2021-05-26

Canadian actor Jonathan Torrens meets virtually with New Germany art students

As students in Nova Scotia move forward through the rest of the year knowing they'll not be attending school in person, those in Kelly Barker's Grades 10 to 12 art classes in New Germany will have at least one positive and memorable virtual experience to recall from the lockdown.

Late last month the teacher at New Germany Rural High School was quick to respond to a social media message from the Canadian actor Jonathan Torrens.

"Suddenly have some time. If any teacher in Nova Scotia wants me to zoom into their class, I'd be happy to! Maybe the students could prepare questions," Torrens tweeted on Twitter shortly after the Nova Scotia introduced another lockdown due to rising COVID-19 case numbers.

Barker promptly replied explaining she teaches visual arts "in amazingly rural New Germany NS ... pick me, pick me!"

And Torrens, a prolific Canadian comedic actor, writer and producer widely known, among other roles, for his portrayal of the character J-Roc" in the popular Canadian mockumentary Trailer Park Boys, did just that.

Barker's class was one of many in Nova Scotia that Torrens has visited virtually via the internet over this latest lockdown.

According to Barker, her students were "besides themselves excited because they had seen him in his characters," and they came up with more questions "than he could possibly answered in 30 minutes."

She explained in a telephone interview with LighthouseNOW that it was during a time when the school had received notice that a case of COVID-19 had been detected at the school.

"So it was almost doubly more meaningful to have some good things to look forward to while we were getting some bad news, you know?"

The virtual visit took place on May 6 over the video conferencing platform Google Meet. Barker described Torrens's delivery as "the perfect mixture of being very serious and, you know, human in that sense."

"He's a comical person, and he's very outgoing, and he's very easy to talk to. And speak with. But it wasn't all him in character by any means at all, it was himself. Which was really neat for the kids to see."

"Pinch me again," Barker tweeted out afterward. "So grateful for his questions, kindness, words of wisdom, vomit recipe, and so much about his journey as a human navigating the acting world."

While it was the art teacher who instigated the event for her students, Barker said it's Torrens who deserved the accolades.

"If anything, it's him putting himself out there. Anything to keep engagement, or just to have something to look forward to right now is so important with our kids," she said.