Directly connected to Come Out with Pride month, Parliament House will feature “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde,” a play about the famous gay author and the beginnings of modern LGBTQ terminology.
Wilde, who the trials center on, was a prominent Irish novelist, poet and playwright; most known for his works “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Wilde’s success grew as more people gained access to art and literature due to industrialization.
That success came to a halt in what came to be three trials about his sexuality.
Michael Wanzie and David Gerrard, both well known for their Central Florida theater work, have teamed up to tell Wilde’s story this October at the Parliament House’s Footlight Theater for National Coming Out Day.
Wanzie and Gerrard have a long history working together, starting more than 40 years ago.
“I did my first show at the Civic Theatres of Orlando in 1978, that’s what is now the Orlando Repertory Theater, but at the time it was one of the best community theatres in the nation,” Wanzie says. “David was someone who was kicking around their as well, and that’s where we met and first worked together.”
After many years and many shows apart — Gerrard directed 56 shows alone at the Osceola Center for the Arts since 1983 — the two longtime friends decided to work together again to bring Wilde’s story to life.
Coming to find this story, though, took Wanzie reaching out to the arts community. He put a call out on social media asking for suggestions on his next project.
“Out of all the suggestions I got on Facebook, I chose eight,” says Wanzie. “Out of those eight titles, the library only had this one.”
He took this as a sign and contacted Gerrard, who agreed to direct the show.
“Most of the people I worked with over the last 10 or 15 years have been at least 15 years younger than myself on a professional basis,” says Wanzie. “I just really felt that this needed someone directing it who had lived during a time when it truly wasn’t safe to be out and gay in this country.”
Wanzie and Gerrard’s years of industry experience and long relationship made working together and being able to take direction from each other easy.
Wanzie, who is both producing and portraying Wilde in “Gross Indecency,” cites this relationship as the thing that helps him not feel the need to interject during rehearsals.
“I’m so impressed by his insight into the text, and everything that comes out of his mouth that he suggests to anyone, so far, has been like a light bulb going off,” says Wanzie. “It’s cool that I so trust his understanding of the text and the subtext.”
For the actual trials in the show, Wanzie points out, “the bulk of what’s said in the trials is directly word-for-word from the transcripts.” This sets the stage for the rest of the play.
In 1891, Wilde met and became lovers with Lord Alfred Douglas, also known as Bosie, the third son of the Marquis of Queensberry.
Wanzie says this sets the initial trial of Wilde.
“The first trial isn’t because [Wilde] is being charged with being gay. It’s because someone left a card at his club and wrote that Oscar Wilde was posing as a sodomite,” says Wanzie. “And, in that time, even so much as doing that was libel.”
Wilde sued the Marquis for libel because of this card. During this trial, according to Wanzie, the Marquis found a group of young boys that would testify against Wilde, and this caused Wilde to withdraw his charges against the Marquis.
This did not stop the Marquis from submitting his evidence to the Crown, who would then press charges against Wilde for gross indecency.
The results of the second trial ended with Wilde’s acquittal, but this event sparked a massive shift in politics in England. According to Wanzie, men in England started getting nervous about their possible arrest. In result, 600 English men — as opposed to the normal 60 — who also participated in these forms of “gross indecency” flooded the trains to escape to France.
Determined to cover themselves, according to Wanzie, the government of England began to pay people to lie in court about Wilde, and they eventually convicted him of gross indecency. Wilde would serve a two-year sentence in hard labor.
“After this trial, the people who practiced it became known as ‘Wilders’ after Oscar Wilde,” says Wanzie. “So, for a long time, he was more associated with his homosexuality than he was with his brilliant works of poems and plays.”
Freedom from his punishment would not ignite a new spark of passion for Wilde, however. He published one more piece — called “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” — in response to his imprisonment before aimlessly traveling around Europe until he died in 1900 due to meningitis caused by a severe ear infection.
