The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Directed by Aaron Blanck

Sunday, May 31, 2026 from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
Monday, June 1, 2026 from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
(Callbacks Tuesday, June 2, 2026 at 6:30 pm)

Performances

Fri & Sat, August 7 - September 12, 2026 at 7:00 pm

Sun, September 6, 2026 at 2:00 pm

(No performances August 28 - 30)

 

Prepare a 1 - 2 minute comedic monologue in a British dialect of your choosing. Please email info@thecontemporarytheater.com to sign up for auditions. Please indicate your preferred date and time frame.

The role of Lady Bracknell has been cast.

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All adult actors in these productions will receive a stipend. There are no youth roles available at this time.

At the CTC, we proudly employ and embrace non-traditional as well as color-conscious casting. Actors of Color are particularly encouraged to audition!

 

Show Description:

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
“A trivial comedy for serious people” satirizing Victorian constructs through high farce. Jack Worthing uses the alias “Ernest” to live a double life in the city. Algernon Moncrieff uses a fictional friend, “Bunbury”, to escape social obligations. Gwendolyn could only love a man named “Ernest” and Cecily dreams of a life with a “wicked man” called Ernest. Victorian obsessions with “earnestness” are thoroughly mocked.

 

Character Description:
(The role of Lady Bracknell has been cast)

Jack Worthing: a seeming responsible and respectable young man who goes by Jack at his country estate in Hertfordshire and Jack when in London. Guardian to Cecily Cardew, Jack is in love with his best friend’s cousin, Gwendolyn Fairfax.
 

Algernon Moncrieff: a charming, idle, rather decorative young bachelor; nephew of Lady Bracknell, cousin to Gwendolyn Fairfax and best friend of Jack who he has known for years as Ernest. Brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral and exceedingly fond of muffins.
 

Gwendolyn Fairfax: daughter to Lady Bracknell, she is in love with Jack who she knows as Ernest. A model of fashion and sophistication, she is cosmopolitan, intellectual and completely pretentious. She is fixated on the name Ernest and swears she cannot marry a man without that name.
 

Cecily Cardew: is also obsessed with the name Ernest but is even more intrigued by wickedness. Believes herself to have fallen in love with Jack’s “brother” Ernest whom she has never met - she has invented an imaginary and extremely elaborate romance and courtship with him.
 

Miss Prism: is the pedantic and cliche governess of Cecily. Rigid and puritan, she has romantic feelings for Dr. Chasuble and a long kept secret pertaining to novels and handbags.
 

Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D.: is the rector on Jack’s estate. He entertains not so secret romantic feelings for Miss Prism.
Lane/Merriman: Algernon’s manservant in London and Jack’s butler in Hertfordshire. Originally the only person who knows about Algernon’s “Bunburying”.