Looking for something that wasn’t entirely experimental — and not a Shakespearean reboot — Nichole Rougeau-Vanderford and Micaela Grenier decided to partner to produce “The Wolves.”
Sarah DeLappe’s “The Wolves” will be staged Jan. 12-14 at the CEED Auditorium, North 1310 FM 1788 in Midland.
The play, written by Sarah DeLappe, chronicles several practices of a girls’ soccer team, allowing the audience to eavesdrop on conversations about politics, women’s health, relationships and love, a news release said.
Rather than using a traditional stage format, the University of Texas Permian Basin production places the audience around an AstroTurf stage on which the actors complete soccer drills. The production features a cast of traditional college students, local high school theater students, and community members.
Rougeau-Vanderford is a senior lecturer in English and theatre faculty member at UTPB and the producer and creative director for “The Wolves.”
Grenier, head theatre director at Permian High School, was the acting director on “The Wolves” and has Big Sky Productions.
Rougeau-Vanderford said when the CEED Building was renovated, they asked that the auditorium be turned into an open Black Box space that could offer flexible seating and staging.
“While The Wolves wonderfully highlights the complexity and intimacy of team and feminine dynamics, the play does contain adult themes and language. Parental discretion is advised,” the release said.
For tickets go to tinyurl.com/2uvbj4a4. Performances are at 7 p.m. Jan. 12 and 13 and 2 p.m. Jan. 14.
“We did ‘Love/Sick’ by John Cariani in the spring and I wanted something that was that next step. It wasn’t completely experimental. It wasn’t a Shakespeare reboot or anything like that,” so they settled on “The Wolves,” Rougeau-Vanderford said.
“With UTPB’s 50th anniversary and with us trying to get the theater program back up and running, I really wanted to try and do some kind of community collaboration and so I partnered up with Micaela and we started working on Sarah DeLappe’s ‘The Wolves.’ What I love about this play is that it’s very simple in terms of costuming and staging. As you see, we have the Astroturf that mimics the soccer field. The entire plot revolves around six practices of an all girls soccer team. These girls have been playing together for 13 years and their practices include lots of conversations that really show the complexity of the teenage girl. We have, of course, discussions of relationships and love, but it gets more complex because girls today are very socially aware. They have discussions about politics, culture, and it’s just a very different play than the traditional stage setup with the audience just staring at a stage,” Rougeau-Vanderford said.
There are 10 cast members who are a blend of high school students, college students and community members. The soccer mom is played by Amber Gray.
Rougeau-Vanderford said the play needs parental discretion.
“There’s sexual content. There’s mature language, but even then, I think it’s a great play for parents and older teenagers to come to and to spark conversations,” she added.
The women in the play are known by their numbers throughout. The audience doesn’t learn the names of most of the girls, but there are one or two whose names are revealed at the end.
“What we have throughout is about four weeks of practices, where we see the dynamics of the girls and then one of the girls is killed in a car accident. Then you see how the team … has to come back together and how do you come back together? This is a team that’s been playing together for over 13 years and how do you recover from something like that? The ending is very emotionally heavy, but it is that pivotal seed that … ties it all together. What is this play about and I just would love people to really listen to what the soccer mom says in that final scene because it is just so eye-opening about how adults view the intellect of teenage girls; that it’s not just all about boys. There are some really great conversations that they have and it’s really funny watching this group, because you can really see what Sarah DeLappe is trying to capture. Just listening to them talk as they get ready for their rehearsal is wonderful,” Rougeau-Vanderford said.
Many of the cast members had to be taught soccer basics as they are acting while they’re doing soccer drills.
“It’s very physical and they have to really concentrate. They do a great job … With every rehearsal, they’ve had a warm-up routine, and then they do their drills,” Rougeau-Vanderford said.
Lexie Davisson has been involved in theater for several years.
