The Wolves: A Play

What does it mean that The Wolves is a coming-of-age story? Choose one character and follow them through the play. Describe their coming of age and what that means for that individual character. Is the one character’s growth indicative of adolescence in this context overall?

What is the significance of the orange slices? What about the photo? What do they mean to the girls? Analyze why the Soccer Mom brings them at the end.

Research the different soccer positions mentioned in the play and the character descriptions. How do the positions correlate, contradict, or reveal things about each character’s personality? Why does the author pair the girls with soccer specifically?

What are three experiences in the play that are specific and unique to young women as they grow up? How do they speak to the way women are treated in the world? Using your knowledge of women’s soccer in the US, is the girls’ soccer team a microcosm of the country?

Research one of the genocides the characters talk about. How does your research compare to the information in their conversation? Why do you think the playwright chose to have the girls discuss such tragedies as genocide?

The name of the team is significant, because the playwright uses it as the play’s title. What does it mean that they are wolves? How do they show that they are wolves? Find three examples in the play and analyze each.

What is American exceptionalism, and how does it appear in the play? How does this relate to the play’s setting as well as the team’s discussion of global events?

What do you think is the most significant image in the play? Why does it stand out? What do you think it means, and how does it function in the play?