(480) 483-1664 info@desertstages.org

AUDITION NOTICE!

 

Announcing
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
AUDITIONS!

IN PERSON COLD READINGS
Tuesday, June 7 •  7-10pm

All actors must submit a Google Audition Registration Form

Actors ages 16+

IN-PERSON CALLBACKS
Wednesday, June 8 • 7-10pm
Masks are welcomed for your safety and concern

REHEARSALS BEGIN
Monday, June 13 • 7-10pm

REHEARSAL SCHEDULE
A detailed complete schedule will be provided at our first rehearsal.
and will typically run Monday-Thursday, 7-10pm

NO CONFLICTS ALLOWED
July 16- 21 or during performance dates

SHOW DATES
Friday, July 22, 7:30pm
Saturday July 23, 3:00pm
Saturday, July 23, 7:30pm
Sunday, July 24, 3:00pm

Friday, July 29, 7:30pm
Saturday, July 30, 3:00pm
Saturday, July 30, 7:30pm
Sunday, July 31, 3:00pm

Friday, August 5, 7:30pm
Saturday, August 6, 3:00pm
Saturday, August 6, 7:30pm
Sunday, August 7, 3:00pm

Friday, August  12, 7:30pm
Saturday, August 13, 3:00pm
Saturday, August 13, 7:30pm
Sunday, August 14, 3:00pm

Each performer will be asked to abide by the rules of Desert Stages Theatre.
Each performer will be asked to help promote this DST show.
Safety will be priority #1 as we continue to bring LIVE THEATRE back to the DST stage!

 
Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre
Actor’s Cafe Production of

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

Written by Oscar Wilde

Directed by Van Rockwell

 

AUDITIONS WILL CONSIST OF
Audition submissions will be accepted from individuals ages 16 and up. No roles have been pre-cast. Auditions will consist of cold-read monologues from the script and will be provided in advance.

Looking for performers with Comedic Timing, Lively Facial Expressions, Humility, and Looking To Have Fun. Any feelings of ‘Earnest’ being a serious drama like Downton Abbey are hugely mistaken. Plus… no British accent required.

Callbacks will consist of cold-reads from the script and will be provided in advance, but will be done in groups.

 

DST COVID-19 Procedures and Policies can be referenced HERE 

 

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

Actors of all races, ethnicities, sizes, abilities, and genders (conforming and non-conforming) are highly encouraged to audition.

John Worthing, J.P. (Jack/Ernest) (M / 20’s) – a responsible and respectable young man leading a double life. His family pedigree is a mystery, but his seriousness and sincerity are evident. In love with Gwendolen.
Algeron Moncrieff (M / 20-30’s) – a charming, idle, and decorative bachelor. He’s brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral, and given to making delightful paradoxical and epigrammatic announcements. In love with Cecily.
Gwendolen Fairfax (F / 20’s) – a model and arbiter of high fashion and society. She speaks with unassailable authority on matters of taste and morality. She is also sophisticated, intellectual, cosmopolitan, and pretentious. Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest and says she will not marry a man without that name. In love with Jack.
Cecily Cardew (F / 20’s) – the most realistically drawn character in the play. Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed by the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness. This idea, rather than the virtuous-sounding name, has prompted her to fall in love with Jack’s brother Ernest in her imagination and to invent an elaborate romance and courtship between them. In love with Algernon.
Mrs. Bracknell (F / 40-60’s) – snobbish, mercenary, and domineering. Like her nephew Algernon, Miss Bracknell is given to making hilarious pronouncements, but where Algernon means to be humorous, the humor in Miss Bracknell’s speeches is unintentional. She manages to satirize the hypocrisy and stupidity of (in our version), the pretentiousness and pettiness of California’s high society. She is cunning, narrow-minded, authoritarian, and possibly the most quotable character in the play.
Miss ‘Nanna’ Prism (F / 40-60’s) – an endless source of pedantic bromides and clichés. Puritan though she is, Miss Prism’s severe pronouncements have a way of going so far over the top that they inspire laughter. Despite her rigidity, Miss Prism seems to have a softer side. She harbors feelings for Dr. Chasuble.
Rev. Cannon Chasuble, D.D. (M / 40-70’s) – The rector on Jack’s estate. Dr. Chasuble entertains secret romantic feelings for Miss Prism. The initials after his name stand for “Doctor of Divinity.”
Lane (M / 40-70’s) – Algernon’s manservant. Only appears in Act I. Can double as Merriman.
Merriman (M/ 40-70’s) – Butler at Jack’s estate. Only appears in Acts II and III. Can double as Lane.