Actors between 16-18 years of age may audition and will require a parental release form if they are offered a role in the show

Ages of characters will be based on who we have audition - so come audition regardless of the "traditional" ages for the characters in the show

Headshots/Resumes are NOT required but they are helpful, so you are welcome to bring them if you have them

We are open to gender-flipping some of the roles, so please come audition regardless of age, gender, etc.

Jack Worthing The play’s protagonist. Jack Worthing is a seemingly responsible and respectable young man who leads a double life. In Greennville, where he has a farm/ranch, Jack is known as Jack. In Dallas he is known as Ernest. As a baby, Jack was discovered in a handbag in the greyhound station by an old man who adopted him and subsequently made Jack guardian to his granddaughter, Cecily Cardew. Jack is in love with his friend AJ’s cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax (Gwen). The initials after his name indicate that he is a Justice of the Peace.

Algernon Moncrieff (AJ) The play’s secondary hero. Algernon (AJ) is a charming, idle, decorative bachelor, nephew of Mrs. Bracknell, cousin of Gwen Fairfax, and best friend of Jack Worthing, whom he has known for years as Ernest. AJ is brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral, and given to making delightful paradoxical and epigrammatic pronouncements. He has invented a fictional friend, “Bunbury,” an invalid whose frequent sudden relapses allow AJ to wriggle out of unpleasant or dull social obligations.

Gwendolen Fairfax (Gwen) AJ’s cousin and Mrs. Bracknell’s daughter. Gwen is in love with Jack, whom she knows as Ernest. A model and arbiter of high fashion and society, Gwendolen speaks with unassailable authority on matters of taste and morality. She is sophisticated, intellectual, cosmopolitan, and utterly pretentious. Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest and says she will not marry a man without that name.

Cecily Cardew Jack’s ward, the granddaughter of the old gentlemen who found and adopted Jack when Jack was a baby. Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play. Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed with the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness. This idea, rather than the virtuous-sounding name, has prompted her to fall in love with Jack’s brother Ernest in her imagination and to invent an elaborate romance and courtship between them.

Mrs. Bracknell AJ’s snobbish, mercenary, and domineering aunt and Gwen’s mother. Mrs. Bracknell married well, and her primary goal in life is to see her daughter do the same. She has a list of “eligible young men” and a prepared interview she gives to potential suitors. Like her nephew, Mrs. Bracknell is given to making hilarious pronouncements, but where AJ means to be witty, the humor in Mrs. Bracknell’s speeches is unintentional. Mrs. Bracknell values ignorance, which she sees as “a delicate exotic fruit.” When she gives a dinner party, she prefers her husband to eat downstairs with the servants. She is cunning, narrow-minded, authoritarian, and possibly the most quotable character in the play.

Miss Prudance (Pru) Cecily’s friend/tutor/caregiver when Jack isn’t at the ranch. Miss Pru is an endless source of pedantic bromides and clichés. She highly approves of Jack’s presumed respectability and harshly criticizes his “unfortunate” brother. Puritan though she is, Miss Pru’s severe pronouncements have a way of going so far over the top that they inspire laughter. Despite her rigidity, Miss Pru seems to have a softer side. She speaks of having once written a novel whose manuscript was “lost” or “abandoned.” Also, she entertains romantic feelings for Dr. Chasuble. Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D. A local minister in Greenville. Both Jack and AJ approach Dr. Chasuble to request that they be baptised “Ernest.” Dr. Chasuble entertains secret romantic feelings for Miss Pru. The initials after his name stand for “Doctor of Divinity.”

Lane AJ’s personal assistant. When the play opens, Lane is the only person who knows about AJ’s practice of “Bunburying.” Lane appears only in Act 1.

Merriman An all around ranch hand/ and personal assistant at the Ranch. Merriman appears only in Acts 2 and 3.