HELL HATH TURNED OVER. F*CK by Brandon Bautista

Some of the best ideas and moments I’ve ever put on stage came out of our team being silly— joking around and having fun. These natural impulses come from pure creativity, and through collaboration we discover more details that become uniquely our version of this story. We now get to welcome you, our audience, to celebrate with us the hard work we’ve put in.

When I first read Wolf Play, I was struck by the beautiful ways Hansol would make me laugh on one page, and cry on another. At the same time of reading (and even to this day), I felt my world around me pushing itself towards “normalcy”, being “better than before”, or just trying to survive. Collectively, we are figuring out how to exist in a post-COVID and more AI-driven era; the 2024 Presidential Election looms towards us like an incoming hailstorm, and though it may not be immediately visible to us, there are wars, global conflicts, and genocides taking place that affect us with confusion, rage, and sadness. And then there are the specific challenges and happenings we deal with in our individual daily lives. 

And so our Wolf Play invites us all to see the world like a child. Our set consists of giant building blocks and a blanket fort. Throughout the story, notice the toys, handmade materials (especially our puppet made out of H Mart bags and Korean newspapers), and silly sounds that come from each of our own childhoods and imaginations — jokes and ideas we made when we weren’t taking ourselves too seriously, but were 1000% true for our storytelling. When stressful situations surrounded us outside the rehearsal room, my goal as a director was to offer a playful and safe place where we could explore these unique characters and their real emotions together. It has been a privilege to play with the students and faculty of Brandeis, and to bring together this exquisite team of designers from across the country. I hope that you in the audience can play with us, too.