Off-Broadway Encore of All-Female Soccer Play THE WOLVES Starts Tonight

The Playwrights Realm welcomes back The Wolves, Sarah DeLappe's debut play. The most recent addition is Kate Arrington, who will star alongside the original soccer team cast including Susannah Perkins, Lauren Patten (Fun Home), Jenna Dioguardi, Tedra Millan, Sarah Mezzanotte, Brenna Coates, Samia Finnerty, Midori Francis, and Lizzy Jutila.

"During the record-breaking run of Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, we were completely sold-out, and had to turn people away nightly," says The Playwrights Realm Producing Director Roberta Pereira. "Sarah is now in residence at The Realm as our Page One Playwright and we are thrilled to be partnering with Scott Rudin and Eli Bush to give this production a further life and share it with many more people."

Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. An all 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. The Wolvesis a portrait of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for nine American girls who just want to score some goals.

The Wolves is directed by Lila Neugebauer and features an all-female cast featuring Susannah Perkins, Lauren Patten (Fun Home), Jenna Dioguardi, Tedra Millan, Sarah Mezzanotte, Brenna Coates, Samia Finnerty, Midori Francis, Lizzy Jutila and Kate Arrington. The creative team includes Laura Jellinek (set design), Lap Chi Chu (lighting design), Ásta Bennie Hostetter (costume design) and Stowe Nelson & Beth Lake (sound design).DeLappe's award-winning debut play makes a triumphant return to The Realm's new home for their 2016-17 season, The Duke on 42 Street.

The Wolves will run tonight, November 29, through December 24 (see above schedule) at The Duke on 42 Street (229 W 42nd Street, Manhattan). Regular tickets for The Wolves are priced at $65 and are now on sale. Visit dukeon42.org or call 646-223-3010. For more details, visit playwrightsrealm.org.

The Wolves was a shared recipient of the First Annual Relentless Award, presented in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the largest cash prize awarded in American Theater. Despite working on commissions from the Sloan Foundation, Playwrights Horizons, Studio Theater in D.C. and participating in New Georges Audrey residency, The Wolves marks DeLappe's Off-Broadway debut and first professional production.

DeLappe began writing The Wolves in the summer of 2014 after attending the New Museum's exhibition "Here & Elsewhere" after being struck by the great distance between the ordinary daily experience of suburban young Americans and their counterparts in other countries - most of the artists featured were from the Middle East, including Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The Wolves captures these young women attempting to digest their ideas of world history, while in the same breath, coming to terms with the reality of their changing adolescent bodies. DeLappe's razor sharp rendering of female adolescence challenges the tired, media peddled stereotypes.

About the play DeLappe says,"These women are warriors. Each scene is a warm-up for a soccer game: they're a troop preparing for battle."

Over the past decade, The Playwrights Realm has continually produced work by brave new voices and worked to introduce new initiatives to expand its commitment to providing holistic support to playwrights as they strive to make a life in the arts. DeLappe is The Realm's 2016-17 Page One Resident Playwright, a cornerstone of The Realm's services, for which one playwright receives a $10,000 stipend, health insurance, internal readings, travel and professional development funds, theater tickets, and a fully stocked desk in The Realm's offices. The approach is designed to allow a playwright the physical and mental time, space, and resources to take a meaningful step forward in their career.

The Wolves was part of Vassar & New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater season in Summer 2016. Playwrights Horizons Theater School produced a workshop of The Wolves in 2015 in association with Clubbed Thumb, where the play had been developed previously.

Casting by Telsey + Company, William Cantler, CSA & Karyn Casl, CSA.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Sarah DeLappe's play The Wolves was a recipient of the American Playwriting Foundation's inaugural Relentless Award. The Wolves was also a finalist for the 2016 Yale Drama Prize and a finalist for the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Sarah has been a resident artist at Sitka Fellows Program and SPACE on Ryder Farm. An alum of Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group, she is currently a member of Ars Nova Play Group and the New Georges Audrey Residency. She has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, the Studio Theater, and EST / Sloan Foundation. MFA: in progress at Brooklyn College. BA: Yale.

Lila Neugebauer. Upcoming: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Everybody and Annie Baker's The Antipodes (all at Signature Theatre). Recent directing: Miles for Mary (The Mad Ones at The Bushwick Starr), Albee's The Sandbox, Fornes' Drowning, and Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro (as an evening), Kill Floor (Lincoln Center Theater), The Wayside Motor Inn (Drama Desk Nomination, Signature Theatre), Mike Bartlett's An Intervention (Williamstown), Amy Herzog's After The Revolution and 4000 Miles (Baltimore Center Stage), Zoe Kazan's Trudy and Max in Love and Eliza Clark's Future Thinking (South Coast Rep), Lucas Hnath's Red Speedo (Studio Theatre), Dan LeFranc's Troublemaker (Berkeley Rep), Partners and O Guru Guru Guru (2014, 2013 Humana Festivals), Annie Baker's The Aliens (San Francisco Playhouse, Studio Theatre), The Valley of Fear (Williamstown), and Associate Directing Karen O's Stop The Virgens (St. Ann's Warehouse, Sydney Opera House). As co-artistic director of The Mad Ones, Neugebauer conceives and directs ensemble-devised work, including Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War (Ars Nova, New Ohio Theatre) and The Essential Straight and Narrow (New Ohio Theatre). She is an alumna of the Drama League, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Ensemble Studio Theatre member, New Georges Affiliated Artist and a Princess Grace Award recipient.

