SACCO AND VANZETTI’S DIVINE COMEDY
By Kevin Rice
World Premiere
First Rehearsal: on or around June 2, 2025
First Public Performance: June 25, 2025
Press Opening: June 27, 2025
Closing Performance: July 26, 2025
NICOLA “NICO” SACCO: Male, 30s – 50s, Italian-American Anarchist, controversially convicted of murder and armed robbery and subsequently executed following a sensationalized trial fraught with irregularities. Requires strong comedic timing and physical comedy.
BARTOLOMEO “BARTO” VANZETTI: Male, 30s – 50s, Italian-American Anarchist, controversially convicted of murder and armed robbery and subsequently executed following a sensationalized trial fraught with irregularities. Requires strong comedic timing and physical comedy.
ROSSINA SACCO: Female, 30s – 50s, Sacco’s wife, a very VERY good cook
JUDGE WEBSTER THAYER: Male, 40s – 70s, the highly conflicted judge who presided over the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Stern, no nonsense, and a symbol of a corrupt justice system.
BAILIFF: 30s – 40s, Any Gender, more than a sidekick to Judge Thayer, a sympathetic voice with an anti-establishment streak
SOUTHERN HARMONY – A MURDER BALLAD
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Kevin Fogarty
Directed by Sam Scalamoni
World Premiere
First Rehearsal: on or around July 14, 2025
First Public Performance: August 6, 2025
Press Opening: August 8, 2025
Closing Performance: September 6, 2025
BERNIE TIEDE: Male; 38 years old from Louisiana. He is extroverted and talkative and loves being around people. He is kind and selfless almost to an unbelievable extent. Quite effeminate, he does not watch football, nor does he drink beer. He loves Golden Age Musicals, art, and singing in the church choir. Mortician by trade and good at it.
MARJORIE NUGENT: Female; 81 years old. Texan. Personality is that of a diamond back rattlesnake. Would just as soon keep to herself unless you poke her, in which case she will strike. In either case, she doesn’t like you. Or anyone. Now a widow, she is the wealthiest person in Carthage and has disowned her only son for petty reasons. Despite being rude and hateful to everyone, she is also lonely. She wants real friendship, but on her terms. She will not admit that her selfish neediness is the problem.
DANNY BUCK DAVIDSON: Male; 45 years old. Carthage District Attorney who sees himself as a noble man of the law. There’s good people and bad people and it’s up to the good ones to control the bad ones. The only thing he hates more than crime is a slow day at the office. He can be attention seeking but has feelings and does not lack empathy.
CLINT: Male; 55 years old. A simple man but not stupid. He works for an insurance company.
FEMALE #1: TAMMY: Female; 38 years old. A waitress at a diner, she has a very sweet, motherly disposition. Her oldest child, Jason, has the opportunity to become the first generation in her family to go to college.
SHELBY NUGENT: Granddaughter of Marjorie Nugent. Loves her grandmother even though her grandmother has been estranged from Shanna’s father. She is suspicious of Bernie. She is a law student at the time of the first trial of Bernie Tiede. Extremely sharp and serious. She’s a fighter and will not be intimidated.
FEMALE #2: LORETTA: Female 51 years old. Always well meaning, but loud, in everyone’s business, and lacks any sense of propriety which has led to her being largely avoided by others. Ever the busybody, she is constantly trying to set up her daughter with Bernie, hoping he will become 5th in a long line of husbands. She is lonely and enjoys the company of Bernie Tiede. She often says outlandish things, but is never trying to be funny or make a joke. JAMIE SAULS: Female - Well connected, high powered attorney for a famous Hollywood film director, now working to help Bernie Tiede.
MALE #1: JAMES TYLER FARRIS: Male; 33 years old. Soft spoken intellectual. He, like Bernie, is an outsider in Carthage. Always serious and a deep thinker. He runs an arts foundation in Carthage. DEFENSE ATTORNEY SKIP TOMLINSON: public defender for Bernie Tiede in the first trial.
MALE #2: MERLE MUNSON: funeral home director and former employer of Bernie Tiede. SHERIFF GREG TATE: Sheriff and longtime friend of Danny Buck Davidson. He is small and completely non- threatening in every way, but he is not clumsy or stupid like Barney Fife. He is knowledgeable and trained and takes the job very seriously and goes by the book. And he is very passionate about his firearm(s).
PAUL AND ÉMILE
By Kai Maristed
Directed by Rebecca Berger
World Premiere
First Rehearsal: on or around August 25, 2025
First Public Performance: September 18, 2025
Press Opening: September 20, 2025
Closing Performance: October 12, 2025
PAUL: Paul Cézanne, 19th Century French post-impressionist painter, friends since boyhood with author Émile Zola, the two suffered a bitter falling out leading to two decades of silence. Male, 40s – 50s.
ÉMILE: Émile Zola, 19th Century French novelist, journalist and playwright, friends since boyhood with artist Paul Cézanne, the two suffered a bitter falling out leading to two decades of silence. Male, 40s – 50s.
MAM-ZELLE: Cézanne’s housekeeper, a former nun with a quick wit. Female 30s – 50s.
