Production History

1.)The Village Theatre
Francis J. Gaudette Theatre & Everett Performing Arts Center
&
Issaquah WA, Everett WA

Issaquah production: January 21–March 1, 2009
Everett production: March 6–29, 2009

Director:Brian Yorkey
Scenic Design: Bill Forrester
Lighting Design:Tom Sturge
Costume Design: Karen Ledger
Sound Design:Gino Scarpino

The director, Brian Yorkey, makes no overt attempts to force the play to comment on our current predicament, but he does keep the Victorian setting and uses it to suggest the sunset of an empire -- and a society that's almost too frivolous to last.

By John Hartl

Special to The Seattle Times

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2008725240_zart09earnest.html

Sets, costumes and designs, Brian Yorkey's direction pulls it all together. This is Great White Way brightness applied to Victorian-era comedy. It is fast-paced, charming, clever, uproariously funny and a perfect prescription for today's ailing times.
By Dale Burrows
For The Enterprise
http://www.enterprisenewspapers.com/article/20090225/ETP17/702259889&template=ETPart


2.) Michigan State University
East Lansing Michigan
Wharton Theatre for Preforming Arts
October 9th - 11th and 16th - 19th, 2003

Director: Carolyn M. Gillespie
Scene Design: Kirk Domer
Costume Design: Gretel Geist
Lighting Design: Danielle M. Baisden
Sound Design: Daniel A. Swallec

3.) Regents Park Open Air theatre:
New Shakespeare Company
London
July 3-25, 2009
Director:Irina Brown
Designer: Kevin Knight
Lighting Designer: Tim Mascall
Sound Designer: Fergus O'Hare

I believe it is a breath of fresh air that allows us to experience the play anew. The dazzling, dizzying dialogue in which Wilde treats “all trivial things very seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality” zings, sings and stings in this production, and there is no overplaying of the homosexual subtext about “confirmed and secret Bunburyists” leading hidden lives.
By Charles Spencer
The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/charlesspencer/5787648/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-at-Regents-Park-review.html

she brings to life something that's often neglected: Wilde's double-living, duplex, bisex drama depends not only on a web of pseudonyms, invented siblings and imaginary friends but on the split between town and country, really, between London and everywhere else. It's an urban dandy's reworking of a Shakespeare pastoral comedy: all the tangles of urban life unravel out of town.
By:Susanna Clapp
The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jul/12/everybody-loves-winner-manchester-review


4.) Paper Mill Playhouse
January 14-Febraury 15 2009
Millburn, NJ
Director: David Schweizer
Set designer: Alexander Dodge
Costume Designer: David Murin
Lighting Designer: Matt Frey

David Schweizer's new production of Oscar Wilde's comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest, now at the Paper Mill Playhouse, is not updated to the present, nor does it use any symbolic or surrealistic devices. Still, this is not exactly a traditional production of the classic play -- although it is a pleasantly entertaining one.
By: Matt Windman
Theater Mania
http://www.theatermania.com/new-jersey/reviews/01-2009/the-importance-of-being-earnest_17108.html

Perched in a fancy box positioned on high next to the proscenium is Oscar Wilde (Chris Spencer Wells). As expected, he is dandily dressed and undoubtedly looking forward to seeing his comedy performed. He waves and blows kisses to friends below between sips from a glass of wine. Because Wells has been assigned two other roles, that of servants Lane and Merriman, he leaves the box once the play begins. My only thought as the play got under way was had Wilde remained he might have been inclined to throw himself out of the box in light of the travesty made of his play.
By: Simon Saltzman
Curtain Up
http://www.curtainup.com/earnestpapermill09.html


5.) Theater Ten Ten
New York, NY
February 8 - March 9, 2008
Director: Judith Jarosz
Set Designer: David Fuller
Costume Designer: Shauna Horn

Many of their lines are delivered as the characters face the audience. It is not a form of direct address, per se, as they seem unaware of the audience's presence. The presentational style appears to be used more because the characters are performing for each other. They realize what they are saying is ridiculous and witty, intended to make one laugh. Occasionally, the laughter was so loud that the next lines were drowned out. As it turns out, the play is possibly the Victorian era's version of stand-up.
by: Amy Freeman
Off Off Online
http://www.offoffonline.com/archives.php?id=1290

David Fuller, formly the artistic director of the now defunct Jean Repertory Theatre on the Bowery, plays two roles: appearing first as Algernon's butler, Lane, in his London flat, and later as Merriman, manservant in Worthings counrty home. In addtion, Fuller desinged the sets, including the posh London flat and country garden filled with flower baskets.
By: Joseph Hurley
The Irish Echo
http://www.theater1010.com/images/IBE_Irish_Echo_Review_pasteup.pdf



6.) California Polytechnic University
Department of Theatre and Dance
San Luis Obispo, CA
February 28- March 7, 2002
Director: Mike Malkin
Set Design& Lighting Design: Tim Dugan
Costume Designer: Kira Franz-Knight