Thorson, Armbruster & More Star Guthrie's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST 9/12-11/8

The Guthrie today announced the complete cast and creative team for director Joe Dowling's upcoming production of Oscar Wilde's most perfect comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, with actress Linda Thorson (best known for her role as Tara King in the classic 1960s British television series "The Avengers") leading the company as Lady Bracknell.

Thorson will be joined onstage by John Skelley, a 2007 graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program and star of the 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival audience favorite Jurassic Dork, as Algernon Moncrieff, with 2005 Juilliard graduate and rising film actor Nick Mennell playing Jack Worthing. The production will also feature Heidi Armbruster (The Great Gatsby) as Gwendolen Fairfax and Erin Krakow as Cecily Cardew, alongside longtime Guthrie actors Richard S. Iglewski (Rev. Canon Frederick Chasuble), Suzanne Warmanen (Miss Laetitia Prism) and Kris L. Nelson (Lane / Merriman).

The Importance of Being Earnest begins previews September 12, opens September 17 and continues through November 8 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Single tickets are priced from $24 to $60, with a limited number of premium tickets available for opening night. Tickets are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org.

The Importance of Being Earnest is the story of Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, young carefree dandies who have each created an imaginary character so that they may visit their loves and win their hearts. Abandoned in London's Victoria Station as an infant and now living in a country manor, Jack has fallen in love with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen, daughter of the formidable Lady Bracknell. In order to escape to the city to meet with her, Jack invents a fictitious dissolute brother, Ernest, and claims he has to look after him in town. Similarly, Algernon escapes to the country thanks to a fictitious invalid friend on the brink of dying, whose needs call him away from London. When Algernon (masquerading as Jack's brother Earnest) meets and falls in love with Jack's ward Cecily Cardew on a visit to the country, the stage is set for clever manipulations, mild treacheries and hilarious confusion. Not least of the complications is Lady Bracknell's demand to know more about Jack's parentage, a task proved difficult by his foundling origin. For their part, Cecily and Gwendolen are both illogically in love with Ernest, whom neither has ever met (because he doesn't really exist), only further propelling the young men's deception into comical twists of delicious wit, hidden identities and silly attempts to keep up appearances which aren't always as they seem.

Arguably one of the most perfect comedies ever written, Wilde's masterpiece continues to entertain and delight audiences with its keen depiction of Victorian manners and its satirical, yet playful, treatment of upperclass notions of propriety. In an ideal position to observe the values and morals of the English aristocratic set, the Irish playwright set down his observations in this subversive farce with a characteristic light tough. With its cutting and precise dialogue, the play has the elegance and refinement of an intricate and brilliantly paced piece of music and will have audiences laughing from first word to last.

Last staged by Dowling on the Guthrie thrust in 1998, Earnest was hailed by the Star Tribune as "an entertaining romp," and featured a then relatively unknown actor Rainn Wilson - now widely recognized as Dwight Schrute on NBC's The Office - as Algernon Moncrieff. The 1998 cast also included Iglewski as Rev. Chasuble, a role he returns to play in the current staging.

The artistic team for The Importance of Being Earnest includes Walt Spangler (Set Designer), Matthew J. LeFebvre (Costume Design), Allen Lee Hughes (Lighting Designer), Scott W. Edwards (Sound Designer), Adam Warnick (Music Consultant), Elisa Carlson (Voice and Dialect Coach), Marcela Lorca (Movement), Michael Lupu (Dramaturgy), Russell W. Johnson (Production Stage Manager), Michele Harms (Assistant Stage Manager), Justin Hossle (Assistant Stage Manager) and Dionne LaViolette (Assistant Director).

For more information, visit www.guthrietheater.org.

The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Guthrie is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Led by Director Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie opened its new three-theater home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in June 2006.

The Guthrie is located at 818 South 2nd Street (at Chicago Avenue), in downtown Minneapolis. To purchase tickets or season subscriptions call the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224 or toll-free 877.44.STAGE. For more information, or to purchase tickets online, visit www.guthrietheater.org.

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