ABOUT THE CAST:

Kate Arrington Broadway: Our Mother's Brief Affair, Grace, The American Plan; The Qualms (Playwrights Horizons); The Iceman Cometh (BAM); Happy Now? (Primary Stages); When the Messenger is Hot (59E59). Steppenwolf Theatre Company member: East of Eden, Belleville, Hot L Baltimore, et al. TV: Billions, Good Wife, Elementary.

Brenna Coates (#7) graduated from NYU Tisch in 2015. She recently starred in the short film SHEBANG which premiered at the InsideOut Festival in Toronto, and played the role of Pat in the Family Channel film ICE GIRLS earlier this year. Coates is thrilled to be making her Off-Broadway debut.

Jenna Dioguardi (#13) was The Manager of the girls varsity soccer team at her high school. Theater: The Wolves (NYSAF, Clubbed Thumb/PHTS), Jen Silverman's That Poor Girl...(NYU), Political Subversities (ThePIT). TV: Billy on the Street. Storytelling: KGB Bar. BFA: NYU.

Samia Finnerty (#14) has been performing in New York for the past five years. She originated the part of Sylvie in Katie Cappielo's SLUT which premiered at the Fringe Festival and toured nationally. As a singer/songwriter, Samia has played at various venues including Joe's Pub, The Cutting Room, and Webster Hall.

Midori Francis (#8) Connected at 59E59 Theatres, Peter and The Starcatcher at Virginia Stage, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Syracuse Stage, The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Shakespeare's Globe, The Wolves at New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse. Workshops of Usual Girls, at The Ford Studio Signature Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre (Bloodworks Reading Series.) Television: Younger. BFA in acting from Rutgers, MGSA.

Lizzy Jutila (#00) In 2015 she graduated from The Hartt School, University of Hartford with a B.F.A in Actor Training. Other credits include: Seven Fragments (2016 NYC FRIGID FESTIVAL) A Christmas Carol (Hartford Stage Company) Commercial/Webseries: Treadin' Water (Swedish Fish). She is thrilled to be a part of the pack!

Sarah Mezzanotte (#2) made her debut in the world premiere of Ruby Rae Spiegel's Dry Land (HERE), after graduating from NYU Tisch. Sarah is currently a Series Regular on Amazon's new series The Interestings. Previous credits include: Recurring on Royal Pains, guest starring on Law and Order, and pilots Truth Slash Fiction and Search Party.

Tedra Millan (#46) is proud to howl with this extraordinary collection of women. She recently understudied Rose in The Flick (Barrow Street Theatre) and played Lady Anne in Ducdame Ensemble's Dames of Thrones (International Shakespeare Center). BFA: University of Michigan. MA: The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art. www.tedramillan.com

Lauren Patten (#25) Broadway: Fun Home. Off-Broadway: Training Wisteria. Selected Regional: Home Street Home (Z Space); Spring Awakening (Deaf West); Our Town, Bus Stop, The Diary of Anne Frank (Rubicon); Wait Until Dark (Geffen); A Christmas Carol (Goodman). Film/TV: The Big Sick, Switched at Birth, Awkward, Arrested Development.

Susannah Perkins (#11) Off-Broadway debut. Recent stage credits include Every Angel Is Brutal (Clubbed Thumb), Sisters On The Ground (Playwrights Horizons Theatre School), and All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare In The Square).

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The Playwrights Realm is devoted to supporting early career playwrights along the journey of playwriting, helping them to hone their craft, fully realize their vision and build meaningful artistic careers. To serve this mission, The Playwrights Realmprovides comprehensive support to playwrights through its Page One Residency,Alumni Playwrights Program, Writing Fellows Residency, and, of course, productions. Previous productions by The Realm include Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, Mfoniso Udofia's Sojourners, Anna Ziegler's A Delicate Ship, Anton Dudley's City Of, Elizabeth Irwin's My Mañana Comes, Lauren Yee's The Hatmaker's Wife, Ethan Lipton's Red-Handed Otter, Jen Silverman's Crane Story, Gonzalo Rodríguez Risco's Dramatis Personae, Christopher Wall's Dreams of the Washer King, Anna Ziegler's Dov and Ali, and Anton Dudley's Substitution. Visit www.PlaywrightsRealm.org.

The Duke on 42nd Street is an intimate black-box performance space in the heart of the theater district, which is available for rental to both nonprofit and commercial organizations. Featuring a gallery along all four walls and a custom, state-of-the-art seating system. The Duke on 42nd Street is a fully-staffed facility that offers full light, sound, and support systems in various configurations. Some performing arts companies have called The Duke on 42nd Street their home, including Primary Stages, Transport Group, Theatre for a New Audience and Lincoln Center Theater LCT3, while other acclaimed companies have performed on its stage, including The Royal Court Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Armitage Gone! Dance, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Naked Angels, Classical Theater of Harlem and the National Theater of Great Britain.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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