More than one hundred years after his death, Wilde’s literary pieces have remained prominent and influential in the literary world.
“In the end — and this fact is raised in the play — when it’s all said and done and he’s long dead and buried, he becomes the most read author in Europe, second only to Shakespeare,” says Wanzie.
“One of the cool things that comes out in the play is that — until the trial of Oscar Wilde — people didn’t even have the word ‘homosexual,’ it wasn’t part of the lexicon,” says Wanzie. “And nobody self-identified as being ‘gay.’ Men had sex with other men — men had sex with boys, actually, more than they did with other men — but there wasn’t a word for it, it was just an accepted part of society.”
“So, when they had to name it, when they decided it was a crime, they named it ‘gross indecency,’” says Gerrard.
These gross indecency laws, according to Gerrard, remained in English law for a while after Wilde’s death. The Sexual Offences Act decriminalized homosexual acts in England in 1967.
Moises Kaufman brought these trials to life in “Gross Indecency.” According to a press release from Wanzie, the play “expertly [interweaves] courtroom testimony with excerpts from Wilde’s writings and the words of his contemporaries.”
Kaufman is also known for “The Laramie Project,” a play detailing the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo.
A step back from the Footlight Theater’s usual comedy-centered performances, Wanzie and Gerrard decided to put on “Gross Indecency” — in large part — because of the play’s relatability and messages.
“Each time we get together to read it, without a doubt, two or three people say, ‘Oh my God, I just realized another thing that is so prescient about today.’ What is happening in this country right now with this situation or that situation,” says Wanzie. “So many things turn out to be Trump related almost. It’s like so much has changed and so little has changed.”
“Every night we find something else that is so today,” says Gerrard.
“Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde” plays at the Parliament House’s Footlight Theatre Sept. 29, Oct. 6, 17 and 27 starting at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $20 for general admission and go up to $25 for VIP seating. More information can be found by visiting EventBrite.com or by calling 407-425-7571. Directly connected to Come Out with Pride month, Parliament House will feature “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde,” a play about the famous gay author and the beginnings of modern LGBTQ terminology.
Wilde, who the trials center on, was a prominent Irish novelist, poet and playwright; most known for his works “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “The Picture of
Dorian Gray.” Wilde’s success grew as more people gained access to art and literature due to industrialization.
That success came to a halt in what came to be three trials about his sexuality.
Michael Wanzie and David Gerrard, both well known for their Central Florida theater work, have teamed up to tell Wilde’s story this October at the Parliament House’s Footlight Theater for National Coming Out Day.
Wanzie and Gerrard have a long history working together, starting more than 40 years ago.
“I did my first show at the Civic Theatres of Orlando in 1978, that’s what is now the Orlando Repertory Theater, but at the time it was one of the best community theatres in the nation,” Wanzie says. “David was someone who was kicking around their as well, and that’s where we met and first worked together.”
After many years and many shows apart — Gerrard directed 56 shows alone at the Osceola Center for the Arts since 1983 — the two longtime friends decided to work together again to bring Wilde’s story to life.
Coming to find this story, though, took Wanzie reaching out to the arts community. He put a call out on social media asking for suggestions on his next project.
“Out of all the suggestions I got on Facebook, I chose eight,” says Wanzie. “Out of those eight titles, the library only had this one.”
He took this as a sign and contacted Gerrard, who agreed to direct the show.
“Most of the people I worked with over the last 10 or 15 years have been at least 15 years younger than myself on a professional basis,” says Wanzie. “I just really felt that this needed someone directing it who had lived during a time when it truly wasn’t safe to be out and gay in this country.”
Wanzie and Gerrard’s years of industry experience and long relationship made working together and being able to take direction from each other easy.
Wanzie, who is both producing and portraying Wilde in “Gross Indecency,” cites this relationship as the thing that helps him not feel the need to interject during rehearsals.
