Cast:
John Worthing, J.P., of the Manor House, Woolton . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . Jonathan Genson
Algernon Moncrieff, his friend . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . Greg Maurer
Lane,
Mr. Moncrieff's manservant . . . . . .
. . . . . . . Fred
Sauers
Rev. (anon Chasuble, D.D.,Rector of . . . . . . . . . . . Bill Myers
Merriman, butler to Mr. Worthing. . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlie
Egan
Lady Bracknell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . Charron Traut
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax,her daughter . . . . . . . . . Eileen Duban
Cecily Cardew, John Worthing's ward. . . . . . . . . Allison
Laker
Miss Prism, Miss Cardew's Governess. . . . . . . . Martha
Hogenboom
Director’s Note
"Comedy passes moral judgements, since our vanities are so
barbarous." ---Willie Sypher
We human beings are such silly, foolish creatures.
The main thing that gets us into trouble is, as the quote above states,
our vanities - our pride. The Catholics were right --- it is the
chief sin ---the sin from which all the other seven deadly sins spring.
It's pride that makes us think we deserve so much more than our fellow man
---whether it be possessions (greed), sex (lust), or food (gluttony). It's
pride that makes us think we don't have to work hard to deserve good
rewards (sloth)! And it's pride that makes us belittle others
and their success (envy) or which allows us to take our feelings out on
them when they cross us (anger).
Pride steps right over common sense like it wasn't there. Pride makes us
make rash, foolish choices, and when we do, it makes us an object of
comedy and ridicule to others. When characters are influenced by pride in
a play and make bad choices, we the audience get to make moral judgements
on them, and thus feel superior or more moral in return (which, I guess,
means we fall to the temptation of pride ourselves).
In the world of Oscar Wilde, pride, respectability, and societal standards
are taken to such absurd extremes that his philosophy "that we should
treat all the trivial things in life seriously, and all the serious things
in life with sincere and studied
triviality" seems somehow plausible. In
Wilde's world, all of the characters take pride in absurd things 000 their
first names, their clothes, their shortsightedness ---to the point where
it seems like the whole world is an insane paradox. And it's only because
the real society of Wilde's time, and our own, takes pride in ridiculous
things that we can laugh at the satire that is so rich in his work.
We hope you enjoy this trivial romp into the world of Oscar Wilde and the
holes he pokes in human pride.
About the Play
In
London of the 1890'S was the fashionable little parish of St. James,
where exclusive gentlemen's clubs lined Pall Mall and shirtmakers
and bootmakers found custom on Jermyn Street. A few blocks away were
(and still are) the hotels, shops and galleries of Piccadilly, and
the .'bespoke" tailors of Saville Row. Within a short walk or a
carriage ride, a young man of Victoria's time could have his
bachelor apartment in the Albany (where Jack Worthing resides, under
the name .'Earnest"), shop, pay an "at-home" call in
Mayfair or Belgravia, dine at his club, take in a play at one of a
dozen theatres, or see a ballet at the Empire. And at the St. James
Theatre, right in the center of the parish, a young man could take a
seat in the stalls for The Importance of Being Earnest.
The snowstorm that covered London on St. Valentine's Day, 1895,
could not prevent the opening night at the St. James Theatre of The
Importance of Being Earnest from being a major event. This was Oscar
Wilde's fourth West End play in three years, and fashionable London
was out in force, in their most elegant clothes. As a tribute to
Wilde's dandified aestheticism, women wore sprays of lilies as
corsages and many young men wore lilies of the valley in the
buttonholes of their tailcoats. Any of the audience with tickets in
the orchestra or the dress circle were required to wear evening
formal dress for every performance.
Earnest was a Society Comedy about life in St. James for audiences
who lived or shopped or dined there...a world in which gentlemen
with hyphenated surnames, dressed in carefully creased trousers and
elegant cravats, made small talk with titled ladies and flirted with
the idea of...well...flirting. London had come
to see itself. Wilde himself was the first to
give good notices to Earnest, before it even opened: "It is
exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it has its
philosophy...(t)hat we should treat all the trivial things of life
very seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and
studied triviality." Thus Earnest depicts a world where muffins
take precedence over marriage proposals, the fashionable wins out
over the intelligent, and where cucumber sandwiches weigh heavier on
the balance scale than notions of ultimate truth.
In the figure of lady Bracknell particularly, Wilde shows the
limitations and unhappiness produced by such a way of life. The play
mocks earnestness; it is the characters who
do not act earnestly who are rewarded with love, and who are proven
to not have been acting dishonestly at all. Or perhaps Algernon,
Jack, Cecily, and Gwendolyn have been the earnest ones all along.
Willing to lie to get what they want, they at least act honestly
with themselves. Their earnestness is not one of telling the truth
and fitting in, it is an earnestness of going after what they
wanted. After all, due to a number of remarkable circumstances, the
characters find they have not been lying at all!
