Gulf Breeze High School Drama Troupe 4105 put on an amazing performance of the play, Children of a Lesser God, Jan. 15 and 16, 2022, at University of West Florida.

   This superstars of this show were junior Robby Rushing and senior Grace Brantley, whose combined acting prowess left nothing to be missed in this show. G

   race Brantley played Sarah Norman, a firm-minded deaf young woman who never left the deaf school she used to attend and now works as a maid there. Robby Rushing played James Leeds, a new speech therapist at the same school determined to get all of his students, including Sarah, to learn to speak.

   The supporting cast, too, was chocked full of talented students:

   Senior Jack Anderson played Orin Dennis, a revolutionary student of James Leeds determined to achieve equality for deaf people.

   Senior Chloe Magnes played another student of James Leeds, adding flirtatious comedic relief to the more dramatic moments of this show. Senior Kaitlin Murphy played the conservative mother of Sarah Normans, Mrs. Norman. Murphy’s skilled performance made it easy to forget that this older woman was played by a high school student.

   Senior Rodrigo Pardo played the director of the deaf school, Mr. Franklin.

   Junior Rubi Regan played the rather ignorant lawyer, Edna Klein, who was clearly uncomfortable dealing with deaf clients.

   The most amazing part of this production was that the leading female, Grace Brantley, had to learn American Sign Language (ASL) for all her lines. She did not speak the entire play- save for one pivotal outburst towards the play’s end- only communicating her emotions and words through her body language, facial expressions, and an impressive amount of rapid ASL. Brantley’s ability to communicate her character so thoroughly without any voice shows the depth of her theatrical talent.

   Of course, leading male Robby Rushing is not to be dismissed either. This junior has performed many shows with the Gulf Breeze drama troupe and you can see the payoff of his experience in the effective, yet comedic way in which he seems to effortlessly command the stage.

   Children of a Lesser God, written by Mark Medoff, premiered on Broadway in 1979, although I am pretty sure the talented actors of the GBHS theatre department gave a better performance! This play centers on a new speech therapist working at a deaf school, James Leeds, who meets and is immediately intrigued by the deaf-since-birth maid who works at the same school, Sarah Norman. Determined to help her speak so that she can function better in the real world, this play follows the rela-tionship that forms between James and Sarah as they navigate through challenges to their relationship and find ways to communicate with each other despite their differences. This play ends on a hopeful note that reminds us that the differences between us are never too big to be bridged.