Festival’s Words Cubed Program to Feature Two New Plays

The Utah Shakespeare Festival is pleased to announce two new plays to be presented through their Words Cubed new play program in the month of August. Crisis Goalie by Tom Lavagnino and Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin by Dianne Nora were chosen from among 575 submissions.

Words Cubed seeks to nurture and develop openly submitted plays by providing a professionally supported platform for readings and workshops. Playwrights spend a week at the Festival in rehearsals with directors, actors, and stage managers as they refine and rework their plays. At the end of the week, the revised plays are presented as staged readings, followed by a lively, interactive discussion between the playwright, actors, and audience.

Crisis Goalie
By Tom Lavagnino
August 9, 10, 21, and 23, 2024
Anes Studio Theatre

The play, Crisis Goalie, written by Tom Lavagnino and directed by Britannia Howe, is the story of two siblings––Carl and Peg––who create an artificial intelligence robot named Joanie to help care for their aging mother and attend to her every need. But things don’t go according to plan for Joanie or the family. Crisis Goalie is a play of today…and of tomorrow.

The cast includes Festival company members Chauncy Thomas, Cassandra Bissell, Evelyn Carol Case, and Elise Thayn, with stage directions read by Matthew Wangemann.

Lavagnino says, “I am super-honored to have the opportunity to work with the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s wondrous Words Cubed resources, personnel, and audiences to ‘sharpen the knife’ of Crisis Goalie.” Lavagnino is a native of Indianapolis, a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and AFI’s Center For Advanced Film Studies, and currently resides in Los Angeles. He is an award-winning playwright, editor, film writer, and consulting producer.

He comments that the story tells of “robotics, sibling rivalry, A.I., familial responsibility, the Dewey Decimal System (remember that?), the necessity of maintaining a medication schedule for the optimization of health, and (perhaps most saliently) the inevitability of aging.”

Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin
By Dianne Nora
August 16,17, 22, and 24, 2024
Anes Studio Theatre

The second play in development is Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin, written by Dianne Nora and directed by John DiAntonio. When Soso is left for dead on the Eastern Front, he’s taken in by the Kremlin due to his shocking resemblance to a certain someone. Koba is tasked with training him to perform the role of a lifetime: Stalin’s body double.

It features Festival company members John Harrell as Koba and Christopher Centinaro as Soso, with stage directions read by Valerie Martire.

Nora is a playwright, dramaturg, and comedy writer. Besides theatre works, she has contributed to The Onion, Funny Or Die, and The Hard Times. She holds degrees from Columbia University, Trinity College Dublin, and New York University.

“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to develop my play Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin with John DiAntonio and the artists at Utah Shakespeare Festival,” Nora says. “While much of the story is taken from historical sources, it’s also a deeply personal play for me, so I feel especially lucky to share it. I hope the play’s provocations on the nature of power and performance will resonate with audiences at the Festival, and that I’ll emerge with a stronger, more production-ready script after my time with Words Cubed. The opportunity to focus on the script while surrounded by exceptional artistry and natural beauty means the world to me, and I’m thankful for Utah Shakes’ continued dedication to new play development.”

Words Cubed is hosted annually during the month of August. Information on play submissions for 2025 will be available on the Festival’s website in the fall. As a general note, the plays in this series are written for contemporary adult audiences, and may contain themes and language not appropriate for children and that some may find offensive.

For more information about the Words Cubed program, click here. Tickets for Words Cubed are $10 and can be purchased at the Festival Ticket Office, online at bard.org, or by calling 800-PLAYTIX.