Amir Abou-Jaoude Assignment 6

Since we were a four person group that contained three girls and one boy, we were limited as to what scenes we could pick from the play. We chose the scene in which Gwendolen and Cecily discuss their predicament now that they have found that "Ernest" is a fictitious personage. We were among the first groups to reserve our pages from the play. When we found that this section was too short, we attempted to add some of Algernon and Jack's lines from the end of Act II. We were informed that another group had reserved this section. (It is still unclear to me why another group performed some of our section.) Nonetheless, this meant that we had to combine the scene we had with another scene from later in the play, in which Lady Bracknell confronts Algernon about the spurious "Bunbury." Adding this part meant that Leah had to change costumes in order to go from Jack to Lady Bracknell, but I thought the costume change occurred flawlessly and in no way slowed the performance.

I would have liked to improve the staging. Algernon and Jack were eating muffins at a table that was quite far from the center of stage, where Gwendolen and Cecily were standing. To get to them, we had to traverse the stage. I would have preferred performing in a smaller, more intimate setting. However, since the set for 12 Angry Jurors was already on the stage, there was little we could do to change it. The costumes were appropriate for the scene. I was dressed in a suit, Alex and Mia wore their prom dresses, and Leah was dressed so that she could easily change from Jack to Lady Bracknell. This attire was appropriate for people of high society. We all were able to stay in character, and even when the audience laughed, we were immersed in Wilde's dialogue.

The characters in Oscar Wilde's play are not great dramatic personages like those that inhabit the pages of Shakespeare and Chekhov--rather, they are archetypes, caricatures of well-to-do figures. As such, we focused on making the scene humorous rather than developing great characters. I do not feel that British accents would have added to our performance. It is difficult to maintain a uniform accent throughout a five-minute performance, and mastering the nuances and comedy of Wilde's lines was already difficult enough. Furthermore, as archetypes, these characters are not defined by their British heritage--one of the reasons Wilde's work is so loved is because Algernon, Jack, Gwendolen, Cecily, and Lady Bracknell could be shallow high society figures in almost any setting.

As for my own performance, I thought that I was able to deliver my lines with passion and appropriate inflection. Looking at the videotape, I wish I had cheated out a little bit more so that I had less of my back to the audience. In addition, I was forced to improvise dialogue that was not original to Wilde's play to cover the costume change. Still, I hope that what I made up was in the vein of Wilde and did not detract from his performance. All the members of my group memorized their lines, and there were no slip-ups in reciting them. I wish we had had more practice time and had known from the outset that the stage would already contain the set for the school play so we could have planned more appropriately. With the resources we did have, I felt that my group did an admirable job, and it was clear that we had put a lot of work into the performance.

Plays are not just meant to be read--they are meant to be performed. Performing this scene made me realize how witty Wilde really was--so many of his jokes depend on how a person delivers his lines. Inflection, different volume levels, and especially timing make a difference when reciting Wilde's words. In class, we read the play sporadically--a few pages every few days. Sitting in the theater and watching the performances in chronological order made me appreciate Wilde's skill. All the pieces of the play really do fit together to create an exquisite comedy of manners. Wilde delicately pokes fun at his characters, but at no point does he tear them down or make them seem stupid. Instead, he gracefully reminds us, to quote the final words of the play, of "the importance of being earnest."