Season of plays at George Brown College comes to an end with two repertory shows. 

As the school year came to a close, the curtain was raised for theatre school plays.

This year, the George Brown College (GBC) theatre school closed out the semester showcasing the hard work of its cast of students, with two plays. On the docket were performances of William Shakespeare’s  As you Like it “and Howard Richardson’s Dark of the Moon.

Every year, third-years student of Theatre Arts – Performance (P104), work hard to put together Broadway level productions.  The season of plays often starts on November with one show and continues with one or two other plays in February.

The cast of all plays are GBC students, while directors are professionals who come from diverse backgrounds and can bring fresh ideas to the productions.

April is the time for Repertory Shows, meaning students have rehearsed two plays that run concurrently and on alternating nights.

Michael Longstaff, Theatre Arts Support Coordinator, explains, “it’s a real challenge, but it’s a style of theatre production that occurs in the professional world. Stratford Festival and Shaw festival are both Repertory Theatre festivals. And so, actors who work professionally at those festivals and others like them would have to have this skill to be able to learn two or more plays and be able to perform them both on the same day.”

This year’s repertory shows kicked off with Dark of the Moon on April. 9.  First produced in 1945 GBC’s production was brough to life by Rosanna Saracino, Italian Canadian director and educator. It tells the story of a witch boy who seeks to become human after falling in love with a human girl.

As you like it, took to the stage the next evening. Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy, believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in 1623, is a story of love, gender, and politics.

Gabrielle Forsey,  who plays ‘Barbara Allen’ in Dark of the Moon and ‘Forest Lord’ in as you like it, spoke of the challenges of playing in many shows.

“Playing in two shows is definitely challenging, because I feel I am really good at one thing in a show, then I’ll go to the other show, and I’ll have my own challenges at that show. you’re just trying to work and constantly improving both. So, it’s a challenge, but it’s also a lot of fun,”

The process of casting is a key component since it is supposed to be based on equal distribution.

“Early in the year in September, the students perform a short audition style monologue for all the directors they’ll be working with in the coming year. And then the program coordinator works with the directors to ensure that students get an equal distribution of parts, meaning that in some of the plays they will have larger roles and in some of the plays, they will have roles that are less, say less taxing in terms of learning lines,” noted Longstaff.

The plays may be over for this year, but the show will always go on thanks to the GBC theatre school

For further information visit George Brown website.