Ammon Arts Community Theater kicks off 2022 season this week
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AMMON — The Ammon Arts Community Theater will open its 2022 season this week with a production of the Oscar Wilde masterpiece “The Importance of Being Earnest” at Thunder Ridge High School in Idaho Falls.
The first of three plays AACT will stage throughout 2022, “Earnest” is a comedy that involves romance, false identities and witty dialogue.
“The subtitle (for ‘Earnest’) is ‘A trivial comedy for serious people,’” the play’s director, Matt Larsen, told EastIdahoNews.com. “It’s basically British aristocrats being serious about everything that doesn’t matter and being trivial about everything that could be important. The whole show is people being very, very serious and it’s the biggest joke ever so it gets funnier and funnier as the show goes on.”
“Earnest” is the first show Larsen, a veteran of the local theater scene, has ever directed. He was selected by AACT after sending in an application that outlined his take on the show’s character, tone, lighting and other elements.
“It’s been a trip because I’ve acted in probably twenty shows,” Larsen said. “Being a director, I’ve realized you’re in charge of everything. It’s odd creating something but knowing you’re not going to be on stage, no applause will be for you and mostly no one’s going to know you were involved. I’m kind of excited for that. It’s totally different.”
“When I’ve seen this show before, I’ve just laughed and laughed and laughed,” he added. “So I thought ‘If we do this right, it will help so many people come sit and enjoy and laugh the whole time.’”
Larsen said the laughs come as “Earnest” illuminates the idea that it’s important to not be too self-serious.
“I guess the theme would be don’t take yourself so seriously,” he said. “It’s also about being honest with the person that you’re dating. Rather than being honest, they’re trying to find all the ways around being honest.”
“Earnest” is the latest production staged by AACT, which was formed in 2019 by Jordan Cammack. The group works to build a sense of community through staging high-quality theatrical productions that help uncover and develop talents the cast and crew members may not have even known they had.
“I’m excited because I’ve done plays with all the other groups in town and Ammon Arts is doing shows the other groups don’t do,” said Larsen. “It’s fun seeing a new group, a new performance venue and different shows that haven’t been done in town.”
Larsen said “Earnest” will provide a welcome escape from the scary events currently taking place in the world.
“Everything in the world has been so serious,” he said. “There’s literally a war going on. So come and sit and be entertained with nothing else to worry about. Just sit and enjoy a show and laugh for two hours.”
Ammon Arts Community Theater’s production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” runs March 10, 11, 12 and 14 at 7 p.m. at Thunder Ridge High School in Idaho Falls. Click here to get tickets. A portion of ticket sales goes towards supporting Thunder Ridge High School Drama.
More information is available on the AACT website and their Facebook page.
