Friday, April 23, 7 p.m.

Spring Belly Dance Show and Dance Party

With Qamar, Alizah Afet, Zbeide and Ed Melikian Ensemble

Belleville Congregational Church

Newburyport, Mass.

 

Saturday, May 1, 2 to 6 p.m.

Bellies for Breasts fundraiser for Susan G. Komen 3-Day Cancer Walk

Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson

80 Main St., Hudson, Mass.

 

Thursday, May 6, 8 p.m.

Athenian Corner

207 Market St.

Lowell, Mass.

With live music by the Fred Elias Ensemble. .

 

Saturday, May 22, 8 p.m.

Belly Pyschedeli Annual Dance Karavan

Benefit for Unitarian Church of Foxborough, 6 Bird St., Foxborough, Mass.

 

Thursday, July 15, 8 p.m.

Athenian Corner

207 Market St.

Lowell, Mass.

With live music by the Fred Elias Ensemble.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick swanson, revels, special plans, not only 40 years of revels, but revels in the same place at sanders theater in Harvard, so we are making sanders theater a major character, the original inspiration for jack langstaff, who founded the revels, was the medieval inspiration, the country house in the middle ages, revels, troubadours, jugglers, dancing animals, mummers play – and there was an engraving, the revels in haden hall, a country house in England, this engraving was Victorian, but depicting the revels,

 

So, we are going back to that idea and turning sanders theater into haden hall, the conceit is, historically in the 1920s the hallway was going to be knocked down for a motorway, but was not, the duke of rutland decided to restore it. Our conceit is, he goes to visit it in the 1920s, as a last look at it in the 1920s, it happens to be near the (solstices,) the wife says it s aterrinle lot of stones,

 

If only the walls could talk, the duke said, all the occupants of the past come out, trhere will be actual characters on the stage (from the different centuries,) this gives us the excuse to do all different periods, medieveal, renaissance, Victorian, all this wonderful music in the same place at the same time,

 

Costumers, all the beautiful costumes, we try and be authentic, that is one of the things with revels, it’s tied to the calendar, the shortest day of the year, it’s wise for human beings to be aware of the natural cycles, that we don’t have the arrogance to presume the technology and human development makes it unnecessary to basic the cycles of human life, and the way that

 

Lots of different cultures have found different ways to express this, it’s fun for us to go to the balckans, or Appalachian revels, or the Balkan revels, bringing some of our old chestnuts,

Backstage, what we really have to do is create a community, a sort of village, three months out. We gather people, we audition people, we start with that, audition and adult choruse and a children’s chorus, we teach them the music, the basics of stage craft, and then we put this volunteer chorus together with a lot of professionals, we send them through the costume process,

 

The singing part of it is done on a steady basis every week, and then we have three all day rehearsals, we used to have the biggest dressing room in the world, now we have the smallest, we kused to have the entire Annenberg hall, then they made some nice dressing room downstairs,

 

On stage, about 80 odd or involved, we have a brass sextet, a string band, sometimes we have a bunch of dancers, so there are a lot of people there, then we bring in some key performes, the jesters coming up from d.c. they are physical actors, if you like, corporeal acting.

 

David coffin, who is our emcee, a bridge between the audience and the stage. One reason the audience is interested, it’s an event, not a show, it’s a tradition for them,t hey are required to do things, required to sing, mummers dance, actors come off stage and join in with the audience, this was done in the 17^th century with Louis 14^th, the court would all rise and blend with the people on the stage, when they come in from the second half of the show, it’s almost chemically different,

 

Challwenges, everyone has in some way been hit by the economy, people are choosing carefully how they are going to budget. We have not come back in the Christmas show, we have a lot of educational proframming, we have tried not to come back in programming, the sense that there is a certain time of years where it is appropriate, we don’t’ want any sense of leaving things out important, our brass for instances, exnomorously expensive part of our budget, this is the one time of year people are going to sing, they give thsemvles permission,

 

When you have 1200 people singing, it would  be difficult to have brass out, we have chosen to bite the bullet and keep that element,

Our staff through the year, have taken furloughs, we have cut back enormously every year in our annual budget, we buidget very tightly in our xmas show, but not the things we consider, the other part is some shows are more expensive, last year we did Appalachian show which is not heavy on costume, sometimes we do our culture which is  foreign,

 

This year being otr 40^th annifersary, keep a bottle of champagne and pop it, it will be a very satisfying,

The budget is 1.5 million, I’ve been directing shows for 20 years, I met jack langstaff in 1976, I came on associate director,

 

Future, revelations, we have a lot of programs, which have got great potential for growth, I’m impressed with how fractured art experiences are becoming nowadays, not that there isn’t a lot of appreciation for arts, but less opportunity to come together, and I  miss that, a program called riversing, to come down to the banks of the Charles river, to mark the autumn equinox, we see it part of our mission to do these things that are mieaningful, education eseverly understaffed, there is a whole community of home school kids, who self organize to have cultural experiences, nearly arts programs has been azed, quality of life is inextricably tied upwith the arts,

 

The middle ages, a Disney quality, every body has their problems, god knows the middle ages was a grim time to ligve, but we are getting at is something that is connected from all these time periods and all these cultures, susan cooper says an underground river of tradition, yeats through of traditional arts as the seed bed of all other arts,

 

The things that are tasteless, shallow, are simply dropped off because they are not in important to the community, one of the things, revels, that has preserved over the thousands of yearsa, the depth of winter, all sorts of feasts have gratvitiated to middle of dcember, shortest night of the year, that is not accidentall, a metaphor, ane emblem, people sayind, days are getting shorters, loet’s please make sure years turns around and things get better again, we know things have depth of dark and the light will come again, we think we are out side that the calendar,

 

 

Mark jaster revels, the 40^th anniversary of the performance, I cam up from d.c. with two other performers, we are all playing the role, w e are the spirits of past ages of handen hall, I play the first duke of rutland, who lived in haden hall, we are advocating for the great part of the traditions,

 

The historical dates, when he became a duke in 1703, my daughter is playing a medieval fool, and then, my wife Sabrina is playing the maid, the general do all, the maid of the place, the working class figure representing the working folk of the hall,

 

This is the first Cambridge revels, I have done washignton revels since the mid 80s, my daughter who is now 26, she was there as an infant, my late wife was a director there, I have done it for many years in d.c. and a Philadelphia,

My late wife gail was a director in Washington, and in Portland, the revels community has been very important to me all along,

 

We love it, it celebrates great traditions and it serves a need to a community, the audiences of revels just love it, they count on its traditions, they get something out of revels

 

Paddy’s great and articulate that way, that specific function of the revels, it ties us into the big deep cycles that are way deeper than the latest technology, sun and moon and changing of the seasons,’

People siong and people get involved on behalf of different factions, I came to it from theater, I am an actor and performer, they needed a professional actor in the role, I stepped in, and it was difficult, it benefits from the professional acrtors, there is a volunteer chorus, large number people love to get together and sing,

 

Keeping it fresh, every time I do it, I have seen a different role, I have played the moon, a Shakespearean clown, a tinker, the major domo of an italian town, I have played sir Gawain, it is always different for me, I always appreciate what is going to be new, great old songs and poems and them ummers play,

Mark Jaster,

 

Sabrina mandell, wife, and daughter, emma jaster