“Wolf Play” by Hansol Jung kicks off our fall 2026 production season and runs for a single week at UB, from October 2 – 4, 2026. Tickets are $10-$25, plus fees: https://www.ticketmaster.com/search?q=into+the+woods+ub+center+for+the+arts

“Wolf Play” by Hansol Jung centers on Jeenu, a young Korean boy whose life is upended when his adoptive father, Peter, arranges for him to live with Robin and her spouse, Ash. After learning more about Jeenu's new home, Peter begins to question the decision and seeks to reinsert himself into the child's life. As Jeenu navigates this transition, his thoughts, fears, and instincts are voiced through Wolf, a theatrical figure who serves as both storyteller and embodiment of the boy's inner world.

Through a blend of humor, heightened theatricality, and emotional drama, the play examines what it means to belong to a family. The story ultimately explores identity, attachment, and the often-complicated ways people seek connection, security, and acceptance.

Theatre & Performance PhD candidate Troy Coleman (he/they) is the dramaturg for the play and has focused much of his research on representations of villainy and theories of masculinity. With degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder (MA) and Colorado State University (BFA), he integrates his scholarly insight with practical performance experience as a stage and screen union actor (AEA & SAG-AFTRA).

Teaching undergraduates and non-majors at UB, Troy has been the instructor of record for Writing About Performance, Basic Acting I, and Basic Acting II while serving as a teaching assistant for additional courses. Coleman has also built a repertoire of performing scumbags, ne’er-do-wells and characters who often meet their demise violently. This recurring stage experience sparked his interest in the psychological and embodied impact of playing bad guys; he continues to use performance-as-research (PaR).

For people who are unfamiliar with “Wolf Play,” how would you introduce it?

“Wolf Play” is a beautiful play by Hansol Jung. It is a memory play that tells the story of an adopted Korean boy, Jeenu, who is grappling with being shuffled from one adoptive home to a new one, contending with adults that try their best but make mistakes. Jeenu struggles to make sense of his shifting world through a puppet and fascination with wolves. The play invites us to think about who our family is, who is in our pack, who do we choose? It is messy and funny and heartbreaking and lovely.

What is the role of a dramaturg? How do you interface with the director, assistant director and cast?

The dramaturg is a part of the creative team that either works exclusively with a particular production or is a part of an integrated part of a theatre company. The dramaturg dates to the 17^th century and has performed a variety of services that support theatrical productions over the years. I find it interesting that dramaturgs actually predate our concept of a director. The definition I have grown to prefer is that the dramaturg is the embedded researcher for the show. Sometimes the dramaturg will provide historical context, sometimes it is definitions, sometimes it is something else entirely. The dramaturg provides the support to help everyone find common ground and understand the world of their play just a little bit better.

What were your first impressions about the play when you read the script?

My first encounter with “Wolf Play” was seeing a production at Louisiana State University in the spring of 2023. At first, I thought I was seeing the play (“The Wolves”) about a soccer team, so I was considerably surprised during the opening monologue. I was thoroughly charmed by the script. It is beautiful and heartbreaking and funny. The puppet part of the show truly fascinated me as I still struggle to shirk my realism theatre training. I did not expect that and fell in love with the convention; it plays an important part of the show. I was also appreciative of the messiness of the play. Mistakes are made and people get hurt, but this is also so much a part of life. I appreciated that the adults are flawed and fumble and continue to try to make it right. In a show where the main character believes they are a wolf and uses a puppet throughout the play, it is tragically and delightfully human.

The character Ash is a boxer; a role often associated with toughness. What is your take on how Ash approaches his relationship with Wolf/Jeenu and the other characters? What is being communicated about masculinity, traditional or otherwise?

I love the role of Ash. The script describes the role of Ash as “AFAB (assigned female at birth) non-binary.” Masculinity becomes a big theme in the play, as does toughness. However, these two attributes are not synonymous nor do they occur simultaneously. There is a myriad of ideas about how masculinity and toughness should look – how are they performed. For Ash, they are a boxer who is breaking convention by fighting a man for their first professional fight. It seems that Ash has been proving themselves for a long time before Jeenu comes into their life. What I love about Ash and Jeenu’s relationship is that they both seem to have been looking out for themselves for a while and being as tough as they needed to be. However, together they find an opportunity to let down their guard, unexpectedly, for the first time in a while.

The characters Ryan and Peter continuously assert what masculinity should be: tough, fearless, dominant. These ideas have been popular tropes of masculinity, especially in western culture. It has evolved and shifted and remains fluid. One hallmark, so far as I have been able to glean through my research, is that they always are believed to be as fact and immutable. “Wolf Play” offers a look at two characters that assert what they believe to be true and at the same time show the faults in their logic. Like many cultures, masculinity is predominantly regulated by those within the culture. I believe “Wolf Play” suggests that some of our ideas about masculinity, traditional or otherwise, can and should be reconsidered rather than accepted as “always been this way.”

The character Jeenu is a Korean-born adoptee who has been adopted by white American parents and then "re-homed" to another family. The playwright, Hansol Jung, is Korean-born, and the play engages with issues surrounding transracial and international adoption, identity, belonging, and the ways adults project their own desires onto adopted children. What do you think the playwright is trying to communicate?

From the research I have done for the show, I can speculate on an aspect that Hansol Jung may have wanted to bring attention to. Adoption in the US is a challenging, time-consuming, and expensive process. International adoptions are even more of all three of these elements and include working with foreign governments. “Rehoming” is a euphemism created for pets that need new homes – it should never have been applied toward children. Unsanctioned forums, like the Yahoo group from the show, allow faster and less costly adoptions but there are incredible risks for this. The greatest risk for the children through these channels is complete lack of oversight and background checks. There are documented cases of known child predators and people with a history of violence successfully getting children through these back-channel options that would never be considered in traditional adoption processes.

