by Till Stadler, Selina Moses
The 12th graders of the two English advanced courses prepared Oscar Wilde’s comedy “The importance of being Earnest” as a play.
This play is about two friends Jack and Algernon, who pretend to have a brother or a friend who they have to take care of. Jack lives in the countryside and he uses his non-existing brother Earnest as an excuse to go to the city.
There he poses as his brother Earnest and he falls in love with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen, who only wants to marry a man named Earnest. Algernon on the other hand lives in the city and uses his friend “Bunburry” to go to the countryside. There he falls in love with Jack’s ward Cecily, who also favors to marry a man named Earnest. Both the men get engaged to these women, but Cecily and Gwendolen don’t know their actual names. Jack and Algernon find a possibility to get away with this situation, but they get busted. This project will replace a main test grade for the students. They had to go to rehearsals on Wednesdays in the 7th and 8th lesson, where Mr. Bonk gave everyone good advise to improve the play. On every Wednesday a different scene was rehearsed. Because practicing the scenes only once wouldn’t be enough, the English teachers had sacrificed some of their lessons in order to rehearse again. In preparation to the students’ own performance they visited a professional theater show to improve their acting skills. Almost all the students have got a role, but those who have a minor role or no role have to take care of the props for every scene and have to arrange the lighting.
To find out what the actual Importance of Being Earnest is, you should make sure to watch this play on the 12th of December 2017 in the MANOS.