In this humorous social satire, Wilde did not deliver the bluff
blows of an ardent reformer, but rather instead what one reviewer
called "poisoned pinpricks". But as Wilde himself
predicted in his letter to the producer, the play's charm may rest
in the dialogue itself. To quote Gwendolen, "The suspense is
terrible. I hope it will last."
Costumes from page to stage
by
Margaret Nikoleit
Some
of the costumes you see in this production were twenty years
in the making.
Two
decades ago, when Professor Van Voris encouraged my English and
Irish Drama class to substitute a theatrical design for one of our
mid-term papers, I knew exactly what I wanted to do: costume “The
Importance of Being Earnest.”
I
dove into researching the fashions of 1895 with glee, discovering
gems of information such as, “yellow was the favourite colour of
this decade,” and thanks to bright new chemical dyes, discordant
colors in “violent contrasts” were popular until 1897.* I
studied drawings and photographs of women in “tailor-made” suits
and immense sleeves, men in frock coats and lounge suits. Then I
took out my own paper, pencil and markers.
The
sketches produced for this class were historically accurate and
earned high marks. But they were more theoretical than theatrical,
because I had no concerns about actually building them. Until now.
When
our director, Tony Vezner, offered me the opportunity to bring these
designs to life, I was both thrilled and apprehensive. My crew and I
lacked the time and expertise to sew everything from scratch, so
most costumes would need to be adapted from pieces we already had or
could easily acquire. I chose three costumes to execute from my
original drawings: Jack in mourning, Gwendolen in Act I and Lady
Bracknell in Act III. I soon realized Algernon would also need a
custom-made lounge jacket (and coordinating vest) for Act II because
the right, loud century-old jacket is darn hard to find.
Commercial
patterns are now available in many retro or reproduction styles, so
I bought new patterns to serve as the basis for each of these
outfits. Nonetheless, I had to make extensive adjustments, including
the skirt of Jack’s frock coat, the high front and lapels of his
vest, and the shape and size of lapels on the ladies’ bodices.
Finding
suitable fabrics was fairly easy, and the wool for Jack’s and Lady
Bracknell’s ensembles was even on sale. But substitutions were
made: Lady Bracknell’s blouse and hem are a crinkle-textured
synthetic, not hand-pleated silk. Gwendolen’s dress is cotton and
rayon with some appliques, not silk and velvet with hand embroidery.
Algernon’s jacket ended up a multi-colored plaid, not the big blue
windowpane I once envisioned.
The
ladies’ hats are much different from the sketches, because
although my crew is talented when it comes to decorating them, we
have no milliner to create the exact hat frames I drew. Furthermore,
the design for Lady Bracknell was completely impractical for stage
lighting – you’d never see her face!
My original drawings
are on display in the lobby (signed with my
maiden name, Carlson). My wonderful crew and I stitched and fitted,
altered and accessorized to achieve something as similar, yet
practical, as possible. We hope you like the results.
*Handbook
of English Costume in the Nineteenth Century, C. Willett Cunnington
and Phillis Cunnington
More Photos
Page 2 Page
3
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Played for the first time at St. James
Theatre, London, Thursday, February 14, 1895.
Production
Director,
Tony Vezner
Technical Director, Shelley
Dotson
Stage Manager,
Denny Wise
Assistant Stage Manager, Karen Holbert
Costume Designer, Margaret Nikoleit
Costume Crew, Stephanie Abramowitz, Amy Coons, Mary Dempsey, Judy
DiVita, Sharon Feldt, Marcia Grohne, Mary O'Dowd, Jane Stacy, Julie
Suarez, Sue Turner
Dialect Coach, Martin Aistrope
Dramaturg, Andrea Imes
Lighting Deslgners, Noel Smith, Ruth Smith
Lighting Crew, Keith Klamer, Sandra Liakus, Paul Roach
Makeup Designer, Martha
Niles
Makeup Crew, Bridget Bittman, Mary Ellen Druyan, Carolyn Krohn, Cheryl
McKay, Diane Oppenheim, Carmel Opre, Ginny Richardson, Stephanie Williams
Properties Designer, Mary Pavia
Properties Crew, Judy DiVita, Bill FitzGerald, Peter Hilton, Dennis
Hudson, Maggie Rathke
Set Designer, Art Kelly
Set Construction Chair, Harry Hultgren
Set Construction Crew, Grace Abrahamson, Kirby Harris, Heinz Karplus,
Art Kelly, Craig Mahlstedt, Jon Mills,John Otto, Tom Squillo
Set Painting Crew, John Allen, Tricia Boren, Jane Bowers, Amy Coons,
Bill FitzGerald, Mary Maureen Gentile, Astrid Heymann, Pat Huth, Donna
Kanak, Jan Mahlstedt, John Mueller, Mary Pavia, Rick Pavia, Pat Rafferty,
Bill Rotz, Mike Scuito, Tom Squillo
Sound Designer, Benton Bullwinkel
Sound Crew, Byron Abramowitz, Jack Calvert, Stephanie Rychlowski
