By Trevor Davis-Darden
Court is once again in session at Jefferson Market! This time, however, actors will be on trial, and the defendant has already been found guilty.
Jefferson Market Library is thrilled to present Jefferson Market Playhouse, the first New York Public Library community theater. JMP will be staging Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by Moises Kaufman. This play follows Oscar Wilde, the acclaimed humorist, playwright, and wordsmith, through the “indecency” trials that led to his imprisonment and subsequent downfall.
Director Cecilia Rubino, Professor of Drama at the New School and a cast of ten actors, will collaborate, rehearse and perform Gross Indecency within a month’s time.
Ambitious community members, library patrons and actors alike, all gathered on a recent Tuesday and Friday to audition for a role in the play. Tuesday, May 17, only a day after the callbacks, the first rehearsal was held. Each actor settled into the historic Willa Cather room that Tuesday evening with a copy of the text. After two acts and two and a half hours, the actors then exchanged ideas on how they could successfully stage a play in the former courtroom nestled at the back of the Children’s Room in the Jefferson Market Library.
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde will be performed Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, June 26 at 2:30pm
Trevor Davis-Darden is an information assistant and will assistant direct Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.
