The St. Clair Bayfield Award honors the best performance by an actor in a Shakespearean play in the New York metropolitan area. Rose Rage, which began life at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, takes it titles from England's "War of the Roses," which is covered in Shakespeare's trilogy, which is frequently presented as a whole. "Set in a Victorian slaughterhouse," an official description goes, "battle scenes and murders are mimed before a background of literal butchery. Madrigals, hymns, Gregorian chants and Catholic anthems resound against the violence. The all-male cast of 12 actors captures the immediacy and intensity of Henry VI's dramatic events and the individuals caught up in the trilogy's cycle."

Lacivita portrayed multiple characters in Rose Rage.

The Judges' Panel for the award includes Irene Backalenick, Back Stage; Betty Corwin, director of special projects, Theatre on Film & Tape Archive of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts; Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press; David Rosenberg, Back Stage; Douglas Watt, The Daily News; and Carl Harms, president of the foundation.