At first glance it may seem like Spokane Civic Theatre and ONE Spokane Stadium, home of the Spokane Zephyr and Spokane Velocity soccer teams, share only a parking lot in common, but dig a little deeper and you’ll see the two entities are more connected than you might think.
Both the Zephyr and Velocity, part of the United Soccer League, have called on Civic performers to sing the national anthem before games, and the Zephyr filmed their media day at the theater.
Behind the scenes, a shared last name – Harnetiaux – also bonds the two organizations. Bryan Harnetiaux has been the playwright in residence at Civic since 1982, while Harnetiaux’s son Ryan and his daughter-in-law Katie co-own USL Spokane with Whitney and Jordan Tampien.
Reilly Harnetiaux, daughter of Ryan and Katie, works as the community and media relations manager, and one of their sons often helps with sales calls from his home in Nevada. Katie’s mother works in the merch store, and Ryan’s sister has done some film work for USL.
Ryan, Reilly and her brothers all grew up playing soccer and performing in shows at Civic. In fact, Reilly said she’s able to confidently emcee games because of her experience on the Civic stage.
All that to say that when Civic decided to produce Sarah DeLappe’s “The Wolves,” a play about a high school soccer team, it made perfect sense for the worlds of art and athletics to combine once more.
Set in an indoor soccer facility, “The Wolves” centers around a soccer team called the Wolves. Each scene finds the players warming up before their games, chatting as they stretch.
The girls often take part in multiple conversations at once, covering everything from school gossip and wanting to play soccer in college to politics and their hungover coach. As the season, and the show, continues, relationships change between the girls, for better and for worse.
“The Wolves” stars Katelyn Rush (No. 11), Meg Barlow-Jones (No. 25), Delaney Kahler (No. 13), Ash Bingo (No. 46), Ruby Krajic (No. 2), Mary Ormsby (No. 7), Alessia Adams (No. 14), Jillian Selley (No. 8), Katie Smithgall (No. 00) and Ladonna Wojtowicz (Soccer Mom).
The show is directed by Dawn Taylor Reinhardt. It opens Friday and runs through March 30 at Spokane Civic Theatre’s Firth J Chew Studio Theatre. The Spokane Zephyr’s season continues Saturday with a game against the Carolina Ascent at ONE Spokane Stadium.
Because “The Wolves” drops audiences into the middle of the team’s conversations, Reinhardt and the cast worked hard during rehearsals to create an authentic camaraderie that would be apparent from the moment the lights go up.
“Most of these girls, we established that they have been playing together since they were 4 or 5 years old,” she said. “We talked about ‘Whose houses have they been to? Where would the sleepovers be? There’s two of them who no longer hang out. What happened?’ Because it’s not really discussed, so it’s all character-driven choices.”
Before handling the atypical narrative of “The Wolves,” which doesn’t follow the more traditional beginning-middle-end storyline, Reinhardt had to tackle the atypical casting. The first challenge was choosing actors who could realistically appear to be in the same age group. There were 12- and 13-year-old auditioners who could probably play 17-year-olds, Reinhardt said, but when placed next to actual 17-year-olds, the age gap was apparent.
Reinhardt also had to evaluate auditioners for both their acting and athletic abilities. To help with the latter element, Reinhardt asked soccer coach Amber Domrese for advice. Reinhardt also ended up casting two auditioners who have never acted before, because of their soccer experience.
“When I was talking about the audition, I was talking about you’ve got to look at the soccer like it’s choreography, but you still have to look like you know what you’re doing,” she said.
To help the actors feel comfortable portraying athletes, Reinhardt and the actors connected with Reilly Harnetiaux and Zephyr athletes.
The athletes attended a rehearsal and played a passing game with the actors, and Reinhardt instructed the actors to watch the players’ footwork and notice physicalities, like how they carried themselves or sat down.
“There was a lot of joy in the room,” Reinhardt said. “The girls were in awe of these athletes. They were actually quite nervous, too, before they came in, just because they have to show what they’ve been working on.”
Harnetiaux said the feeling was mutual when the actors attended a Zephyr practice. The Civic team received a tour of the stadium and got to spend one-on-one time with the athletes, learning about playing soccer as well as soccer lingo and, something Reinhardt noted the actors were curious about, how they wore their hair.
Hairstyles aside, because “The Wolves” is a character-driven piece that keeps the actors in one location for the entire show, there is no need for set or costume changes. Reinhardt said the biggest issue was finding out where to place soccer ball bags so they don’t get in the way of the drills.
There are also plans in place for if an actor loses control of a soccer ball during the show.
“The biggest thing is don’t have your drinks on the floor if you’re in that front row,” she said.
Throughout this process, Harnetiaux and Reinhardt have found multiple similarities between theater and soccer. One has a director and backstage crew, the other has coaches and trainers. One has a cast of actors, the other has a team of players. There’s intermission and halftime, costumes and uniforms, a standard play and soccer match are about 90 minutes too.
Reinhardt said both performers and athletes have to leave personal issues at the door to focus on the performance or game, while Harnetiaux said both groups of women are working on two different goals – performing a successful show and winning a soccer game – but with the same intention, an intention USL Spokane and Civic share as well.
“They have the same intention, which is to serve the community and to put on a show that will engage and fulfill and excite the people of Spokane,” she said.
If You Go
‘The Wolves’
When: Friday through March 30. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. March 15 and 29 performances at 2 p.m.
Where: Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St.
Cost: $15/students ages 5-25; $30/adults.
Read the full article here
Article by Azaria Podplesky
Photo by Ryan Wasson