THE WILDE SPIRIT
              Four Decades of Acclaimed Performances

As both a professional actor and author, Kerry Ashton has had achieved a good deal, including publishing many of his works. But it is THE WILDE SPIRIT that has had the most enduring success. As regards THE WILDE SPIRIT, Ashton’s success is not merely as the play’s author and performer, but also as its composer, lyricist, director, and oftentimes its producer as well.

Kerry began research on Oscar Wilde in 1975, a full thirty-eight years ago, and completed the first version of the play in 1976. WILD OSCAR, as it was then titled, had its World Premiere in June 1977 at New Playwrights Foundation in Los Angeles. Achieving acclaim for both Ashton’s play and performance, the show ran for the next two years in Los Angeles, moving to the larger Theatre Rapport and then to the largest stage, The Cast Theatre, one of the most prestigious stages in LA at that time.
Ashton moved to New York City in 1979, where the play was produced several times: At Jeffries Cabaret in 1979; at Sheridan Square Theatre in 1980; in 1982 for an Off-Off- Broadway run at Theatre-Off-Park East 35th Street, under an Actors’ Equity contract; in engagements at The Actors Playhouse and The Directors Company in 1995; and in more than twenty-five backer’s auditions prior to the play’s major Off-Broadway production at Theatre-Off-Park, Waverly Place in 1996.

In 1990, Ashton presented his play and was Guest Lecturer at the National Convention of Solo Performers at St. Catherine’s College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was also awarded the top prize for Outstanding Solo Performance, and he was later featured in the book, GOING SOLO.
Acting as his own producer, Kerry brought his play to Provincetown, Massachusetts for three record-breaking years, 1990-1992. In all, THE WILDE SPIRIT ran for over eleven months in Provincetown, making it the longest-running play in Cape Cod's history.

In 1992, Mr. Ashton was featured in the scholarly international publication, WILD ABOUT WILDE, and was subsequently honored by its publisher with a rare copy of the only known audio recording of Oscar Wilde, which Wilde made in 1900 at the Paris Exhibition, only months prior to his death.

Over the years, Kerry has rewritten his play many times. In 1993, for example, he composed an entirely new musical score for the show, which premiered first in Provincetown, and then in another version for the 1995 season at The Waterfront Playhouse in Key West, Florida.
Ashton’s dream of over twenty years, of seeing his play in  a major Off-Broadway production, was finally fulfilled in May 1996, when THE WILDE SPIRIT opened at New York City's Theatre-Off-Park Waverly Place. The play’s opening also coincided with the 100th anniversaries of both Wilde's imprisonment on May 25, 1895, and his release from prison on May 19, 1897. This was also the production that finally brought Kerry Ashton and his play to the attention of The New York Times, New York Magazine, and to most of the New York critics, and to the American public at large.
During the intervening thirty-six years since THE WILDE SPIRIT first premiered in 1977, Ashton has performed his play as a Guest Artist in professional engagements at many of America's most prestigious colleges and universities, among them UCLA, George Washington University, Cornell University, Emory University, University of Pittsburgh, Marshall University, Boise State College, Fairfield University, Quinnipiac College, as well as in several regional theatres, including the Charleston Heights Arts Center in Las Vegas, and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute in Utica, New York.
In one of the most remarkable histories of any solo theatrical performer of our time, it is estimated that during the last thirty-six years, Kerry Ashton has given over 1,000 live performances as Oscar Wilde in professional engagements of THE WILDE SPIRIT throughout the United States.

Acclaimed by critics nationwide for both his play and performance, Kerry has won many awards for THE WILDE SPIRIT, including an Award of Merit from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, as well as three Los Angeles Civic Star Awards for Best Play, Best Actor, and Best Direction.
He also received an Award of Merit from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for the music and lyrics he wrote for the play.