A diverse cast of SE Campus students create a comedic retelling of the classic “The Importance of Being Earnest,” directed by SE drama instructor Arturo Garcia. The play will preview Nov. 11-13 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee on Nov. 13 at 1:30 p.m.
The story follows two friends down a winding road of deceitful bachelor behaviors when they invent proxy personalities named Ernest to dodge social responsibilities.
“It’s a comedy of manners,” Garcia said. “It is Oscar Wilde making a wry commentary on Victorian principles, on rules, on etiquette.”
One Ernest is Algernon Moncrief, played by SE student Jacob Acevedo. Moncrief wants to get rid of his social responsibility as an upper-class Victorian, where he constantly meets and entertains visitors in his home with the assistance of his butler, Lane, played by SE student Michael
Maruffo. To do this, Moncrief invents Ernest.
“The play almost borders on this absurdity of the absurd,” Garcia said. “This idea of the hypocrisy of humankind is very evident in this work. You have these people that are meant to be this exemplary model of a character who are inventing this alternate identity so they can be human, so they can drop the mask, drop the charade.”
Moncrief is always eating. He’s rich and enjoys a life of leisure to its maximum. Throughout the play, he indulges in snacks that he eventually forgets he ate, leaving him with nothing to serve the guests. He enjoys playing the piano badly. The melodramatic comedy amplifies the absurdity that makes the play memorable.
SE student Liam Alejandre plays the other Ernest, John Worthing, who is a bachelor from the country who discovers that his best friend Algernon has a secret identity he uses and steals the idea for himself.
The complexity of character relationships alone creates challenges that the actors must navigate.
Garcia said this is where the production came together. He conducted a deep study into the context and meaning behind the characters’ actions so that the characters could relate more to today’s audience.
“I think it’s almost universal,” Garcia said. “I feel that even though maybe we are not worried about the same exact issues, we can still see a modern version of Lady Bracknell.”
Played by SE student Natalynn Spann, Bracknell is an outspoken character who asserts dominance just as easily as she changes her mind.
SE students Symphony Low and Bra’Nya Braziel play Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew, two women who band together as they discover the treachery of their love interests – Algernon and John.
According to Garcia and the cast, the production team worked hard to transform the play, which originally opened in 1895 into something relevant and relatable for the modern student. Everything from the table read to the costumes to the way the actors move around the stage is a result of careful curation, Garcia said.
“The term historical accuracy—if you talk to some people, they will say there’s no such thing,” SE learning lab coordinator Brenna Booker said.
Booker designed the costumes for the production with a focus on connecting the modern audience to the characters in the play.
“It’s sort of an amalgamation,” Booker said when talking about historical accuracy and the creative inspirations she used to create the costumes for the production. “We don’t make fabric the way we used to. We don’t use the same techniques, manufacturing, things like that.”
The transformations the characters experience are supported by the closeness of the actors themselves. The cast isn’t just a group of students being forced to work together. They’re friends as well.
“It’s different from a school and a job,” first-time actor Braziel said. “We get to come here and express ourselves in different ways and see each other grow in different ways. I think it’s really cool.”
The rest of the cast said they agree with Braziel.
“It’ll help with overall group chemistry,” Acevedo added. “It is my first year at TCC, so I’m meeting these people for the first time.”
Garcia said that the growth of relationships, nurtured through the rehearsal process, is what continues to strengthen the cast performances.
“It’s the people who make it fun,” said Ella Franks, a dual-credit student taking on the role of stage manager.
