Assignment 6: James Apo

The play "The Importance of Being Earnest" written by Oscar Wilde is a true example of a comedy of manners. It satirizes the order and customs of the upper class in order to boost the lower class of the Victorian Era. Our scene was a vital part of the story, highlighting when Jack finds out what happened to him as a baby and who he truly is.

The mannerisms we used were solid for the most part, however they were not as consistent as possible considering some actors played multiple roles. The switching and breaking of character made for a harder task of acting that we executed decently. Since we had an all male cast but multiple female characters, the higher pitched voices we used as an impression for how a lady would speak as well as the cliche British accents we tried to employ all summed up to an effective use of voices. The over-exaggerated high pitch of Lady Bracknell along with the shy and quiet voice of Miss Prism combined for a humorous female duo, not to mention the funny costumes. We articulated the words and projected our sounds well, and also remembered our lines well in comparison to most groups. Since we never had to hesitate to remember them, it made for a much smoother process and an eloquent cadence. All of our main characters had easy to identify props and costume features. Lady Bracknell has a necklace and earrings and a  dress and Miss Prism is wearing a dress as well. Dr. Chasuble has a priest outfit on as well as holds a bible, and Jack is played by Jack and even makes a racket with the chairs on the side of the stage and brings the handbag he was left in to the discussion. Algernon and Cecily are represented by printed out pictures of their characters in the movie. One could argue that we did not use the space very effectively for our play, as that is something we did not really think about when rehearsing. When a character did not have lines, it was almost like you did not know what to do with yourself, and I believe we could have moved around better and spread out more, as there were instances during the discussion where we were all sort of cramped together. We were all quite prepared and also were the only group to act within the time constraint of 5 minutes.

Although our performance was far from flawless, it definitely added a new perspective on the story as a whole and how humorous it truly can be when performed. I think the funniest part was that two male actors took on the roles of two elderly women. That evidently is unorthodox and it made for very funny altercations between characters. I have always enjoyed watching plays and movies and tv shows. Overall, I do like seeing how an actor or actress can do settle things in order to make an effect on the audience. I have never really taken a drama or theater class, but it is something I would consider doing in college and this activity only further influenced that possibillity.