WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Nancy Sorel credits Durfee teacher with sparking interest in acting

FALL RIVER – Nancy Sorel remembers exactly when the acting bug bit.

“The first week of my freshman year at Durfee High, Mr. Tavares announced the Little Theater were looking for people interested in working in a play,” she said.

She went to see James Tavares, aka Mr. T, the teacher who ran the drama department at B.M.C. Durfee High School. He told her how to proceed. She ended up with one line in the play, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” at the Little Theater of Fall River.

“I thought it was the greatest thing in the world,” Sorel said.

And it changed her life.

Sorel is now a resident of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her IMBD page lists 58 acting credits, including the "X-files," "Murder She Wrote," and "Beverly Hills 90210," as well as a number of Canadian series. She won Canadian Comedy Awards for her portrayal of Clara Fine on the HBO series “Less Than Kind.” Those are two of several awards on her shelf. She has been in a slew of Hallmark movies.

She also teaches workshops on acting and she and her husband, Paul Magel, host a retreat every year for actors.

“It has been interesting,” she said. “For me, it has been a great life.”

Nancy Sorel was born Nancy Weglowski, the daughter of the late Diane and Alphonse Weglowski. Her mother was a nurse, her father a tool maker.

They were also her greatest cheerleaders, the people she could count on for encouragement, Sorel said. Her sister, state Rep. Carole Fiola, has been another pillar, she said.

“I’ve been able to make a living,” she said. It requires a lot of work and sacrifice.

Of course, if you are from Fall River, you understand that, she added.

She went from Fall River to UMass Amherst and then to New York, where she began her career in plays. A part in a daytime soap opera, "Generations," took her to Los Angeles. Movie work brought her to Vancouver, British Columbia, and then to Winnipeg.

That is where she met her husband. His family is there and now theirs: They have two teenagers, Matthew and Rosalie Magel.

“It is beautiful here and the industry in Winnipeg has grown so much in the past few years,” she said. “Plus, my children have grown. They have their lives here.”

She will continue working until the work no longer comes her way, or until, as she said it, “when God said it is time for me to come home.”

Of course, she does visit her former home often, usually in the summer, she adds, because Fall River and the SouthCoast is so beautiful then.

And she would like to return professionally one day, too, she said.

“My biggest dream is to return to Fall River and shoot a film there,” she said.

It brings her back to her teacher at Durfee.

“Mr. T was tough,” she said. “To this day, when I teach other actors, his strong, disciplined work effort is what I thank.”

And she relays the advice Tavares gave her while she was a student at Durfee: “When you are tired and you want to give up, push for a little more so you can say, ‘So there, Fall River.’”

Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.