Photo Flash: First Look - THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Opens Tonight at CT Rep

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) opens its 2017-18 season with Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Jean Randich will direct. Performances will be held in the Harriet S. Jorgenson Theatre from tonight, October 5th, through October 15th, 2017. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde blends the absurdities of farce with the sharp critique of social satire, creating one of the most highly regarded comedies of all time. The play follows the double lives of Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, men who invent circumstances that give them excuses to escape the strictures of family, duty, and social responsibility. But once you begin lying, how do you know when to stop? As each man's romantic interest becomes entangled in the web of fantasies and deceits, Wilde's characters find themselves in a dizzying world in which "the truth is rarely pure and never simple."

Liz McCartney makes her CRT debut as Lady Bracknell. McCartney's Broadway credits include Sunday in the Park with George and The Phantom of the Opera. She has also toured with The Rocky Horror Show. Her regional credits include Into the Woods as the Witch with Ordway and the Sacramento Music Theatre, Paint Your Wagon at Goodspeed, A Vision with Playwrights Horizons and A.C.T. Her TV credits include "Route 66," "The Prosecutors," "Law & Order: SVU."

Connecticut-native Stephon Pettway stars as Algernon. Pettway was most recently seen touring A Midsummer Nights Dream and Julius Caesar in Rep with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and Lifetime TV's "My Crazy Ex." Pettway's Off-Broadway credits include Big Night, You Can't Take It With You, and The Odd Couple. His Regional Theatre experience includes To Kill a Mockingbird with the Judy Bayley Theatre, A Midsummer Night's Dream with Richmond Shakespeare Festival, The Merchant of Venice with STNJ, and Eurydice with the Judy Bayley Theatre.

Director Jean Randich is making her CRT directorial debut. Randich is a professor of drama at Bennington College and faculty member at NYU Tisch. She has directed new and classic work for En Garde Arts, New Georges, NAATCO, the Flea, the Asia society, and the Pearl Theartre in NYC, as well as at the Yale Repertory Theatre, Nevada Conservatory Theater, Portland Stage Company, and the Magic theatre. She is a cofounder of Collider Theatre in NYC.

The creative team includes: Jean Randich (Director), Pedro L. Guevara (Scenic Design), Danielle Verkennes (Lighting Design), Taowen Pan (Costume Design), TEddy Carraro (Sound Design), Gabriella Medvick (Dramaturg), and Tom Kosis (Production Stage Manager).

The cast includes BFA actors: Nick Nudler as Jack Worthing, Tabatha Gayle as Gwendolen Fairfax, Gillian Pardi as Cecily Cardew, Jacob Harris Wright as Rev. C Chausuble, Vivienne James as Miss Prismole, Coleman Churchill as Lane, and Anthony Giovino as Merriman.

For tickets and information, visit crt.uconn.edu or call (860) 486-2113.

Photo Credit: Gerry Goldstein

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