Troupe Hopes ‘Rose’ Will Inspire Future Theatergoers

A decaying riverboat, docked somewhere on the Mississippi River in 1929 New Orleans, its paddle stilled by a ghostly curse, is the mysterious setting for Glorious Repertory Company’s original adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s short story “The Nightingale and the Rose.”

This haunting tale, opening Friday at the 24th Street Theatre, weaves Wilde’s parable about a little bird who sacrifices herself for an oblivious young student into a Prohibition-era story of “taboo love” between a black jazz singer named Rose and a white man.

If that theme sounds rather mature, it is, but like other plays this company does--including such past successes as “The Snow Maiden” and a sophisticated “Frankenstein”--”The Nightingale and the Rose” is adult theater, crafted to be appropriate for younger audiences ages 10 and up.

“There’s a huge demographic of kids that after the age of 8 do not go to the theater again,” said director Debbie Devine, co-founder of Glorious Repertory, the 24th Street Theatre’s resident theater company. “We lose them. If we’re lucky, they come back in their 20s; our fear is that the audience will just disappear. So we want to keep it going. This has been our mission.”

It isn’t coincidental that the company’s works often possess a haunting quality--the 1998-99 season concludes with “Bluebeard” and “A Cask of Amontillado.”

“It’s this age group,” Devine explains. “What’s interesting to them? Classic horror is always a hook.”

In this play, about a cursed riverboat, tragic love, ghostly revenge, voodoo and jazz, racism is part of the horror.

“Interracial relationships are much more common today,” Devine said, “and we are very careful to explain that this was 1929, but what is the legacy, what exists today as a result of that kind of [racist] thinking? We thought we could speak to race as an issue and do it through this story.”

The power of the written word is another strong theme explored in the play as Rose, who like the nightingale is destined to make a sacrifice in the name of love, reads Wilde’s parable and discovers its resonance in her own life.

“It touches her heart,” Devine said, “and she lets it guide her.

About 1,500 junior high and high school students have already seen excerpts from “The Nightingale and the Rose”; the play, funded by a $20,000 USC grant, is part of the company’s education program, “A Walk on the Wilde Side,” sponsored by the USC Neighborhood Outreach program, serving five area schools. It includes in-school assemblies, pre- and post-show curriculum and a field trip to the theater to see the entire play.

“We don’t like to walk on the safe side,” said Glorious Repertory Company co-founder Jay McAdams. “We like to challenge kids and not pander to them. Basically what we like to do is adult theater for everyone.”

BE THERE

“The Nightingale and the Rose,” 24th Street Theatre, North University Park, 1117 W. 24th St., Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends May 17. $6-$12. (213) 745-6416.