Roxy Regional Theatre Offers Staged Reading of GROSS INDECENCY For 4-Show Run

Beginning March 21, the Roxy Regional Theatre will delve deeper into the life and times of the man who penned such classics as The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, with a limited run of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde in theotherspace, the Roxy's 50-seat black-box theatre located upstairs.

In three short months, Oscar Wilde, the most celebrated playwright and wit of Victorian England, was toppled from the apex of British society into humiliation and ruin. Telling the gripping story of Wilde's tragic fall through actual trial documents, newspaper accounts and writings of the day, playwright Moisés Kaufman ignites an incendiary mix of sex and censorship, ultimately placing on trial a society that made the poet and playwright a scapegoat for its own sexual and moral insecurities and hypocrisies.

Directed by John McDonald and edited by Brandon Meeks, this staged reading of Gross Indecency features Colin Ryan as Oscar Wilde, with Josh Bernaski, Ryan Bowie, TEd Jones, Travis Kendrick, Ashley Laverty, Brandon Meeks, Gregory Pember and Phil Whittinghill portraying a cast of characters who speak not only of homosexuality, but also of a host of broader issues of class, art, religion, morality and politics.

Gross Indecency will be presented for four performances only: Wednesday and Thursday, March 21 and 22, at 7 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24, at 8 p.m. All tickets are $10 and may be purchased online at www.roxyregionaltheatre.org, by phone at (931)645-7699, or at the theatre during regular box office hours (9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday).  

Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-based writer, editor and critic, who's been covering the performing arts in Tennessee for more than 25 years. He is the recipient of the Tennessee Theatre Association's Distinguished Service Award for his coverage of theatre in the Volunteer State and was the founding editor/publisher of Stages, the Tennessee Onstage Monthly. He is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and is the founder/executive producer of The First Night Honors, held during Labor Day Weekend, which honor oustanding theater artists in Tennessee in recognition of their lifetime achievements and includes The First Night Star Awards and the Most Promising Actors. Midwinter's First Night, held the first Sunday in January after New Year's Day, honors outstanding productions and performances throughout the state. Further, Ellis directed the Nashville premiere of La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Night of Ballyhoo and An American Daughter, as well as award-winning productions of Damn Yankees, Company, Gypsy and The Rocky Horror Show, with Ellis honored by The Tennessean as best director of a musical for both Company and Rocky Horror.

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