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Lauren Szala, senior theater major, gives a smile and presents her act. She played the role of an upper class woman named Gwendolen.
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Jake Anderson, senior psychology major, with his eyes wide. The audience all laughed in appreciation of his performance.
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Noah Hart, freshman environmental biology major, in character and ready to serve. He played the role of the butler, Lane Algernon.
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Szala as Gwendolen (left) meets Wyatt Tripe as Jack Worthing (right), sophomore double major in theater and film, for the first time and immediately expresses her love. She believed him to be “Ernest.”
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Taylor Moore (Cecily), sophomore communication studies major, writes in her diary. She imagined a romantic relationship with Algernon.
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Khalani Britt, sophomore communication major, as Lady Bracknell (left), shares the stage with Tripe (right). Tripe shares his background with Gwendolen’s mother to get approval to marry her daughter.
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Anderson (right) talks with Moore (left) about Algernon. Merriman told Cecily that Mr. Ernest Worthing (Algernon) , her lover, had just driven over from the train station.
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Moore’s character (left) and Szala’s character (right), meet for the first time and sit together. Gwendolen mentioned that she is engaged to Ernest Worthing.
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Gwendolen looks at Cecily through her pince-nez. Gwendolen questioned Cecily about her relationship with “Ernest.”
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Szala (left) gives her diary to Moore (right) to prove her claim. She showed written “evidence” of her engagement to Ernest.
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Moore (front left), Anderson (back left), Szala (front center) and Hart (back right) share the stage together where Cecily serves tea to Gwendolen. They realized both were engaged to someone named Ernest.
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Gwendolen (left), holds the hand of Jack (right) where Merriman (back left) and Lane (back right) observe from a distance. Gwendolen reaffirmed her love for Jack.
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All the cast stand together on stage and applaud the audience. All audiences showed respect to the cast.
On Friday, May 2, Washburn University Theatre presented “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde inside the Neese-Gray Theatre at 7:30 p.m. There were more than 100 attendees.
“The Importance of Being Earnest” takes place in the late 19th century in Victorian England. The play unfolds in elegant homes both in London and the countryside, where characters navigate the complexities of identity, love and deception.
Khalani Britt, sophomore communication major, shared her favorite moment during her performance and discussed the extensive preparation process for the show.
“The costuming is a little heavy, so one of the challenges has been just trying to keep it on and being able to breathe with it,” Britt said. “My favorite line or moment is when I tell Ernest that he [was] born or bred in a handbag. We spent about a month in rehearsals to get ready for it … We ran the play from beginning to end with the lights and everything.”
Jake Anderson, senior psychology major, shared about the play and talked about funny moments.
“[The play] is very critical of class and status, and it kind of pokes fun at some of the things that people see as normal, but really aren’t,” Anderson said. “[An example of this] is the one Lady Bracknell has where she says something criticizing the British education system, and then says, ‘Thankfully, it has no effect.’ I thought that was really funny. It’s a very subtle line.”
Wyatt Tripe, sophomore theater and film major, discussed his role in the play, highlighted the play’s timeless humor and shared about the challenges and connection with audiences.
“I think [this play] stands out because it’s a classic bold play, but it adapts very well to a modern audience, and it uses a lot of irony,” said Tripe, who played the part of Jack Worthing. “It’s a different form of comedy than most people are accustomed to nowadays, but it’s still very effective. I think the hardest challenge was since it’s a period piece set in late-1800s England. We have to wear these full costumes, which have lots of layers, and then we have to keep the posture right. We have to do the accent right, the way we walk, talk, move, everything has to be like how they would have done it back then.”
Tripe also shared how much impact the audience has on the cast’s performance.
“Since it is a comedy, the audience is going to laugh,” Tripe said. “So those laughs really kind of give us the fuel to keep going and keep putting in more energy. It’s just transferring the energy between the audience’s laughter and the actor’s performance.”
The conclusion served as a comedic resolution where all deceptions are resolved, lovers are united, and social harmony is restored. At the end of the play, Jack Worthing discovers his true identity: he is indeed named Ernest.
Edited by Reid McEvoy and Morgan Albrecht
