over us, and their individual melodies slowly reveal themselves. Their identities vibrate on the line between individuality and conformity at the unique frequency of high school. Still, as the title page of Sarah’s published script quotes:

“We are always the same age inside.”

- Gertrude Stein

I am proud of this Team, honored to be a part of it, and so grateful you are here with us.

We are our own. We are each other’s. We are the Wolves.

Articles & Interviews

Illinois Theatre's The Wolves displays raw honesty

“Under the insightful direction of Nisi Sturgis, The Wolves features one of the strongest, well-knit ensembles I’ve ever seen.”

Tricia Stiller, The News Gazette

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Illinois Theatre’s The Wolves dives deep and scores big

“At its best, theatre creates empathy and understanding. And when done exceptionally well, when it is both tangibly specific and widely universal, as The Wolves is, it yields laughter, breathlessness, and tears. It shakes you up, makes you dig deep, and maybe even see yourself, and your place in the world, in a new way.  And in my particular case, I have not been able to shake these feelings since opening night.”

Debra Domal, Smile Politely