Theatrical teaching in Option and in Specialty:
A school of openness
In the fall of 1998, under the aegis of Principal Jacqueline Marguin, a partnership is established between the Louise Michel high school and the MC93 (Maison de la culture de Seine-Saint-Denis Bobigny), opening the field to innovative experiences, which high school students take up with vivacity: creation of a spectator school accompanied by meetings with the artists and participation of young people in shows staged on the international stage of the MC93 (Franck Castorf, Enstation America…, Peter Sellars, Les Enfants d'Héraclès).
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In the fall of 2001, a first theater workshop opened for a Technological First class, led by Ismini Vlavianou (Letters / Theatre) and the director Marie-Louise Bondy-Bischofberger. Well before the generalization of partnerships between schools and cultural structures, the MC93 offered high school students from Balby the opportunity to perform on the Christian Bourgois stage in The Thousand and One Nights in an adaptation of Bondy-Bischofberger in April 2002. The following year, the workshop presents Frontières Frontières… theatrical adaptation of Ellis Island by Georges Perec directed by director Anne Dimitriadis. The theater workshop also offers writing workshops. Thus, for example, in 2006, the director Nicolas Bigards set up writing workshops co-hosted by Ismini Vlavianou (Letters / Theatre) and Anne Mériaux (History-Geography / Theatre), where the disciplinary contributions in Literature and History are highlighted. service of a theatrical form, Barthes the questioner. In April 2007, a 10th grade class went up to the MC93 The History of the Peloponnesian War in an adaptation by Ismini Vlavianou. From September 2007, the theater workshop is open to all student volunteers from the school, who notably stage Foreigners more mobile than the waves by Christian Cogné in the spring of 2008. In September 2009, an exploratory theater course begins in Second with the support of the school principal, Philippe Le Guillou. The same year, Terminale students enrolled in the theater workshop presented the optional theater test for the baccalaureate, with La Prize de Troie, an integral adaptation of Homer's Iliad by Ismini Vlavianou, carrying spears and shields. made by Anne Mériaux.
Since 2010, the MC93 has been organizing the "Festival des Écoles" in which we take part each year, with plays from ancient, classical and new theatre, staged by a large number of students from the Theater Option: The Visit of the Old Lady of Dürrenmatt (2010), Agamemnon by Aeschylus (2011), Irénée / La Paix by Aristophanes (2012), The Imaginary Invalid and The Miser by Molière (2013 and 2014), Repetition or Punished Love by Jean Anouilh ( 2015), The Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais (2017), The Suppliants and The Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus (2018 and 2019). All the plays are adapted (and translated for ancient dramaturgy) by Ismini Vlavianou, and staged with costumes, stage objects and sets by Anne Mériaux. The directors Natascha Rudolf, Jean-Michel Rabeux, Sarah Oppenheim, Clara Chabalier, the choreographer Thierry Thieû Niang and above all Samir Siad are some of our artistic contributors.
At the same time, international projects were initiated with the support of principals Fabienne Bertot then Naji Achour. Thus, in May 2016, we stage Ajax by Sophocles at the National Theater of Piraeus, with the participation of Greek high school students from the Franco-Hellenic schools Jeanne D'Arc and Saint Joseph (Greece). And in September 2020, we are playing Oedipus or the lame king by Jean Anouilh in Athens, on the stage of the Benaki Foundation with the participation of Greek high school students from the Franco-Hellenic school Jeanne D'Arc. Our projects have benefited from the financial support of the Île-de-France Region, the DAAC of Créteil, the Town Hall of Bobigny, the Equal Opportunities Foundation, the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) and Lycée Louise Michael de Bobigny.
In September 2019, Theater Specialty teaching begins in Première with the support of the headmaster Naji Achour and in September 2020 in Terminale, with a staff of 20-21 students, sections fed by a Theater Option class of 30 students in Second ; many students in Première and Terminale take the theater option at the same time as teaching a theater specialty.
All our Option and Specialty students are offered a rich spectator experience at the MC93, as in other theaters we frequent (the TGP of Saint Denis, the 104 – Paris, La Villette, Le Nouveau Théâtre de Montreuil , The House of Steelworkers in Paris…).
Benefiting from a dynamic partnership with the MC93, unwavering support from the school management and a solid reputation among students, teaching theater in high school, artistic and cultural school in the school, gives the possibility many of our students to combine Specialty lessons in an individualized and sometimes singular way (Theater / Maths, Theater / SVT, Theater / Physics), by living experiences and forging skills beneficial to the construction of a personalized professional career and succeeded.