Editorial Journal of John Cooper on Oscar Wilde
When one thinks about New Jersey today—and as I live there one is forced to occasionally—it becomes quickly apparent that it clings to its endearment as the “Garden” State rather than necessarily exemplifying it. Industrial towns abound, especially in the heartland, and one such place is Freehold, the birthplace of Bruce Springsteen, and where Oscar Wilde once lectured.
I set off on the trail of the Oscar of my American dreams.
Continue reading “The New Jersey Turnpike”
Mickle Street is a new play about the famous meeting in 1882 between Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman.
It is called Mickle Street because that the adress of former Whitman’s former home in Camden, New Jersey, now a house museum. As it happens, the two encounters between Wilde and Whitman took place not in Mickle Street, but at the home of Walt’s brother, George, in nearby Stevens Street, two years before Whitman purchased the Mickle Street property—the only house he ever owned.
Continue reading “Mickle Street: Preview”
A catalyst and centerpiece of current Oscar Wilde activity is the Morrison/Cox opera Oscar which had its world premiere in Santa Fe, NM, last year to generally favorable reviews of its singers, orchestra, conductor Evan Rogister, and overall production values.
Critics can look forward to an updated libretto for the East Coast premiere.
Continue reading “A Wilde Winter in Philadelphia”