Oscar Wilde News

GAYFEST NYC, Inc., the country's premier producer of new LGBT-themed plays, continues the Fifth Festival of Plays, a four-week event filled with powerful theatre works spotlighting gay issues with The BASiC Theatre Project production of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde written by Moises Kaufman. Directed by Zi Alikhan, cast features Drew Feldman, Benjamin Fisher, Joshua Forcum, Michael Greehan, Anthony Jackson, Charlie Kolarich, Michael Lorz, Russell Peck, Jonathan Sokolow and Carl Wilson.

Gingold Theatrical Group's PROJECT SHAW presents Bernard Shaw's madcap comedy TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD at 7pm at The Players Club (16 Gramercy Park South) in Manhattan. David Staller produces and directs.

Black Moon Theatre Company will present the World Premiere of CHARLES PONZI - A DOLLAR AND A SCHEME. This multimedia biographical drama is written and performed by Alessio Bordoni and directed by Rene Migliaccio with mixed media collages by India Evans. Previews begin May 28 at New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theater. Opening is slated for May 30.

Glenn Carter* (Jersey Boys, Jesus Christ Superstar, Whistle down the Wind), Stephen Rahman Hughes* (Emmerdale, Dream Team, Bombay Dreams, West Side Story), David Thaxton (Passion, Les Miserables) and Matt Willis (Wicked, Flashdance, Footloose and BRIT award winning member of Busted), join the previously announced Lee Mead (Wicked, Legally Blonde, BBC Series Winner of Any Dream Will Do) to complete The West End Men. All four will be joined by special guest star Kerry Ellis* (Wicked, Oliver, We Will Rock You, Born Free Tour with Brian May) for the limited run at the Vaudeville Theatre from 25 May to 22 June.

To conclude its 45th season, Berkeley Repertory Theatre welcomes back a pair of acclaimed collaborators: Sarah Ruhl and Les Waters, the creators of Eurydice, Three Sisters, and In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), return to Berkeley Rep with another tale of love and longing in Dear Elizabeth.

Take Wing And Soar Productions, in partnership with Voza Rivers/New Heritage Theatre Group, present TWAS' Tenth Year Anniversary Season main stage production of Oscar Wilde's celebrated comedy, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, directed by Kevin Connell for a limited run at the Poet's Den Theater, from June 14th through 30th, 2013.

The Deconstructive Theatre Project presents The Orpheus Variations, conceived by Adam J. Thompson and developed collaboratively among company members. Adam J. Thompson directs cast members Jessica Annunziata, Jen Browne, Stephen Conroy, Amanda Dieli, Sarah Isaacson, Meghan E. Kennedy, Robert Kitchens, and Peter Van Hyning. Five performances will be held at HERE, 145 6th Avenue (1 blocks south of Spring) in NYC from June 27-30, 2013. This production is a part of SubletSeries@HERE: Co-op, HERE's curated summer rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support.

With the partnership of the Los Angeles Natural History Museum and UCLA's Clark Memorial Library, Chalk Repertory Theatre announces the summer and fall productions of its Fifth Anniversary Season.

Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) has announced its 2013-2014 mainstage season. MET's sixteenth mainstage season will run from September of 2013 through June of 2014 and will feature a British comic classic, an American masterpiece and several contemporary crowd pleasers. MET Artistic Director Tad Janes believes that each of the six mainstage shows in MET's upcoming season will help, 'build on the strong reputation we have earned over the past decade and a half as a destination for challenging, entertaining, professional theater.'

GAYFEST NYC, Inc. (Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Batman, Producers; Craig Wesley Divino,Associate Producer), the country's premier producer of new LGBT-themed plays, will present the Fifth Festival of Plays, a four-week event filled with powerful theatre works spotlighting gay issues. The Festival opens with New York premiere of Moonlight and Love Songswritten by Scott C. Sickles. Directed by Steven Petrillo, the 7-member cast features Nick Bailey, D.H. Johnson, Kathryn Markey, Gerald McCullouch, Robert Meksin, Corey Richmond Skaggs and Christine Verleny. Performances begin Thursday, May 23 and will continue through Sunday, June 2, 2013 at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex (312 West 36th Street). Opening night is Friday, May 24, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. All proceeds from GAYFEST NYC benefit the Harvey Milk High School.

Mint Theater (Jonathan Bank, Artistic Director) today announced its line-up of EnrichMint Events for its upcoming production of A Picture of Autumn by N.C. Hunter. For each of their productions, Mint Theater hosts a number of post-show speakers for what are called "EnrichMint" Events. These post-show discussions are free and open to the public. The speakers may be experts on an author or era, or leaders in a humanities field that may bring an entirely different perspective on the play.

Janet Miller is about to launch her new theatre company, aptly named the Good People Theater Company, with A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE at this year's Hollywood Fringe Festival.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre - the acclaimed comedy/variety show - will conclude its Spring 2013 season tonight, May 16 at The Duplex in New York's West Village. After a sell-out year, The Meeting* has added a second performance each month due to popular demand; there are now shows at 7:000 PM and 9:30 PM.

From a manor house outside of London to the halls of power in Vienna to the vast plains of Oklahoma, designs for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 22nd season reflect the diversity of the programming: Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and King Henry VIII, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Patrick Barlow's The 39 Steps and Rodgers and Hammerstein's legendary musical, Oklahoma!

Co-founders John Stoops, Tim Evans, and Marc Grapey announce the inaugural season of Three Oaks Theater Festival, a new summer theater festival that will bring three limited-engagement runs of highly-acclaimed, professional Chicago-based productions and a World Premiere to audiences in Harbor Country, Michigan. Three Oaks Theater Festival is presented in association with Harbor Arts with special thanks to The Pokagon Fund.

The Department of Theater & Dance at UCSB continues its 2012-2013 season of drama and dance with the production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, directed by Irwin Appel. A Streetcar Named Desire performs tonight, May 10 - 19, 2013 in the A Streetcar Named Desire performs in the Performing Arts Theater on the UCSB campus.

Wilde's early play has the wit of his later comedies, but also probes the complexities and darker desires of the human heart. Lady Windermere (Marla McLean), a young woman recently married into the aristocracy, is preparing for her birthday party. Although deeply in love with her husband Lord Windermere (Martin Happer), she is troubled by his relationship with the mysterious Mrs. Erlynne (Tara Rosling) and vulnerable to the advances of the charismatic Lord Darlington (Gray Powell). Society's high veneer of elegance and propriety threatens to crack as secrets from the past are revealed - only to be quickly suppressed.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre will conclude their Spring 2013 season on Thursday, May 16 at The Duplex in New York's West Village. After a sell-out year, The Meeting* has added a second performance each month due to popular demand; there are now shows at 7:000 PM and 9:30 PM.

The BLUEBARN Theatre continues its 2012-2013 Season with The 39 Steps adapted by playwright Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan from the movie of Alfred Hitchcock. which opens tonight, May 9th and runs through Saturday June 15th.