Production Box Office and Program Chair Mary Ellen Schutt
Production Box Office Crew
Ruth Cekal, George Dempsey, Terry Kozlowski, JoAnn Mallon, Jill Neely,
Joan Roeder,Patti Roeder, Janet Ryan Grasso, Sandy Squillo, Carol
Ann Suda
Production Group Sales Chair, Karen Holbert
Production Hospitality Crew
Catherine Bloomer, Jane Bowers, Linda Bremer, Brian Centers, Carol
Clarke,Mary Ellen Druyan, Liz Egan, Astrid Heymann, , Pat Huth, Bonnie
Hilton, Mike Huth, Karen Holbert, Caitlin Machak, Lisa Machak, Nikita
Machak, , Duane Mills, John Mueller, Jim Patten, Joanne Patten, lori
B. Proksa, Connie Sierzputowski, Rob Snyder, Gina Swinnen, Janette
Taft, Gregg Valek, Lenka Valek
Production House Managers
Joe Delaloye, George Dempsey, Jim Dutton , Roland Imes, Mike Mallon,
Kevin McGrath, Bill Rotz, Tom Schutt,Bill Wilson
Production Lobby Photo Display
Marjorie Mason Heffernan, Jane Stacy
Production Posters, Kathleen Kusper
Production Publicity Chair, Beth Hubbartt
About the Author
It
is not surprising that Oscar Wilde's very clever Irish parents would
produce such an astonishing son. William Wilde of Dublin was
a pioneering and well-known doctor (Surgeon- Oculist to the Queen)
and distinguished archaeologist and author. He married the six- foot
tall, daring Jane Elgee, who had risked a prison term for seditious
libel in a literary attempt to rouse the Irish nation to overthrow
its English oppressors in 1849. She remained something of a hell-raiser
all her life, and she remarked in her sixties to a guest, "When
you are as old as I, young man, you will know
there is only one thing in the world worth
living for, and that is sin."
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (b. 1854) and his brother and
sister grew up in Dublin amid increasing affluence and success. Oscar
was no child prodigy, but he did have a gift for fast reading. At
the age of sixteen, he was one of three pupils awarded a Royal School
scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin. At Trinity, his tutor, Reverend
J. P. Mahaffay, introduced him to the ancient histories of Greece
and Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor. At Trinity, he crowned his classical
career by winning the Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek, a medal he would
repeatedly pawn and redeem in later life. He began to accumulate elements
of later behaviors -his pre-Raphaelite sympathies, his dandified dress,
his Hellenic bias, his ambiguous sexuality, a contempt for conventional
morality. These tastes made the Irish scene parochial, and Dublin
too small a stage. Mahaffay encouraged him to study at Oxford.
At Magdalen College, Oxford, Wilde dropped
his three middle names and his Irish accent.
He was in and out of funds and his
scholarship waxed and waned, but in the end he won the Newdigate prize
with the poem "Ravenna", and he graduated in the Classics.
Wilde moved to London and became a man- about-town and a friend of
painters (Whistleret al.), actors (Lillie Langtry et at.), and Bram
Stoker (who wrote Dracula). He became popular for his witticisms.
Wilde's career during those four years in London was unrewarding which
led the producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, to suggest he lecture tour
in America as the leading exponent of aestheticism. In Illinois alone,
he spoke in Rockford, Bloomington, and Chicago (twice) and other locales.
The audiences loved him; the critics were not so pleased.
Returning to England, he married and had two sons. he wrote
poems, lyrics, and The Picture of Dorian Grey (1890). In 1891,
he met Lord Alfred Douglas who became his lover and constant companion.
His most productive period followed with Lady Windemere's Fan, Salome,
A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of
Being Earnest. Two weeks after the opening of Earnest, Wilde
was accursed of sodomy by his lover's father. A court battle
ensued and Wilde lost. While jailed for two years of hard labor,
he wrote De Profundis, an extended letter to Douglas. Released
from prison, he discovered all of his possessions had been auctioned
off and his hard-pressed wife had left the country with their children.
Wilde moved to France and lived there until his death at 47 from complications
of an ear infection. Of course, he wrote his own epitaph, though
the does not say of himself what he was: brilliant, generous, always
gentlemanly, unfailingly kind.
Acknowledgements
Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French,
Inc.
Special Thanks
This production was sponsored by Adventist Health
System, Midwest Region, Hinsdale and LaGrange Hospitals.
To TWS friend, Jane Warby, for her assistance in rehearsal
preparation for this play.
To TWS life members, Dick and Charron Traut for the
generous loan of their furniture.
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