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Cedar City • The Utah Shakespeare Festival has been cultivating new works by American playwrights for a quarter-century. Now one of those plays is set for a full production at the festival. "How to Fight Loneliness," by former Utahn Neil LaBute, will receive the last of three staged readings on Saturday, another step toward next summer's Utah premiere.

The play is also a groundbreaker in that it will be the first USF production to include a content advisory. There's no sexual content or physical violence, but there is a fair amount of rough language commensurate with the challenging subject matter. It revolves around a married couple, Brad and Jodie, who enlist an apparent stranger named Tate to help them resolve a situation that leaves no room for compromise. As to the nature of that conflict, the less said the better; audience members at last weekend's readings said the surprises heightened the impact of the play.

The Aug. 19 audience at the 200-seat Eileen and Allen Anes Studio Theatre included the new black-box theater's namesakes as well as LaBute's onetime mentor at Brigham Young University, Charles Metten, who has headed USF's play-development program since 2004 and who watched his former student's work approvingly. "How to Fight Loneliness" was one of a handful of finalists Metten chose from hundreds of submissions for consideration by a committee of readers that included USF co-artistic directors David Ivers and Brian Vaughn.

"I read it and was immediately blown away," said Ivers, who is directing the play. "It's so sound, so character-driven and the use of language fits beautifully inside the mission of a language-based theater. … The language is incredible. [LaBute] is almost a modern poet in his assessment of how people talk."

Vaughn, who played Brad in the emotionally potent reading alongside Tessa Auberjonois and Corey Jones, concurred with Ivers' assessment of LaBute's writing, calling it "unbelievably active and real and human."

An audience member asked if the festival's audience is ready for the play's strong language and themes. Vaughn believes so. "The play is about people," he said. "The subject matter, yes, is intense, but it's humans dealing with human issues."

"Ready or not, we're doing it," Ivers said.

The festival's Words3 initiative — formerly known as the New American Playwrights Project — also includes a staged reading on Friday of Utah playwright Debora Threedy's "One Big Union," based on the story of labor activist Joe Hill. Actor Roger Dunbar, who will also appear in Plan-B Theatre's November production in Salt Lake City, plays Hill; Jerry Rapier is the director. —

Words3

Neil LaBute's play-in-progress "How to Fight Loneliness" receives the last of three staged readings at this year's Utah Shakespeare Festival.

When • Saturday, Aug. 27, 10 a.m.

Where • Eileen and Allen Anes Studio Theatre, 299 W. Center St., Cedar City

Tickets • $10; bard.org

Also • There will be a staged reading of Utah playwright Debora Threedy's "One Big Union," based on the story of labor activist Joe Hill, Friday, Aug. 26, at 10 a.m. in the Anes; tickets are $10.