“I’ve been having a really good time. All the cast is really nice to each other. There’s a lot of camaraderie amongst the group. I love the directors and I feel like we’ve always, even whenever we felt like maybe we wouldn’t do great, we’ve always had like that trust in each other,” Davisson said.
Learning soccer enough to practice on stage was one of the hardest parts.
“I get really out of breath really fast,” Davisson said.
A Permian High School graduate, she is an Odessa College student studying to become an early childhood teacher.
“I’m really excited,” Davisson said of the production. “I think it was kind of scary at the start just because we didn’t have much time to rehearse but I think that we’ve all done better than any of us expected to do and I’m really excited” for people to see it.
Hope Mewhorter, a PHS junior, has been in theater productions at the Permian Playhouse since sixth grade. She had just finished the last show at the Playhouse and wanted something else to do. She heard about “The Wolves” and has known Rougeau-Vanderford “forever,” so she went for it.
“It’s really cool. It’s really different than a lot of things that the theatre community in Odessa has done and I think that’s really important and cool,” Mewhorter said.
She added that this production is really different than most of the fare that people see here.
“It talks about such heavy topics in the show and it’s just such a different thing than everybody’s seen. Everybody’s so used to kids plays and adult musicals, but this is really different,” Mewhorter said.
Hope Joyce, a senior at PHS, said she knew about “The Wolves” because her director was doing it.
“I really wanted to try something different and I guess more mature than anything else I’ve ever been in, especially transitioning from high school theater to college theater. … I think this has really helped me with that,” Joyce said.
She added that she thinks the play could change people’s perceptions of teenage girls as it delves into characters that have deep philosophical connections.
“They expect them to be almost fake and like, like, like, like, you know, but we’re all really genuine with how we portray these characters and how we play these roles that I think it’s really going to surprise everyone,” Joyce said.
Like the other cast members, Joyce is looking forward to the production.
“I think this will really give the community a new … fresh taste in their mouths. It’s something they’ve never really seen before. A lot of our theater in the community is more children-based and surrounds a younger audience, so having the show that’s centered around women and women that are really relatable where whether you were that girl or you raised that girl, it’s like you know these characters somehow,” Joyce said.
Megan Lowry, a PHS senior, said she found out the play had a soccer aspect and she played the sport for a long time.
“It’s just it’s combining my two favorite things — soccer and theater,” Lowry said.
She added that the production is amazing and she loved working with the cast because she has either gone to school with or does go to school with just about every actor.
“It shows the side of teenagers that most adults don’t want to see because in the show, we curse and we discuss things such as sexual acts, and we see each other getting mad at each other, but we love each other. And a lot of adults don’t want to think about teenagers are actually human beings,” Lowry said.
Grenier said she has worked with Rougeau-Vanderford before, but not in this capacity. “The Wolves” is one of her favorite plays.
“I love stories about women and teenage girls are women in the making. It’s one of my favorite pieces of theater. It’s newer. It won a bunch of awards. It’s made its way through the college and high school circuit. I think it’s a really important story to tell and I think it’s different than what we’ve seen from theater in this community before,” Grenier said.
She added that she is bursting with pride over this group of actors.
“I’m so proud of them. … Some of these girls are the girls that I teach at high school and getting to see them in particular come here and work with these college girls, or these women that have moved on from education in that way and how they keep up and how much they’ve grown and how they’ve all gelled together to tell this story about life and about emotion and grief and friendship, has just been amazing. It’s them and it’s us and it’s something that everybody can relate to and it’s been an honor to watch them develop into that,” Grenier said.
The hope is that this will mean more productions like “The Wolves.”
“Part of this collaboration in this process for myself, personally, it’s my goal to create a different dynamic for community theater in our area, and to serve a different purpose than maybe just children’s theater, or … ‘Grease the Musical.’ Those things are wonderful and they have their place in art, but something different, something that reflects our community and different parts of our community, that’s something that is really important to me and I’m hoping to to help develop after this production,” Grenier said.
