"Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. A girls indoor soccer team warms up. From the safety of their suburban stretch circle, the team navigates big questions and wages tiny battles with all the vim and vigor of a pack of adolescent warriors. A portrait of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for nine American girls who just want to score some goals." - Concord Theatricals

Thank you, Ascend Federal Credit Union, for sponsoring MTSU Arts.

Thank you to Cole Sims for your special contribution to the production!

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, part of the Rubenstein Arts Access Program, is generously funded by David and Alice Rubenstein.

Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for supporting the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Additional support is provided by The Honorable Stuart Bernstein and Wilma E. Bernstein; the Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; and Beatrice and Anthony Welters and the AnBryce Foundation.

KCACTF is part of JFKC: A Centennial Celebration of John F. Kennedy, inspired by five enduring Ideals often ascribed to JFK: Courage, Freedom, Justice, Service, and Gratitude. Support for JKFC: A Centennial Celebration of John F. Kennedy is provided by Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley, Chevron, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, and Target.

Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts and the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts. This production Is entered In the Kennedy Center American College Theater
Festival (KCACTF). The aims of this national theater education program are to identity and promote quality in college-level theater production. To this end, each production entered is eligible for a response by a regional KCACTF representative, and selected students and faculty are invited to participate in KCACTF programs involving scholarships. internships, grants, and awards for actors, directors, dramaturgs, playwrights, designers, stage managers and critics at both the regional and national levels.

Productions entered on the Participating level are eligible for invitation to the KCACTF regional festival and may also be considered for national awards recognizing outstanding achievement In production, design, direction and performance.

By entering this production, our theater department is sharing in the KCACTF goals to recognize. reward. and celebrate the exemplary work produced in college and university theaters across the nation.

This story asks questions about the essence of girlhood. What does it mean to be a woman, especially in today’s society? When asked about the importance of this piece being told now, director Lauren Shouse said, “This play is like a bomb.” In expanding this metaphor, our production has examined the social pressures of adolescence—the “in-between” of child and adult, constantly shape-shifting as we figure out who we are. Shouse also stated the piece challenges the notion of what it means to be a “good young woman,” giving the characters in the play space to navigate their relationships and choices outside of parents and other classmates. In doing so, the play brings issues and topics to the surface that many would consider uncomfortable to talk about.

Playwright Sarah DeLappe writes a story about a group of girls that explores the societal pressures and expectations of growing up and coming of age in modern day America as a woman. DeLappe began writing the play in 2014 after encountering a museum exhibit that featured scenes of Middle Eastern and North African suicide bombings and civil war. She was moved by the fact that the exhibit gained attention from Americans, but after moving on to the next exhibit, museum goers returned to their electronic devices, and the reality of the Middle East and North Africa remained the same.

DeLappe used this experience as inspiration to think about pressure, not only on a global scale, but in personal relationships as well. It is issues like these and social taboos and stigmas that are brought to light through the lens of these characters: a group of teenage girls on a soccer team. Each girl has a different background, social status, and outlook on life. These differences blend and mesh into one team identity. It is this blended and combined identity that becomes the heart of The Wolves.

The cast and production team are excited to bring these issues to the surface for the audience to ponder, especially for all of the women in the audience. We hope that this piece reminds everyone that inside every person, inside every woman, there is a wolf. Wolves are strong, powerful beings, and when they combine their numbers, a wolfpack can conquer the mightiest of obstacles.