For nearly 40 years, Dr. Eric Barr taught acting, directing and writing at the University of California, Riverside. For 30 years, he chaired UCR’s Theater Department. A key architect of UCR’s master’s degree in fine arts in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts, Barr was responsible for launching the program at the UCR,…

The double entendre of Oscar Wilde’s title “The Importance of Being Earnest” deftly sends up the conventions and snobbery of the final years of the Victorian Era when the British Empire was at its height. An outsider by birth, the Irishman Wilde was nevertheless accepted by the British upper class. They loved his wit, his…