Degrassi School’s Out screening, Q and A with actors Pat Mastroianni and Stacie Mistysyn set for Beach United Church on Oct. 25
By JULIA SAWICKI
Beach United Church is the place to be for a nostalgia fix later this month as a screening of the film Degrassi: School’s Out is set for Sunday, Oct. 25.
The screening will be followed by a live Q&A with Pat Mastroianni, who played Joey Jeremiah, and Stacie Mistysyn, who played Caitlin Ryan, in the original Degrassi High television show cast.
The 1992 film follows the Degrassi students through their first summer after graduation, focusing primarily on Joey and Caitlin’s relationship as they navigate love, heartbreak and growing up, in the darker, more mature chapter of the Degrassi franchise.
More than three decades after the original television series first aired, Degrassi continues to serve as a deeply relatable and comforting drama for generations of viewers.
Although the decades have changed, the emotional vulnerability and complicated realities of adolescence remain the same. For Mastroianni, the show also serves as a time capsule of a period many viewers miss and yearn for, when young people felt connected, even if just through the shared experience of watching the same television show.
“Degrassi still resonates because in the ’80’s, it was a fun little melodrama series that people who discovered it got hooked on the characters and story lines that were unique and unexpected for a children’s program,” said Mastroianni.
In the 1990s, Mastroianni said CBC reruns after school helped introduce the show to a wider audience, bringing generations of viewers together and encouraging conversations about the issues young people face.
“A more mainstream audience was watching, learning and discussing these topics with friends,” he explained. “Also allowing for a deeper understanding of youth topics and what many parents who were watching with their kids could now start a discussion with them.”
In the 2000s, fans and new viewers tuned in for Degrassi: The Next Generation, and began to rediscover the original Degrassi and its characters. But Mastroianni said it was the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that sparked the real Degrassi cultural renaissance, with a desire to return to familiarity.
“During and post COVID was the biggest resurgence for the OG series. People needed comfort and for many binge watching the original series brought them back to a simpler time. The series reminded them of their youth and a time long past. Maybe a world that we envy to go back to; An analogue world,” he explained.
For Mastroianni, he said he hopes the screening in the Beach brings out longtime fans who will enjoy the jokes, cast stories and behind-the-scenes details from both himself and Mystysyn.
The Beach screening is part of a three-stop event series, also taking place in Peterborough, and Lindsay,
In a recent interview with the Peterborough Examiner, Mistysyn said Degrassi was a “televised comfort food,” pointing to its relatability as one of the reasons it still resonates with audiences today.
“I think many young people saw themselves represented on the show and it helped them feel less alone. We never preached. We never talked down to our audience,” she said, also admitting that she didn’t realize the impact the show had at the time. Today, attending Degrassi events, meeting the community around the show, and the new, younger viewers, has been a rewarding experience.”
Mistysyn attended Malvern Collegiate and also played the role of Stacie in earlier episodes of Degrassi Junio High in the 1980s.
The Oct. 25 screening in the Beach is open to all ages, with tickets selling for $55, including the film screening, Q&A, popcorn and drink. The night begins at 5:30 p.m., and goes until 10 p.m. at Beach United Church, 140 Wineva Ave.
To purchase tickets and for more information, please go to https://oak-artist-management.bloomtickets.ca/event/3170
