After Suncoast Resort closed its doors last April, the Bay area's sole purveyor of gay alternative theater, Gypsy Productions, found itself without a home. Gypsy Artistic Director Trevor Kellor has prevailed and returns with his company's first production in more than a year, Moisés Kaufman's Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. Presented on Gypsy's new stage at The Ritz in (Ga)Ybor — a seeming perfect fit — the courtroom-style drama uses trial transcripts, personal correspondence, interviews and other source materials to document a series of trials brought against the Irish wordsmith for his intimate relationships with, among others, poet/prose writer Lord Alfred Douglas and brothel proprietor Alfred Taylor. The charges against Wilde? "Committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons," a punishable in the late-1800s and one that landed Wilde in prison for two years. Gypsy hosts a champagne reception after the production's opening-night performance. Through Sept. 14, 8 p.m. Tues.-Wed. and Fri., 6 p.m. Sun., Sept. 2-14, The Ritz Ybor, 1503 E. Seventh Ave., Ybor City, $20 general /$25 VIP/ (special Street Car Charlie's Bar & Grill dinner theater packages are $40 general, $44 VIP), gypsyproductions.org.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2008.