Cal U to lift curtain on fall season
CALIFORNIA – The Department of Theatre and Dance at California University of Pennsylvania will present “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde. This play will be performed Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 16-19, at Steele Auditorium on the California University of Pennsylvania campus. For tickets, call the theater box office at 724-938-5943. All shows begin at 8 p.m., and Cal U student tickets are free with a valid CalCard.
This comedy filled with wit from Victorian England tells the tale of Jack Worthing, played by Adam Bryan of Hermitage, and Algernon Moncrieff, played by Brent Shultz of Waynesburg. Both young men engage in double lives, where they claim to be a certain Earnest Worthing, in order to add excitement to their dull and ordinary lives and to gain the affections of their beloved.
Jack has fallen for Gwendolen Fairfax from the city, played by Sascha Newberg of Narberta and Algernon’s has fallen madly in love with Cecily Cardew played by Kelly Potchak of New Enterprise.
Gwendolen and Cecily both believe that they are destined to be married to a man named Earnest, a name which, coincidentally means honest and sincere. Jack and Algernon both say their name is Earnest, in order to gain the affections of the girls they love, and in fact attempt to be christened with the Earnest as to not be caught in a lie.
A great confusion evolves about who Earnest really is, and if there even is an Earnest. On top of all this, Gwendolen’s mother, Lady Bracknell played by Tania Mansour of New Castle botches things up when she refuses to give her consent to Jack marrying Gwendolen, which in turn provokes Jack to decline an alliance between Algernon and Cecily.