
Featuring Lincoln Academy Alumnus Michael Hovance as Oscar Wilde
Michael Hovance discovered his love of theater in an English class taught by Nick Azzaretti at Lincoln Academy. After graduating from Lincoln, Michael studied theater and history at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, and spent his junior year at the British American Drama Academy in London.
Michael has appeared in over 35 plays and musicals in New York and Los Angeles. His roles have included Hamlet, Sweeney Todd, Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit, Lord Goring in Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, and Jack in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, both onstage and online with River Company.
His love of Oscar Wilde’s plays emerged while he was studying in London, where he saw performances of The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband. Someone remarked at the time that he bore a passing resemblance to Wilde himself.
Several years ago, when Michael was auditioning for An Ideal Husband, the play’s producer told the director, “Oscar Wilde has just walked into the room.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was cast as Lord Goring, who in many ways embodied the wit and character of Oscar Wilde.
With this River Company production, Michael gets a chance to come full circle and workshop in his hometown a show about one of his favorite playwrights with the person who introduced him to the theater in the first place.
For more information, call (207) 449-2943.
Michael Hovance discovered his love of theater in an English class taught by Nick Azzaretti at Lincoln Academy. After graduating from Lincoln, Michael studied theater and history at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, and spent his junior year at the British American Drama Academy in London.
Michael has appeared in over 35 plays and musicals in New York and Los Angeles. His roles have included Hamlet, Sweeney Todd, Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit, Lord Goring in Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, and Jack in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, both onstage and online with River Company.
His love of Oscar Wilde’s plays emerged while he was studying in London, where he saw performances of The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband. Someone remarked at the time that he bore a passing resemblance to Wilde himself.
Several years ago, when Michael was auditioning for An Ideal Husband, the play’s producer told the director, “Oscar Wilde has just walked into the room.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was cast as Lord Goring, who in many ways embodied the wit and character of Oscar Wilde.
With this River Company production, Michael gets a chance to come full circle and workshop in his hometown a show about one of his favorite playwrights with the person who introduced him to the theater in the first place.
For more information, call (207) 449-2943.
- Please fill out this form online, if you'd like to get involved in The Oscar Wilde Project.
We're on YouTube, too!
All online shows are FREE and FUN!

Dr Evil and the Pigeons with Lasers
By Brian D. Taylor
At the monthly online meeting of the Council of Evil, bumbling ne’er-do-well Dr. Evil reveals his newest plan for world domination: Pigeons armed with lasers! Having heard his harebrained schemes before, Countess Gothma, Lord Warhammer, Archduchess Arsenica, and Prince Vladi practically laugh him out of the Zoom meeting but allow him to proceed with his plan. Madness and hilarity ensue as his laser pigeons attack Seattle, New Jersey, and Oklahoma!

The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde's great farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers' entanglements still delights audiences more than a century after its 1895 premiere performance with its rapid-fire wit, absurd situations, and eccentric characters.
In town Jack Worthing has wooed Gwendolen Fairfax under the name of Ernest. In the country, Cecily Cardew is in love with her Uncle Jack's supposed brother Ernest. When both Ernests, Cecily, and Gwendolen meet at Jack's country home on the same weekend, pandemonium breaks loose.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s joyous comedy about love and its complicated course: lust, confusion, disappointment, and marriage.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream weaves together four separate stories:
the marriage of the Athenian Duke Theseus to the Amazon queen Hippolyta; the conflict between Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies; the follies and strife among four lovers in the forest; and the comically earnest efforts of a group of "rude mechanicals" to stage a play for the royal wedding. All are fair game for mischievous sprite Puck, who proves that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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Come be part of River Company's 2023 Season!
For our Audition & Participation Form, please follow this link!
Come be part of River Company's 2023 Season!
For our Audition & Participation Form, please follow this link!
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