anyone familiar with The Importance of Being Earnest?

Question

For an audtition, I'm thinking of doing a monologue from The Importance of Being Earnest as the character Lady Bracknell. I have not read the play, only a synopsis. Anyone know some stuff about how I could do a good job playing Lady Bracknell, or any other helpful tips on auditioning?

Answer 1

At the risk of being preachy, you really need to read the entire play. To do the monologue correctly, you need to know not only who Lady B. is, but also who she's talking to at that particular moment in the play, her relationship to him/her, how this moment is like or unlike her usual behavior, etc.

Earnest is a pretty easy play to understand--it's a comedy of manners, which means it makes fun of a certain slice of society (in this case, vain, snobby, and shallow upper-class Edwardians). The language is not tricky. I think you'll have no trouble getting into it and finishing it and getting a handle on who Lady B. is.

Finally, consider this--as a director, I will often work with folks auditioning for me after their monologues--asking them to rework a moment or make a different choice. I want to see how flexible they are and whether they can take direction. In those moments, it become obvious very quickly when an actor hasn't read the play his/her monologue is from. And that makes me think--if he/she can't be bothered to read a play to prepare for auditions, what makes me think he or she's going to work hard in my play?

So if you want the part--read the play. It's good for ya. ;-)

Answer 2

How old are you? Lady Bracknell is (at least) middle-aged, and I would suggest that it's not an appropriate choice of material for a young actress. What's more, you should NEVER -- and I mean NEVER -- audition with material from a play that you haven't read in its entirety. If you can't evaluate your chosen text in the CONTEXT of the character's development throughout the play, how can you play her effectively? It doesn't make sense.

Keep looking.

Answer 3

I read the play for my A.P english class a couple weeks ago. What you want to get across with Lady Bracknell is her overwhelming sense of superiority. She is a complete hypocrite; Oscar Wilde uses her as an example of how upperclass society are all complete hypocrites. She also has a lot of outrageous lines that you can have fun with, for example she says that losing one parent may be seen as a tradgedy but losing both seems careless. Definitely go for the role, but try to read the play too because its really good.