Auditions
next Show: The Importance of Being Earnest
Audition Dates: Saturday, January 24, 2026 @ 2:00-4:00 pm Sunday, January 25, 2026, @ 7:00-9:00 pm
Audition Location: The Firehouse, 120 E. Garfield Street
The Characters of the Play
John Worthing, J.P.
A seemingly responsible and respectable young bachelor who leads a double life. At home in Hertfordshire, he is Jack, a justice of the peace with responsibilities and Cecily’s guardian; in London, he is his fictional younger brother Ernest, a clever dandy and man about town. He is in love with and proposes to his friend Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen. Despite his double life, he is serious and sincere in his emotions. Comedy comes from his frustration and attempts to maintain dignity while everything collapses around him.
Algernon Moncrieff
Nephew of Lady Bracknell, cousin of Gwendolen Fairfax, and best friend of John, though he has only ever known him as Ernest. A charming, idle, and indulgent bachelor, he lives for pleasure, good food, and clever conversation, and has invented a fictional friend, “Bunbury,” an invalid whose frequent sudden relapses allow Algernon to wriggle out of unpleasant or dull social obligations. He develops quite the interest in Jack’s ward, Cecily, and poses as his fictional brother Ernest in order to meet with her.
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax
Algernon’s cousin and Lady Bracknell’s daughter, she is very in love with Jack, whom she knows only as Ernest. She is deeply romantic, but in a very specific, rule-bound way. Fashionable, articulate and absolutely certain of her own opinions, she is something of an arbiter of fashion, and speaks with an unassailable authority on any matter of taste. Strong willed and confident, she knows what she wants and expects the world to arrange itself accordingly.
Cecily Cardew
John’s ward, the granddaughter of his adopted father, Mr. Thomas Cardew, she is being tutored at John’s secluded country estate by her governess, Miss Prism. She is a romantic, starry-eyed, and imaginative young debutante who has fantasized whole romances before they have even begun, which leads to her delight when reality begins to match her expectations. Intrigued by the idea of her guardian’s wicked younger brother Ernest, she has become very interested in meeting him.
Lady Bracknell
Algernon’s aunt and Gwendolen’s mother. Lady Bracknell married well, and her primary goal in life is to see her daughter do the same. She is the very embodiment of rigid Victorian values – status, wealth, and “proper” behavior – delivered with unwavering confidence. She dominates every room she enters and treats social convention as absolute law. Fearsome, but in her sincere, grand pronouncements about the way of the world comes off as a ridiculous satire of Victorian upper classes.
Miss Prism
Cecily’s governess. A serious, proper and pedantic lady who is fond of education and self-improvement. She approves of John’s apparent respectability and criticizes his wastrel of a brother, but seems to have a softer side, being fond of romantic novels and entertaining a romantic flirtation with the local rector, Dr. Chasuble. She has a tendency to make strict puritanical pronouncements that go so over the top they become funny.
Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D
A polite, scholarly, and well-meaning Anglican minister, the rector of the local church on John’s estate. He holds a secret romantic side, as despite his firm outward statements about wishing to remain unmarried, he continues a very obvious romantic flirtation with Miss Prism. Earnest in his duties, his sincerity tends to clash humorously with the absurdity around him.
Lane & Merriman
Servants. Lane is Algernon’s butler at his home in London, while Merriman is John’s manservant at his estate in Hertfordshire. Lane is composed, but dry and funny, in an unintentional and perhaps dour way. Merriman is much more efficient and remains mostly seen yet unheard. Lane appears only in Act I while Merriman appears only in Acts II and III. Likely to be cast as one performer.