Words Cubed

Words Cubed

About the Show

Words Cubed is the Festival’s new play program that seeks to nurture and develop openly submitted, solicited, and commissioned plays. By providing a professionally supported platform for readings, workshops, and fully realized productions, it is a part of an ongoing commitment to create a diverse body of work.

Playwrights spend a week at the Festival during our summer season 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 or workshops, followed by a lively, interactive discussion between the playwright, actors, and audience.

Tickets are $20 and are available online, or by visiting or calling the Ticket Office at (800)-PLAYTIX.

“A” Play: Morphology

by Jillian Blevins
August 7, 8, 19, and 21, 2026

Nico, a nonverbal Autistic teenager, longs to be understood by his mother Claudia, a former academic who longs most for him to speak. When Claudia’s own mother Arlene intervenes and tries to convince Claudia to place Nico in a group home, their attempts to reach each other grow more desperate, Nico reaches out to one creature he thinks might understand him, and their carefully balanced world starts coming undone. Written in a mix of verse and prose, Morphology explores the power and inadequacy of language, what it means to know one another, and what we can learn from deep sea biology.

“B” Play: The Forgeries of Jealousy

by Grant Goodman
August 14, 15, 20, and 22, 2026

It’s 1795, and Bardolatry is at its height. Georgian theatre audiences are ravenous for Shakespeare, while literary London longs to uncover any forgotten work by the “Sweet Swan of Avon.” The Forgeries of Jealousy tells the astonishing true story of William Henry Ireland, the teenager who so convincingly forged Shakespearean letters, manuscripts and even an entire “lost play” that he deceived much of eighteenth-century England. Beneath the sensational literary fraud, however, lies the deeply personal story of a son desperate to win the love and admiration of a father incapable of giving it. Exploring authorship, authenticity, ambition and identity, The Forgeries of Jealousy asks not only what makes a masterpiece, but whether the truth matters as much as the story we yearn to believe.

Words Cubed 2027

Two plays––titles TBA––will have staged readings during August 2027. Tickets will be $20 and will be available online, or by visiting or calling the Ticket Office at (800)-PLAYTIX.

“A” Play:
August 13, 14, 25, and 27, 2027

“B” Play:
August 20, 21, 26, and 28, 2027

#wordscubedusf

Tickets

  • Words Cubed: Morphology
    Friday, August 7, 2026, 9:30 am
    Anes Studio Theatre
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  • Words Cubed: Morphology
    Saturday, August 8, 2026, 9:30 am
    Anes Studio Theatre
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  • Words Cubed: The Forgeries of Jealousy
    Friday, August 14, 2026, 9:30 am
    Anes Studio Theatre
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  • Words Cubed: The Forgeries of Jealousy
    Saturday, August 15, 2026, 9:30 am
    Anes Studio Theatre
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  • Words Cubed: Morphology
    Wednesday, August 19, 2026, 9:30 am
    Anes Studio Theatre
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  • Words Cubed: The Forgeries of Jealousy
    Thursday, August 20, 2026, 9:30 am
    Anes Studio Theatre
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  • Words Cubed: Morphology
    Friday, August 21, 2026, 9:30 am
    Anes Studio Theatre
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  • Words Cubed: The Forgeries of Jealousy
    Saturday, August 22, 2026, 9:30 am
    Anes Studio Theatre
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Thanks to our sponsors
George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation
Cedar City RAP tax dollars
Utah Life Elevated
Visit Cedar City Brian Head

Top photo: 2025 Words Cubed reading of Muse of Fire by Lauren M. Gunderson, featuring actors Casey Murphy (left), Lauren M. Gunderson, and Nic Sommerfeld.

Photo at right: 2023 Words Cubed reading of The Value by Nicholas Dunn, featuring actors Marco Antonio Vega, James Ryen, Tim Fullerton, and Alex Keiper.

© Utah Shakespeare Festival 2026 www.bard.org Cedar City, Utah