Chanticleers Theatre Presents The Wolves
Chanticleers Theatre is excited to announce the third show in their 2023 season, a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama entitled The Wolves. Opening Friday, August 4 - Sunday, August 27 (Fridays & Saturdays @ 8:00 p.m., Sundays @ 6:00 p.m.)
Chanticleers Theatre is excited to announce the third show in their 2023 season, a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama entitled The Wolves. Penned by American playwright Sarah DeLappe, this thrilling portrait of female adolescence revolves around a team of high school girls as they partake in weekly pre-game soccer warmups.
Says director Molly Aaronson-Gelb, “Just as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? shocked its audience so much with its raw portrayal of a married couple and its use of language that it was passed over for the Pulitzer Prize, this play shocks with the real-life experience of being a teenager in today’s world of Instagram, college applications, and intensely competitive sports.”
The Wolves pulls no punches. As part of the hyper-real theatre movement, the dialogue is brutally honest, a refreshing look at how teens talk when no adults are around to judge them. Their conversations take us on a whirlwind tour of the adolescent mind, covering a wide range of subjects, from bodily functions to genocide to friendships, all while juggling and passing a soccer ball on an indoor soccer field.
Says actor Skyelar Clouse, who plays #00 on the team, ”The Wolves was one of the first scripts I read where I actually felt like I wasn't alone in my experience with athletics, with high school, and with just being a teenage girl. The dialogue is raw, the stories are real, and it shows girls in their most authentic selves as constantly growing and changing individuals."
Actor Sara Guillen (#7) agrees. “So often teenage girls are an overlooked demographic, but this show shines a light on how complicated and messy and mean and loving and kind and three-dimensional they are."
The Wolves is a show not to be missed. More than just a powerful portrayal of teenage angst, it is, in the end, a celebration of life, with all of its beautiful chaos. Says Aaronson-Gelb, “The Wolves reminds us why theater matters. It allows us to have empathy for people we may not know, to feel the stakes of life as they do, viscerally.”
Tickets are $30 for adults and $25 for seniors and students. Patrons can make purchases at chanticleers.org or call 510-SEE-LIVE (510-733-5483).
Chanticleers Theatre is a nonprofit community theater organization with a rich history dating back to 1948. Today, Chanticleers Theatre is a 99-seat playhouse, serving Castro Valley and the greater East Bay. Known as “Castro Valley’s Little Theatre in the Park”, Chanticleers is located in the Castro Valley Community Park right across from the Veterans Memorial and next to the children’s waterpark and playground.