ECS musical was a hit with the community

ESTEVAN - Students from the Estevan Comprehensive School dedicated many hours to rehearsing and working behind the scenes in preparation for their presentation of the musical Mamma Mia!, and their efforts were rewarded when the show went on stage.

More than 900 tickets were sold between the three productions from Dec. 13-15 in the school's cafetorium. The crowds were delighted as the students sang and danced to the music of Swedish supergroup ABBA on the stage.

Director Jillian Connely and production manager Adrienne Dechief were thrilled with the finished product.

"It was the best," Connely said in an interview with the Mercury and SaskToday. "We had the most fun, and I was so impressed with how well it actually went."

Approximately 25 students were in the cast and 20 more were part of the crew. Connely estimates each person involved dedicated at least a couple hundred hours to be ready for showtime.

The crowd each night was great, Connely said, but the audience on Dec. 14 stood out the most, as they were dancing in the aisles.

Both Connely and DeChief are ABBA fans. Connely has seen the Mamma Mia! movie many times, while Dechief has been in the audience for the musical.

"It's the same atmosphere … as when I was in the audience for the professional show, that our students brought and created for the audiences here in Estevan, with that excitement and that joy that ABBA music brings. The energy that the students brought was very equal," said Dechief.  

A lot of the kids had no idea who ABBA was before the students started working on Mamma Mia!, Connely said, and Dechief added it was good to see them learn the dance moves from the era.

"We have a new generation of ABBA fans, I feel, in Estevan now," said Dechief.

The cast and crew faced adversity in the weeks leading up to the production. Construction was taking place in the cafetorium until the last two weeks before the show dates, so they didn't get to bring the cast and crew together until December.

"That is not easy on a professional level, so having a high school level of actors and technicians, to do something like that, is quite spectacular," said Connely.

They had the chance to work with light cues before they were moved out of the cafetorium, but the sound, the special stage lights, the lights behind the set and the spotlights were added in the last couple of weeks. The stage crew had to learn to move the set pieces, set up all of the props, close the curtains and do all of the backstage work just before opening night.

Connely singled out Grade 9 student Ethan Nixon for his work on sound.

"He crushed it. He was so awesome," said Connely. 

Most of the rehearsals took place in the school's drama room. When the cast returned to the cafetorium, they had to adapt to a much larger stage.

"As much as we rehearsed with them every day pretty much through November, it was an adjustment for them to get onto the stage itself, said Dechief, who marvelled at how much the kids were able to accomplish throughout the process.

"They had fun, and that's the biggest thing that any teacher wants from any extracurricular, is for the students to find joy, especially in the extracurriculars. That's what our students did," said Dechief.

This was Connely's second ECS musical; she co-directed The Little Mermaid earlier in 2024. It marked the first time Dechief has been part of the musical as a staff member, but she was involved with High School Musical and the Wizard of Oz as a student.

"I have a different outlook and respect for my teachers who did it, because it's a huge undertaking, and as a student, we see the directors and the staff working hard, but we don't see all of the behind the scenes things they do, so that was eye-opening," said Dechief.

It was wonderful to share her experiences and bring them to another group of students, she said.