Baby, it’s a Wilde world!
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde proves that homophobia is eternal

Given John McCain’s surprisingly strong bid to continue the Bush era’s horrifying assault on GLBTQ rights, it’s great that iTheatre Collaborative is staging the local premiere of Moisés Kaufman’s drama about the truly indecent way Oscar Wilde was treated by the British courts simply for being gay. I spoke with Steve Scally, the respected actor taking the directorial reins of the complicated piece. Charismatic actor Michael Tassoni plays Wilde, while Greg Lutz and Tom Blackwood play solicitors on opposite sides of the battle.

ECHO: What drew you to Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde?

SCALLY: First and foremost the script. I was really intrigued with Moisés Kaufman’s style of writing and the way he moves in and out of the courtroom scenes to tell the story. If you are familiar with his script The Laramie Project, you’ll know what I mean. Then I was really struck by the Shakespearean level of circumstances that caused the trial and eventual destruction of Oscar Wilde. How relevant it is to society today. Especially how we seem to have not learned anything from what happened.

ECHO: Even though gay people can't be jailed in Arizona for similar laws to those used against Oscar Wilde, we are still used as a convenient prop to whip up political furor in conservative voters. How does Gross Indecency address that, since it is a fairly modern play?

SCALLY: You’re right — nothing stirs up people faster than gay rights, religion and politics. If you can get all three in, which they always seem to manage to do, look out. I must say that I am also bothered by the fact that it is still OK to discriminate against anybody. Have we not matured enough as a society to realize that discrimination of any kind cannot, should not and will not be tolerated anymore? Mr. Kaufman doesn’t directly address any issues, but has very cleverly left in the parts of the trails that clearly point out how the hypocrisy that we see today existed then. He then shows us exactly how destructive it can be. Imagine what else Mr. Wilde would have written had this not happened.

ECHO: What lessons does Gross Indecency teach us about artistic and personal freedom, and how relevant is it to today's world?

SCALLY: Can you imagine the world without the artistic contributions of Oscar Wilde? The photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe? The music of Freddie Mercury? If artists are not allowed to create because some idiot thinks it will somehow corrupt society. Think of how much beauty we will never get to experience.

ECHO: Tell me about your cast, and what you're most proud of so far?

SCALLY: In my opinion, casting is the hardest part of any production. If a director casts well, 90 percent of their job is done. It was a very long, very difficult process to get eight actors together at the same time that could tell this story the way it deserves to be told. Yet, I somehow managed to do it. Every day I am amazed by their intelligence, their talent and how fast they are ‘getting it.’

Seasons of Love
Broadway’s GLBT standout Rent hits the West Valley

When Jed Resnick sat in the audience and watched Rent about 10 years ago, he never dreamed that he’d be starring in the show as Mark Cohen. He and his cast mates will rock the Northwest Valley when Rent plays the Maricopa County Events Center May 10-11.

The late Jonathan Larson never got to see how his show, loosely based on La Boheme, took the world by storm. More than a decade later, Resnick feels that the show is just as powerful as it was when he first saw it. He likes what Rent says about friendship and how life affirming it is, even though it tackles dark subjects like AIDS, drug abuse and other issues.

Set in the East Village in the late eighties, Rent tells the interlocking stories of Mark (Resnick), an aspiring filmmaker and the narrator of the show, his HIV+ roommate Roger, their neighbor, Mimi, Mark’s ex, Maureen, her new lover Joanne, and soon-to-be couple Tom and Angel. The turncoat in their midst is the landlord Benny, who plans on evicting Mark and Roger unless they agree to get Maureen, a crusading performance artist, to abandon her plan to protest Benny’s eviction of a group of homeless people from one of his lots.

Resnick was blown away by the music in Rent, whose rock influences helped inspire a generation of Rent-heads (the fans’ title), and which ushered in a new period on Broadway where Urinetown and Spring Awakening could flourish. The promoters are trying to bring in new audiences to the Maricopa County Events Center, so help show them that we want more shows like Rent. Its powerful story about living for each day and making a family of your friends never grows old.

33 Times
Explore Beethoven’s obsessions in powerful Moisés Kaufman play

After powerful social dramas like The Laramie Project and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, 33 Variations is a huge departure for Moisés Kaufman since the show tackles a classical music mystery.
In 1819, the powerful music publisher Anton Diabelli wrote a small, insignificant waltz and invited the great composers of the time to write a variation on it. After initially refusing, Ludwig von Beethoven became obsessed with the waltz, spending four years coming up with the thirty-three variations of the title. In the present day, musicologist Katherine Brandt is determined to discover the great composer’s motivations. As Beethoven's indisputable genius and delightful humanity come to life on the sheet music in front of her, she not only reveals the true nature of his gift, but also comes to embrace the beauty and legacy of her own life.
La Jolla is a beautiful place to visit, and you’ll love the shows the La Jolla Playhouse has lined up, including a World Premiere Charles Busch play starring the man himself in September, and the West Coast Premiere of Xanadu in November.

Vital statistics

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by iTheatre Collaborative
May 9-24
Herberger Performance Outreach Theater,
222 E. Monroe, Phoenix.
Tickets are $26-59.
Information: 602-347-1071.

Rent,
presented by Broadway on the Boulevard
May 10-11
at the Maricopa County Events Center,
19403 R.H. Johnson Blvd., Sun City West,
Tickets are $30-50.
Information: (480) 784-4444.

33
Variations at La Jolla Playhouse
runs through May 4
at the Mandell Weiss Theater,
2910 la Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla, Calif.,92037.
Tickets are $29-62.
Information: (858) 550-1010