Every year, the Marlborough Performing Arts Department provides Middle School students the opportunity to showcase their acting skills and talents in the annual Middle School play. This year, Performing Arts Instructor Sarah Foster directed the students in the Oscar Wilde classic “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
The play, set in 1895, follows the shenanigans of two young men leading double lives in order to win the affections of two young women. While it is a traditional Victorian farce, it has seen a resurgence in the theatrical community after its 2024 London revival starring Ncuti Gatwa and Hugh Skinner.
“I was inspired by the National Theatre’s production as it played into the queer qualities of the show,” Foster said. “It was a modern and fresh take but stayed true to the original era.”
Wilde imbued his identity as a queer playwright into much of his work — “The Importance of Being Earnest” being no exception. The play opened amid Wilde’s persecution for being homosexual, and while the show was a major success, he suffered for his identity behind the scenes.
“The world was happy to embrace his genius, but not always to give him credit for his work. The play is very much about [Wilde] having to have a separate public persona and personal life and juggling that,” Foster said.
Beyond tackling the subject matter and context of the play, “The Importance of Being Earnest” was also a challenge in terms of accommodating a larger cast size. Because the piece is in the public domain, Foster was able to write new roles and dialogue for the production, including dancing ushers, Victorian ladies and even Oscar Wilde himself.
“The main action is primarily involving a small cast, so I had the idea of including two additional ensembles, each with a variety of characters and personas,” Foster said.
To develop relevant and contextually important dialogue for Wilde’s character, Foster reviewed letters from Wilde to his producers during the process of creating the play. Over the course of winter break, Foster began modifying the script. In addition to the new dialogue, she compiled and selected scenes from the original four-act version of the play to create an extended three-act version for the final performance.
Simultaneously, the sophomore directing interns offered support to both the cast and the adult team behind the show. From choreography rehearsals with the dancing ushers to characterization exercises with the Victorian ladies, each directing intern was delegated a specific and integral role in the process of bringing the play to life.
The work of Foster, the directing interns, the cast and the rest of the adult team culminated in the Middle School show, which ran from May 14 to May 16. The performance not only highlighted the work of a reputable queer playwright, but the talents of a diverse and passionate Middle School student body.
