Actor/director Jason Cannon is a nominee for two Kevin Kline awards this year, but he is also a visiting assistant professor here who will be directing the upcoming campus play “The Importance of Being Earnest” playing March 4.
The Current: What is “The Importance of being Earnest” about?
Jason Cannon: It’s a classic comedy about mistaken identity. There’s this guy, Jack, who’s in love with Gwendolyn, and he pretends his name is Earnest because it’s a reason for him to get down to see her in the city.
It’s an excuse to leave his house up in the country, where he has a ward and he can get away from being responsible and go and be kind of a profligate in the city. The play is all about the machinations of these characters to try to figure out who each other are, try to get married. Everyone is pretending to be Earnest, but no one really is Earnest, because Earnest doesn’t exist.
So, it’s pretty much a play about men doing anything to be with the woman they love, to put it in a one-line thing.
We’re doing something a little kooky with it, we are changing the setting. So instead of 1895 London, we are setting it 1965 Manhattan, New York.
It’s right on the cusp of sexual revolution, right at the cusp of, you know, the ‘60s, with all that happened there.
Instead of going to the country, they go upstate. So, I spent a lot of time researching New York and the time period so I could update the script with all the references, all the numbers, all the dates and addresses make sense in the context.
TC: Could you tell me about the actors in the play?
JC: They’re all students. There’s nine actors. There’s five gentlemen and four ladies. Some of them, it’s the first time for them. Some of them, they’ve been on our stage many times in the past couple of years. It’s a nice mix.
TC: What makes “The Importance of being Earnest” such a great play?
JC: It is one of the classic comedies. There’s no one like Oscar Wilde, maybe Mark Twain, just for a turn of a phrase, a quip. Everything he says is witty and wise, and you wish you said it.
That’s the biggest reason why the play survives, just because there’s so much humor and wit, and it kind of tells some hard truth to the ways genders interact, the way love works.
It’s both very romantic and very realistic at the same time.
TC: So I hear you’re nominated for a Kevin Kline award?
JC: I was part of the [award] founders about six years ago. Our fifth annual award ceremony is coming up on March 22. As far as my nominations go, I was nominated for actor and director of ‘Doubt’ with Dramatic License Productions.
That’s my fourth and fifth nominations. It’ll be a great time, it’ll be open, and the public can attend. It’s a great time. It’s a big award ceremony like the Oscars or the Tonys.
TC: Could you tell me about the Kevin Kline awards?
JC: The whole point of the Kevin Kline awards is to galvanize St. Louis professional theaters, to celebrate what we do, and to create more audience for every company. The last few years, we start showing up in blogs and news stories across the country and actors bios are [getting out there]. Some people are talking about St. Louis professional theater in the same breath as DC or Chicago, or LA.