Third-year GBC’s Theatre Arts students will demonstrate their skills at the Young Centre of Performing Arts in the Distillery District with the play Engaged which runs from April 12 to April 23.  

“[The show] involves a high sense of style that the students don’t necessarily get in other aspects of their theatre training,” said director Jeannette Lambermont-Morey. “It involves dialect work, British idiom, and Scottish dialect. There is this high farcical comedy style that is almost like what you might call Panto.” 

The play is a satirical comedy set in the United Kingdom that follows one man’s struggle to find a wife.  

“I moved the setting of the play to take place in the 1920s,” said Lambermont-Morey. “Just to bring it into the jazz era and more fun. Less of that Victorian darkness.”  

Lambermont-Morey has a considerable amount of experience from her 25 years on and off teaching at George Brown as well as many other theatre schools, including the Julliard School in New York. Having directed the play in the past and having worked in classical theatre, she is very well-suited to the role.  

This year, third-year theatre students are working on two plays at once, which has been a challenge. “Every other day their attention is split, and they are thrown into another world.”  

“With a piece like Engaged, it requires an incredible laser beam focus, and an understanding of physical comedy, movement, and speech. It’s challenging to do that on an on-and-off basis,” Lambermont-Morey said. “So, I am very proud of them, that they were able to take this uniquely challenging rehearsal period and make it work for them”.  

Due to COVID restrictions, actors are faced with yet another challenge. Students are masked 100 per cent of the time on stage, which is difficult given that they rely so heavily on their mouths, facial expressions, and articulation to act. However, actors are no longer required to abide by physical distancing protocols as they have in past terms. 

Third-year students Maya Leworthy, Marijke Reinink, and Nick Iwanochko shared their experience in the program with the Dialog. They all understand where the college is coming from and want everyone to stay safe.  

“It’s a little bit scary because industry standards right now are performing maskless,” said Leworthy. “And it’s a little bit scary knowing we are entering into a workforce in 15 days, after not have been performing maskless for about two years.”   

The impact of the pandemic has affected everyone in some way, and this new normal will be especially interesting for the upcoming theatre graduates.  

Engaged opens on April 12 at 7 p.m. and will host a total of six shows before the semester ends. Tickets are free with an option for a donation to the COVID-19 Student Emergency Fund.  

Get your tickets here or through the Young Centre for Performing Arts website.