An awkward silence fell over the green-lit stage as the new soccer player, number 46, attempted to chime in on the team’s rapid, chaotic conversation. Without missing a beat, player number seven snapped at her to “shut up.”
After a brief pause, the audience at GDS Theater Lab’s fall production The Wolves erupted into laughter at the introduction of the hopelessly awkward newcomer, setting the tone for the hilarious yet tragic story of nine teenage girls on an indoor soccer team.
This year’s Fall Theater Lab, a semiannual production of a play chosen by GDS dance and acting teacher Maria Watson, ran on Dec. 11, 12 and 13. The 90-minute play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah DeLappe follows the team through their warmup discussions of politics, identity and life.
“[The Wolves] was a cool choice for a play because, while it was about a soccer team, it focused mainly on the individual growth and relationships between the characters,” sophomore Sophia Ingersoll, who attended the play, said.
Watson selected The Wolves because she was interested in the premise of an girls indoor soccer team and because it was written by a female playwright. “One thing that I really liked about the play is that a lot of times in shows, if you have a bunch of female teenagers sitting around talking, it’s about clothes or makeup or boys,” Watson said. “And for this, they are sitting around; they’re talking about political events. They’re talking about cancer. They’re talking about their relationships with each other.”
“You can’t learn much about someone from talking about makeup, but seeing how they react to such heavy conversations shows their priorities, concerns and view of the world,” senior Tristan Fulton said, “and that’s pretty much what being a teenage girl is all about.”
Watson noted that one challenge of rehearsing “The Wolves” was that, unlike most theater productions, nearly every scene required the entire cast to be onstage, so all actors had to be present at most rehearsals.
“You have to rely on each other, whether it’s for soccer or for acting; [The Wolves is] really an ensemble show,” Watson said. “Everybody got really close during the show because you’re forced to.”
“It’s honestly so amazing to have a smaller cast, especially coming from a huge cast in ‘Anne Frank,’ which could sometimes feel like I couldn’t get to know everyone well,” sophomore Liv Glendinning, who played number 14, said. “I feel so bonded with this group, and it helps my performance because I can draw on my close relationships to the other girls.”
“I’m number 13, who’s super goofy and makes stupid jokes all the time. I do a lot of the same stuff,” Fulton said. “I did still have to change a lot in terms of understanding her motivations. Most of all, the other cast members helped me a lot with understanding my character, especially those who’ve been acting a while.”
Sophomore Stella Kaplan had never participated in a GDS theater production before her role as player number 46. “I was kind of surprised because people get really into their characters,” Kaplan said. “People come up with backstories so that they can make the emotions really specific.”
Kaplan added that Theater Lab felt especially welcoming to new actors because it is smaller than other GDS productions, held in the dance studio instead of the black box.
“Having played soccer before, I think the overall feelings of being on a team and the stress and community you get from that were pretty relatable,” Ingersoll said. “It captured how a sports team is way more than just a group of people who play in games together.”