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The Importance of Being Earnest – by Oscar Wilde [Zoom Reading]

Jack Worthing, a carefree young gentleman, is the inventor of a fictitious brother, “Ernest,” whose wicked ways afford John an excuse to leave his country home from time to time and see his close friend, Algernon Moncrieff. Algernon has a cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax, with whom Jack is deeply in love. Returning to the country home where he lives with his ward Cecily Cardew and her governess Miss Prism, Jack finds that Algernon has also arrived under the identity of the nonexistent brother Ernest. Algernon falls madly in love with Cecily, who has long been enamored of the mysterious, fascinating brother Ernest. With the arrival of Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen, chaos erupts, but after all, the play ends with the two couples in a joyous embrace. The ZEST is happy to bring this play to life on a Monday Reading, well aware that it has been performed twice in the long history of the former ZCC.

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Allegiance – music and lyrics by Jay Kuo and book by Marc Acito, Kuo, and Lorenzo Thione [Zoom Screening]

A mysterious envelope leads Sam Kimura back 60 years to a time when he and his sister Kei strive to save their family from the wrongful imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Inspired by the true-life experience of George Takei, ALLEGIANCE follows one family's journey in this untold American story.

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The Real Inspector Hound – by Tom Stoppard [Zoom Reading]

Feuding theatre critics Moon and Birdboot, the first a fusty philanderer and the second a pompous and vindictive second stringer, are swept into the whodunit they are viewing. In the hilarious spoof of Agatha Christie-like melodramas that follows, the body under the sofa proves to be the missing first string critic. As mists rise about isolated Muldoon Manor, Moon and Birdfoot become dangerously implicated in the lethal activities of an escaped madman.

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Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – music by Dan Gillespie Sells, book and lyrics by Tom MacRae [Zoom Screening]

The musical is inspired by the 2011 television documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16. Jamie is 16 and he doesn't quite fit in. He is terrified about the future but supported by his loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, to become a drag queen.