“Nine girls in uniform stretch in a circle on an AstroTurf indoor soccer field. They do the same stretch at the same time for the same amount of time.” This first stage direction in The Wolves introduces us to the activity that the 16- and 17-year-old characters will do for most of the play: warming…

On crisp autumn nights at Chicago’s Toyota Park, fans cheer on a professional soccer team. The crowd size, however, depends on which team is on the field. More than 17,000 fans typically pack in to support the Chicago Fire. But attendance for the Chicago Red Stars hovers around only 3,000. The difference? The Red Stars’…

For decades, the competitive and energizing world of sports has been the backdrop for many acclaimed theatrical works. From Clifford Odets’ boxing-themed drama Golden Boy to the baseball centric Damn Yankees and Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out, writers use athletics to create high-stakes drama, to build atmosphere and as a metaphor for life’s challenges. Yet…