Utah playwright's show about living with cerebral palsy accepted into New York theater festival

SALT LAKE CITY — A man with cerebral palsy who dreamt of being the lead in a play decided to take matters into his own hands by writing that play himself.

Andrew Justvig grew up in St. George attending plays and musicals. Seeing the stars on stage, he knew he wanted to do the same.

"When I got into high school, even though I was passionate and I felt my technique was good — teachers thought I was good — I would never get the lead role. And that bothered me," he said.

Growing up with cerebral palsy has made some things in life more difficult for him, but Justvig was determined to follow his dream.

He was inspired by Sylvester Stallone, who faced bullying and discrimination growing up for how he looked and how he spoke due to nerve damage on his face from complications during birth. But Stallone persevered and eventually became one of Hollywood's biggest stars and filmmakers.

"He wrote his own movies, and I said, 'Wait, I can do that!' So I started to write plays where I could be the roles, like the lead or the villain, and where I didn't have to hide my disability, but it was part of my character," Justvig said.

He earned an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University and later completed a master's degree in fine arts in playwriting at the University of California, Riverside, where he developed "The Anxiety of Laughing."

"Rather than waiting for permission, I decided to write stories where disability is present, complex and unapologetically human," he said.

"The Anxiety of Laughing" is about a stand-up comedian with cerebral palsy whose life is upended when his mother dies, and his wife becomes paralyzed in an accident.

"Suddenly, he is the more able-bodied person. He not only has to grapple with losing his mom and being caretaker for his wife, but also finding his laugh again," Justvig said.

He initially wrote "The Anxiety of Laughing" as a screenplay that was adapted into a feature film and was screened at multiple festivals in 2021, including Dances With Films at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. But Justvig wasn't done there; he adapted the story into a play in which he could perform the lead.

The stage play "The Anxiety of Laughing" was recently accepted into the Midtown International Theater Festival, where it will be performed this summer in New York City. The show will be presented as a showcase production with six performances.

To kick off a fundraising campaign* for the New York production, Justvig is hosting a staged reading in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 18 at the Sorenson Unity Center's Black Box Theater, 1383 S. 900 West. The staged reading is free, but people are encouraged to donate to help the show raise $30,000 to cover development and production costs.

"The main focus of the reading is, yes, to raise money, but I also want individuals who have disabilities and their families to gather to show them someone like them onstage telling a story that's different from the typical Hollywood stories about disabilities. I mean, I love the movies 'Radio' and 'My Left Foot' and 'The Peanut Butter Falcon,' but this is completely different," he said.

Being a part of the Midtown festival gives the show the opportunity to gain momentum and publicity to pursue an off-Broadway or Broadway run. Justvig said it's an important step toward ensuring more people can experience a story in which a disabled person is the lead.

As a dad to a 4-year-old, Justvig hopes stories like "The Anxiety of Laughing" can also help children of parents with disabilities feel that they aren't weird or alone in their experiences.

"It would be like, 'Oh yeah, my dad is like that character or that guy in the New York show.' So yeah, that's what it means to me," he said.

Although Justvig never dreamed he would create something performed in New York, he is so proud of what he has accomplished so far.

"I think I only dreamt more of telling stories that put people like me on the stage," he said.

*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

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