Pictured left to right: Jeremy Springer as Jack; Megan Barclay as Gwendolyn; Kara Wilkinson as Cicely; and Derin Tolu as Algernon

“The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde will open at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, in the John and Hester Powell Grimm Theatre, located in the Egner Center for the Performing Arts, at The University of Findlay.
   
Tickets are $5 for general admission, $3 for seniors and students and free for UF students, faculty and staff. Call the UF Box Office at 419-434-5335 to get tickets. Performances are at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and at 6 p.m. Sunday.
 
The cast includes Jeremy Springer as Jack; Derin Tolu as Algernon; Peggy Brannigan as Lady Bracknell; Megan Barclay as Gwendolyn; and Kara Wilkinson as Cicely. Students Tom Lalonde, Samantha Woodman, Tim Dunn, Cody Parsons and Ashley Deaton also have roles in the cast. Vicki McClurkin is the director.

Springer also co-designed the set for the production, working with Jerry Deall, professor of scenic and light design, as part of Springer’s theatre production major. The play utilizes three sets, which will be rotated during two 10-minute intermissions. The set changes will be choreographed, and the set crew will be costumed.

According to McClurkin, Wilde’s purpose in writing the play was to point out the absurdities of the nonsensical upper class in the late 1800s. The cast will wear period costumes, designed and created by UF’s in-house costumer Kathy Newell, to reflect the Victorian era.

The comical play begins with the character Jack, who goes by the name Ernest when visiting the city, telling Algernon that he will propose marriage to Gwendolyn, who will only marry someone named Ernest because “it sounds so solidly aristocratic.”

Meanwhile, Algernon meets Jack’s ward, Cicely, and pretends to be Jack’s wicked brother, Ernest. Both Jack and Algernon become engaged to the women and, by the end of the play, learn the importance of being earnest.