The difficult, costly, time-consuming adoption process ensures children aren’t being placed in dangerous homes. There are rigorous background checks. International children in these unsanctioned forums may not even speak the language of the homes they go to; there are rarely follow-up checks from foreign governments and these children can slip quickly become untraceable, even if origin countries do have standard support after the adoption. These lawless exchanges put vulnerable children at risk, treating them as chattel. Thousands of children have appeared on these forums and are placed in new homes with zero oversight. Jeenu’s story, thus, represents thousands of other foreign adoptive children. Transracial and international adoption engages the challenges of potential projection by the adoptive parents, but, in the case of these unsanctioned adoptions, there is additional lack of support by the original adoption organizations that may be the last agency to share the child’s language.

Why did you choose to study representations of villainy and theories of masculinity onstage? Has the representation of masculinity changed much over the last 10 or 20 years of new works? If so, how?

I came by my interest in villainy and masculinity naturally – as a performer, most of my roles have been just horrible men that often meet violent ends. With years of experience, I found myself more curious about how villains are constructed, not just how to play them, but why they are who they are? The role of masculinity always seemed inextricable, as well. Playing a male-coded role didn’t make my characters bad, but being bad was almost always male-coded.

I think representations of masculinity have changed considerably, not just for the last ten to twenty years, but have been incredibly malleable for decades. I believe the most incredible evolution is how the definition of what masculinity means has broadened; the rules for who gets to claim masculinity have begun to relax. There will seemingly always be dissent, championing how it used to be and arguing who gets to portray masculinity. However, I have seen a much richer portrayal offered in shows over the last twenty years or so. There are so many villains from the last century that became the villains simply because they didn’t perform masculinity correctly; villains do not become villains now strictly because they represent failed masculinity. As David Savran observed, “taking it like a man,” has been an imperative for self-regulating masculinity for years. When this is analyzed over the years, it becomes more apparent how “being a man” has continued to shift as a tool for behavior control rather than a gendered expression. When it is not simply accepted as a given that masculinity is conveyed in a limited way, then the nuances for why we think it must become more a part of the conversation.

The play deals with some very heavy themes, but audiences also mention its dark humor. Do you feel that there are comedic elements, and if so, how does comedy help to tell this story?

The play does deal with some very heavy themes, but there are some wonderful moments of comedy. I was taught that there nothing funnier than the truth and the characters in “Wolf Play” are incredibly human – they make mistakes, they fumble, and sometimes they say silly things. It feels very human to see scenes with big emotions and high stakes where a character suddenly says or does something absurd like putting cereal on cold pizza. There are incredibly serious themes and high stakes, especially for Jeenu, but Jung writes in real, charming exchanges for everyone. The moments of levity do not take away from the seriousness, nor do they mock it. Like gallows-humor that is ironic and unexpected, sometimes the most serious times are when we are most inclined to find ourselves unexpectedly laughing. Comedy helps tell the story by making it relatable and making serious themes easier to handle; they draw us in and help us connect with the important parts of the story.

What has this production taught you personally?

I have learned a lot more about boxing than I ever imagined I would. In seriousness, I was taken aback by the dangers adoptive children face and how these unsanctioned forums operated (and still do) in plain sight. I have a strong, personal connection to adoption, and it broke my heart learning how many children face Jeenu’s situations. There needs to be better protection and the ones we have, like the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), need to be better understood and enforced. When I was putting together an article for the show on the high-profile story that may have inspired Jung’s play – an influencer couple from Ohio whose adopted child from China mysteriously disappeared and was “rehomed” – I had to step back several times; the countless actual stories were too heartbreaking to not need to stop and process. Jeenu’s story is incredible, as are the thousands like him that need help. I am still processing, to be honest.

What do you think you would like to do once you’ve completed your PhD in Theatre and Performance at UB?

This is my parents’ favorite question to ask. I returned to grad school because I want to teach in higher education. When I was finishing my master’s degree, I realized how much I loved the research part of grad school and that my interest in villains could lead to some exciting, previously unimagined places. I love theatre and I love acting; it has been a part of my life now for 25 years. I want to teach at the university level, and, literally, write the book on villains. What attracted me to teaching at the university level is knowing what a magical, pivotal time that is for emerging artists. My own training was a product of bad ideas that were once considered gospel. I want to be a part of a safer, more balanced approach that can incorporate some of what I have learned over the years I have been fortunate enough to work in the wonder of performance. I want to make safer, scarier baddies.

Is there anything else you feel potential patrons should know about the show?

This is a tough question, as I personally love to be a bit surprised by a show. That may be counter to my directive as the dramaturg – my duty is not just to the cast and crew, but also to the audience. What I would like the audience coming to see “Wolf Play” to know is that this show touches on some serious themes and features people making mistakes. Theatre would be a lot less interesting without tension. There is a beauty in the characters continuing to try to right their courses, some better than others. We get a chance to peek into a specific world many of us may not know much about – there are a few nuanced worlds in the center of the Venn diagram of Jung’s play. My only advice would be to allow yourself to suspend what you think you know as the show takes you into a world that may be somewhat unfamiliar. I appreciate that this is often the case with theatre – no one has been to Sweeny Todd’s barber shop and then returned to see the musical. However, Jeenu begins the show with the question: “What if I say I am not what you think you see?” This seems a kind invitation to suspend preconceived notions and just let the beautiful story sweep you up.