The Dixie State University Theatre Program is featuring an all-female cast in its rendition of “The Wolves,” a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist by playwright Sarah DeLappe.
Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 11-13 and Nov. 16-20 in the Blackbox Theatre in the Dolores Doré Eccles Fine Arts Center on the Dixie State Campus. Admission is free to each performance. The play is recommended for audience members 17 and older due to adult themes and language featured in the performance. The characters discuss everything from genocide and drugs to literature and boys.
“The Wolves” chronicles the lives of members of a soccer team as they prepare for their games. In the course of six weeks, the Wolves deal with love, loss and identity in ways that real teenagers do.
“Like the title suggests, this play has some pretty sharp teeth,” Brandon Bruce, the assistant professor of theatre at Dixie State who is directing the play, said. “It gives us an unvarnished look at these young athletes. We see these young women as their whole selves, warts and all — not just what our society wants them to be.”
The show is meant to break down the stigma around female adolescence and add depth to a group often written off as over emotional and naïve, Mercedes Murguia, cast member and senior theatre student at Dixie State, said.
“This show breaks that stigma and those stereotypes to show that young women are more than just pretty faces,” Murguia said. “The women in this show are strong and powerful. They can handle hard topics and hard conversations. This play is important because it’s a real-life look into what being a young woman is truly like.”
The Dixie State University Theatre Program aims to enrich the community with productions that enhance intellectual, cultural and emotional understanding and development. To learn more about the program, visit theatre.utahtech.edu.