\nOscar Wilde\u2019s masterwork, featuring
\nall-female cast, Sept. 26-29<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
Allentown, PA (Sept. 13, 2019) \u2014 The Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Department season opens Sept. 26 with Oscar Wilde\u2019s classic satire \u201cThe Importance of Being Earnest.\u201d The beloved 1895 farce follows the adventures of two young bachelors leading double lives to win the hearts of those they love. The production will feature a cast composed entirely of women.<\/p>\n
Wilde\u2019s masterpiece is celebrated with a delicious wit, a comic playfulness, and an affection for all things \u201cBunbury,\u201d says the play\u2019s director, Jim VanValen, a visiting faculty member in the department. VanValen says the production\u2019s all-female casting was in part thematic, in part practical.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to tap into the demographics we have on campus,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have a lot of people who identify as female. I wanted to create opportunities \u2014 and also challenges \u2014 for some of our actors. We\u2019re actors, and as actors we can play any part. That\u2019s our job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cast members say they have found the process to be both energizing and interesting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of energy that\u2019s exciting to be around,\u201d says Posie Lewis, a senior theater and English major. \u201cIt\u2019s been fascinating to see the ways that having an all-female cast enlightens the play.\u201d<\/p>\n
The production runs Sept. 26-29 in Muhlenberg\u2019s Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance. Tickets and information are available at muhlenberg.edu\/theatre<\/a> and 484-664-3333.<\/p>\n The show also features a Faculty Spotlight Performance by acting professor Holly Cate in the role of Lady Bracknell. Cate has previously performed on Broadway in an Oscar Wilde play: \u201cAn Ideal Husband,\u201d in 1996.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a great mentor to the cast, and yet she\u2019s one of the cast,\u201d VanValen says. \u201cShe jumps right in with everything. She\u2019s fearless, and she allows herself to be vulnerable with them.\u201d<\/p>\n In this classic comedy, the characters pursue true love until mistaken identities entangle their intentions, leading to an amusing eruption of chaos within their Victorian home. The men and women strive to create their ideal life in a world in which social status is their driving force.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s playful, it’s a comedy, and it\u2019s earnest,\u201d says VanValen. \u201cWell, it\u2019s sort of earnest \u2014 from a certain perspective. It\u2019s certainly a comedy \u2014 and Wilde\u2019s wry, withering sense of humor holds up amazingly well.\u201d<\/p>\n VanValen says his approach to rehearsals and to helping his cast find the comedy of the play came from a childhood spent watching Looney Tunes \u2014 the Saturday morning cartoon classics featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner, and friends.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people know opera,\u201d he says.\u201d I only know opera because it was a Bugs Bunny cartoon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEarnest\u201d marks VanValen\u2019s directorial debut at Muhlenberg; he appeared as an actor in this summer\u2019s Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre production of \u201cAnything Goes,\u201d as Elisha J. Whitney, an over-the-top captain of industry looking for love.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s such a generous collaborator,\u201d Cate says. \u201cThere are things we have done in rehearsal where he makes me laugh so hard I cry.\u201d<\/p>\n Heather Dutton is a senior with a dance major and a minor in women\u2019s and gender studies. She portrays Algernon Moncrieff, a male role. She has brought both of her fields of study to bear in this production process.<\/p>\n \u201cI am fascinated by gender, and\u00a0 the way it was forced upon people in Victorian society,\u201d Dutton says. \u201cAnd the way it\u2019s still forced onto people by society.\u201d<\/p>\n Dutton has always had an affinity toward classic plays but is often frustrated with how female characters are portrayed.<\/p>\n \u201cIn most of these great plays, there\u2019s not really anything to sink your teeth into,\u201d Dutton says. \u201cI\u2019m getting an unusual opportunity to own and inhabit this really complex character.\u201d<\/p>\n Posie Lewis, who plays Gwendolyn Fairfax, has enjoyed her time unraveling the complications of playing a traditional Victorian woman.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is now experiencing a new level of education, worldliness, awareness, and societal action,\u201d\u00a0 Lewis says. \u201cShe has inherited her mother’s quick wit and smart sophistication, but she\u2019s not confined to societal expectations. She\u2019s interested in getting what she wants in a perfect way. She is trying to create her ideal life.\u201d<\/p>\n Dutton and Lewis have both brought their non-traditional and wide-ranging training to their rehearsal process. Dutton says that her dance studies help her to manifest Algernon\u2019s emotional shifts and unique physicality.<\/p>\n \u201cMy character takes on different personas throughout the show,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are a lot of physical demands. My dance background has given me an understanding of how to physically release, since I practice every day putting my body to its limits.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewis studied abroad at the physical theatre program in Arezzo, Italy, during the fall of 2018, and likewise brings this experience to her performance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a very stylized piece,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cIt features many heightened physical and vocal choices. Everything I was trained to do in Arezzo is completely informing everything that I am doing in rehearsal for Earnest.\u201d<\/p>\n Written in 1895, the play ran on London\u2019s West End alongside his other work \u201cAn Ideal Husband,\u201d and established his career as a successful playwright \u2014 albeit briefly. Events during opening night of \u201cErnest\u201d led eventually to Wilde\u2019s homosexuality being revealed and to his criminal persecution. He was imprisoned, and both plays were summarily closed. He never wrote another word.<\/p>\n This production features costumes designed by Rebecca Lustig, inspired by the style of Victorian England: corsets, hats, topcoats, and \u201clayers on layers on layers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe costume on this tell such a story,\u201d VanValen says.<\/p>\n The actors playing female characters wore corsets during rehearsal to become familiar with how to move in them. VanValen even got in on the action by getting fitted for a corset himself and wearing it alongside his performers.<\/p>\n Like all of Wilde\u2019s work, \u201cThe Importance of Being Earnest\u201d skewers the absurdities of Victorian society and the pomposity of the upper-class socialites with whom he kept company..<\/p>\n \u201cHis characters become a sort of funhouse mirror of values in their own society,\u201d Cate says. \u201cHe was the Saturday Night Live of his era.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe play is wicked smart and also really funny\u201d Says Lewis. \u201cIt\u2019s this really satisfying combination of the intellectual and the ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n “The Importance of Being Earnest”<\/b> plays Sept. 26-29. Showtimes are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Regular admission tickets are $15. Tickets for youth and LVAIC students and staff are $8. All ages are welcome.<\/p>\n Tickets can be purchased online at muhlenberg.edu\/theatre<\/a> or by phone at 484-664-3333. Performances are in the Baker Theatre in Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, Muhlenberg College, 2400 West Chew St., Allentown.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private, four-year residential, liberal arts college located in Allentown, Pa., approximately 90 miles west of New York City. With an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 2,200 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences as well as selected pre-professional programs, including accounting, business, education and public health. A member of the Centennial Conference, Muhlenberg competes in 22 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.<\/i><\/p>\n Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance. The Princeton Review ranked Muhlenberg\u2019s theater program in the top twelve in the nation for eight years in a row, and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theater and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theater and dance. The department was founded in 1983; the theater major was established in 1978, and the dance major was established in 1993.<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Information Provided By: <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nScott Snyder
\nMarketing Manager
\nMuhlenberg College Department of Theatre & Dance<\/p>\n
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