Grease, the first 100% made-in-IÉSEG musical, is a resounding success

Students

03/14/2023

Based on the Lille campus, the student association Comed’IÉSEG aims to promote the performing arts, and mainly theatre. With its 33 members, the association organizes many events every year such as plays, theater cafés, afterworks and many more. This year, Comed’IÉSEG organised, on February 28 and March 1, the first musical entirely composed of students from the School, which was sold out on both evenings, attracting a total of nearly 800 people.

It took no less than 2 years of work for all the members of Comed’IÉSEG to make this project a reality, launched by Laura BRODAR, Pierre CAGNIN and Manon DE RIVALS, accompanied by the association’s team. Throughout the first year, the students worked on writing the script for the musical, the technical conductor, defining the sets… and above all the recruitment, from September 2022, of the troupe of singers, dancers and actors. These 28 talents then embarked on the preparation and rehearsal sessions (2 per week from the end of September) and provided an enormous amount of work, both in the learning, the preparation but also the production of the show, each one being able to bring their vision. and its added value to better improve it.

Many associations also came to lend a hand to Comed’IÉSEG: the Bureau des Arts painted the sets, IÉSEG Danse contributed to the choreography, and the PompomsIÉSEG Lille took part in the celebration. “It was really important to us that this musical be produced 100% by IÉSEG. The script, the staging, the singing, acting and dance lessons, the sets, the technique… everything was done by students from the School, and we are very proud of that. At IÉSEG, we are full of artistic talents and it was a way of showcasing them”, explain Loann LECLERCQ and Louis CARREL-BILLIARD, respectively president and vice-president of Comed’IÉSEG.

“Beyond the artistic dimension, it’s the project that brought us the most professionally, there were so many things to learn, to think about, to imagine, to anticipate… We learned to manage a budget, to communicate and especially to manage a team! How to motivate a troupe that doubts? How do you get everyone on board for a long-term project? How to give confidence to an artist so that he can give his maximum? We drew a lot from everything the School taught us, and it was a practical application of everything we learned in class.”

“I had heard about this Musical Comedy project somewhat by chance. Friends wanted to audition and encouraged me to follow them. At the beginning, I only wanted to be part of the choirs, at the very back of the stage, in the dark. Eventually I was offered a role. I had never taken dance lessons and my shyness had always made me run away from the theatre. I never imagined myself for a single second capable of speaking and playing a character in front of an audience. Despite everything, I accepted, this musical was going to be my personal challenge. 5 months later, I have absolutely no regrets. This project taught me a lot about singing, dancing, acting, teamwork and about myself. We went through moments of doubts, joys, laughter, tears. All this to be rewarded by an impressed and delighted public, who still continue to congratulate us today. This project is a source of great pride. For the School, for Comed’IÉSEG, for the troupe and for myself. It’s one of the best experiences of my life”, concludes Eva BOULAND, student at IÉSEG.

A great success for the 40 artists and the 13 people of the organizing team, who have already decided to do it again next year – the script for a modernized version adapted to student life of “Romeo and Juliet” is already proofreading!