A MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR - MICHAEL UNGER It is 100% wonderful to be “back” in the Show Business after this forced hiatus. It has been an odd time of increased isolation and decreased interactive art since we started our extended “intermission” on March 14th. Our world has been thrown into crisis after crisis over the past six months which will have long-lasting impact on most aspects of our lives, including our beloved performing arts. As a result, we have repeatedly pivoted one way, then another, to create our revised 20/21 season. The “new normal” (“new slightly abnormal”) includes applying as much ingenuity as we can muster to every aspect of what we do. That certainly applies to our first offering of this season, Being Earnest by Tony-nominated, Paul Gordon and Emmy-nominated, Jay Gruska. Oscar Wilde meets Austin Powers in this groovy resetting of Wilde’s glistening comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest. In describing the play’s theme, Wilde said, “That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things of life with a sincere and studied triviality.” The specific brand of ironic levity Wilde is suggesting offers us poignant doses of humor, escape, and biting satire. I don't think Wilde would have offered that opinion in regards to world events that have caused us to create this virtual offering, but it certainly applied to the conventions he was skewering at the time. Creating this particular Earnest was an exciting challenge that involved each of our seven performers in their own homes becoming camera operators, sound mixers, scenic designers, lighting designers, and stagehands. Each had their cell phones on a tripod, a laptop behind that cell phone so I could see them, direct them, and frame the camera shots through Zoom calls, and a third device to play music tracks into earphones so we could isolate their vocals. They also had to sound-proof their performance spaces which included more than a few mattresses against windows, blankets hanging on shelves, and other sundry accommodations we have fondly labelled, “MacGyver-ing”. With Being Earnest we hope to lift the experience above the average zoom call (to which we have all become accustomed) and create a new, virtual form that turns the limitations and challenges of these times into opportunities to look at our art in a different way. Like the main characters in Earnest, we need to look past the boxes into which circumstances and society have placed us and find the connections, the empathy, the humanity (and humanities) in whatever ways we can. Skylight is proud to offer Being Earnest as a tasty appetizer before you devour the official first course of the season: Little Shop of Horrors.
Being Earnest
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