More Information About The Christmas Revels

Website

http://www.calrevels.org/

Description

Return with us to a time when great darkness was beginning to fade to the light; a time of rebirth.  Ancient artistic and literary skills were being rediscovered and secular music began to hold an important place along with the sacred. It’s the time of the wassail bowl when the boar’s head was carried in state to the feast in the great hall, followed by minstrels and carolers.   Reveler’s enjoyed “Twelfth Night cake” and crowned those who found the buried “treasure” in their sugar-iced slice the King of the Bean and Queen of the Pea. And the Lord of Misrule officiated over the bacchanalian Feast of Fools.

The time is 15th century England and the place is Derbyshire’s Haddon Hall.  For our twentieth anniversary production of The Christmas Revels, we herald back to our first production at Mills College in 1986 where our company made merry in the medieval style.

There will be wassailing, morris dancing, storytelling, and reveling of every sort. And a dragon! There must be a dragon.  Actually there may be two dragons in this year’s celebration of the shortest day.  St. George will have his work cut out for him.

We are also thrilled to announce that Ensemble Alcatraz has agreed to perform with us again this year. Susan Rode Morris (soprano), Kit Higginson (recorders and psaltery), Shira Kammen (fiddle), Danny Carnahan (Mandolin, Violin and cello), and Peter Maund (percussion) have been featured individually or together over the years and return to join our merry troop in celebrating this milestone year in our history.  From the annual recitation of the hopeful “The Shortest Day” to the sheer delight of joining hands and hearts for the  “Lord of the Dance” and filling the hall with our voices with the “Sussex Mummers’ Carol” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, we invite you to join us in ushering in a new era of Revels at a time when we certainly require it most.

About the Ticket Supplier: California Revels

California Revels promotes the celebratory and community-building power of the performing arts, pioneering a unique form of music theater that draws on diverse cultures and ritual traditions to embrace an audience of many ages and varied backgrounds. Each December since 1986, California Revels has produced "The Christmas Revels; A Theatrical Celebration of the Winter Solstice" at the Scottish Rite Theater in Oakland. Revels blends music, dance, ritual and drama, presented by a cadre of professional performers, designers and directors. With tradition bearers from every culture and a volunteer chorus of adults and children drawn from the community, Revels inspries a magical quality of audience engagement.