THE 2001
CHRISTMAS REVELS:
The
Celtic Revels
Director's
Notes
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A CELTIC “CHRISTMAS REVELS”
16th Year of Popular Holiday Celebration
The Christmas Revels, an annual celebration of the Winter Solstice,
returned
to Oakland’s Scottish Rite Theater for ten performances, December
7-16, 2001.
The 2001 show drew especially on Celtic heritage, featuring stirring
vocal and instrumental music, traditional dance, and story-telling in the
glorious tradition of the Celtic bards. A few of the featured performers
were Irish Harpist Patrick Ball, Irish singer
Shay Black,
world-renowned
harpist Cheryl Ann Fulton,
folk fiddler Shira Kammen, Irish
piper Kevin Carr, bodran player Pamela Swan,
singer Wendell Brooks solo step
dancer
Eileen Mize and the
Anne McBride
Dancers.
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The show was set at an Irish port of embarkation in the opening decade of the twentieth century
and introduced us to emigrants from the various countries of the British Isles.
Celtic harps, fiddles and bagpipes, the Brass West Ensemble, the Golden Ring
Morris Men, and the Solstice Singers brought to life the rich traditions
of Celtic culture under the direction of Revels’ resident director,
David
Parr and resident music director,
Fred Goff.
The audience enjoyed traditional Revels favorites, including the
ever-popular audience-participation ‘Lord of the Dance’ at the end
of the first act.
As always, Revels has sought out native “tradition-bearers” and world-class
guest artists. Patrick Ball, an acclaimed
and award-winning storyteller in the Celtic bardic tradition, is also one of
the premier Celtic harp players in the world today. In playing the ancient,
legendary, brass-strung harp of Ireland, and in telling marvelous old tales
of wit and enchantment, he carries on two of the richest aspects of Celtic cultural
heritage. Shay Black, part of Ireland's
undisputed “first family of song,” is a frequent Bay Area performer,
specializing in the sea shantys as well as more contemporary songs of Northwest
England and Scotland.
The Christmas Revels plays to packed houses every year, with roughly 15,000
Bay Area residents in attendance. This is alternative holiday entertainment
at its best. The Revels’ appeal is so great because every show draws
on an unbeatable combination of elements: time-honored rituals, traditional
dances, folk plays and holiday music performed by a lively and talented cast
of adults and children.
The celebration of the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice, is at
the heart of Revels. Despite “Christmas” in the title, this is
not a religious pageant, but rather a unique seasonal celebration that is inclusive
and meaningful to the community at large, regardless of background. According
to Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, California Revels
Artistic Director, “the experience of coming together to sing and dance
and perform rituals has real power to affect us — to bring us into some
form of harmony with ourselves, with each other, and even with nature itself.
That’s why people come back year after year — and that’s why
Revels keeps growing.”