“I’m so impressed by his insight into the text, and everything that comes out of his mouth that he suggests to anyone, so far, has been like a light bulb going off,” says Wanzie. “It’s cool that I so trust his understanding of the text and the subtext.”
For the actual trials in the show, Wanzie points out, “the bulk of what’s said in the trials is directly word-for-word from the transcripts.” This sets the stage for the rest of the play.
In 1891, Wilde met and became lovers with Lord Alfred Douglas, also known as Bosie, the third son of the Marquis of Queensberry.
Wanzie says this sets the initial trial of Wilde.
“The first trial isn’t because [Wilde] is being charged with being gay. It’s because someone left a card at his club and wrote that Oscar Wilde was posing as a sodomite,” says Wanzie. “And, in that time, even so much as doing that was libel.”
Wilde sued the Marquis for libel because of this card. During this trial, according to Wanzie, the Marquis found a group of young boys that would testify against Wilde, and this caused Wilde to withdraw his charges against the Marquis.
This did not stop the Marquis from submitting his evidence to the Crown, who would then press charges against Wilde for gross indecency.
The results of the second trial ended with Wilde’s acquittal, but this event sparked a massive shift in politics in England. According to Wanzie, men in England started getting nervous about their possible arrest. In result, 600 English men — as opposed to the normal 60 — who also participated in these forms of “gross indecency” flooded the trains to escape to France.
Determined to cover themselves, according to Wanzie, the government of England began to pay people to lie in court about Wilde, and they eventually convicted him of gross indecency. Wilde would serve a two-year sentence in hard labor.
“After this trial, the people who practiced it became known as ‘Wilders’ after Oscar Wilde,” says Wanzie. “So, for a long time, he was more associated with his homosexuality than he was with his brilliant works of poems and plays.”
Freedom from his punishment would not ignite a new spark of passion for Wilde, however. He published one more piece — called “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” — in response to his imprisonment before aimlessly traveling around Europe until he died in 1900 due to meningitis caused by a severe ear infection.
More than one hundred years after his death, Wilde’s literary pieces have remained prominent and influential in the literary world.
“In the end — and this fact is raised in the play — when it’s all said and done and he’s long dead and buried, he becomes the most read author in Europe, second only to Shakespeare,” says Wanzie.
“One of the cool things that comes out in the play is that — until the trial of Oscar Wilde — people didn’t even have the word ‘homosexual,’ it wasn’t part of the lexicon,” says Wanzie. “And nobody self-identified as being ‘gay.’ Men had sex with other men — men had sex with boys, actually, more than they did with other men — but there wasn’t a word for it, it was just an accepted part of society.”
“So, when they had to name it, when they decided it was a crime, they named it ‘gross indecency,’” says Gerrard.
These gross indecency laws, according to Gerrard, remained in English law for a while after Wilde’s death. The Sexual Offences Act decriminalized homosexual acts in England in 1967.
Moises Kaufman brought these trials to life in “Gross Indecency.” According to a press release from Wanzie, the play “expertly [interweaves] courtroom testimony with excerpts from Wilde’s writings and the words of his contemporaries.”
Kaufman is also known for “The Laramie Project,” a play detailing the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo.
A step back from the Footlight Theater’s usual comedy-centered performances, Wanzie and Gerrard decided to put on “Gross Indecency” — in large part — because of the play’s relatability and messages.
“Each time we get together to read it, without a doubt, two or three people say, ‘Oh my God, I just realized another thing that is so prescient about today.’ What is happening in this country right now with this situation or that situation,” says Wanzie. “So many things turn out to be Trump related almost. It’s like so much has changed and so little has changed.”
“Every night we find something else that is so today,” says Gerrard.
“Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde” plays at the Parliament House’s Footlight Theatre Sept. 29, Oct. 6, 17 and 27 starting at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $20 for general admission and go up to $25 for VIP seating. More information can be found by visiting EventBrite.com or by calling 407-425-7571.
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