Welcome Yule! Celebrate the arrival of the Winter Solstice and find your antidote to the hectic holiday season at The Christmas Revels! This Bay Area mainstay has entertained thousands of families and revelers for twenty years, and this year is going to be one of the best yet! For two triumphant decades, The Christmas Revels has transported its large audience to different times and places in human history through the power of a critically acclaimed theatrical production. Time-honored rituals, traditional dances, folk plays, high-spirited music, and holiday songs performed by a talented cast of adults and children have earned The Christmas Revels the distinction of being called a “Beloved Bay Area Event” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The San Jose Mercury News affirmed that The Christmas Revels is “delightful, colorful, [and] jubilant; the audience is so involved, you’re barely aware it’s a performance!” Filled with joyous and heartwarming magic, the 20th Anniversary Christmas Revels is an unforgettable experience for the whole family!

To mark the milestone 20th Anniversary, the California Revels are returning to the theme of their first production at Mills College (1986) whereupon the company made merry in the medieval style. The Christmas Revels will herald back to Derbyshire’s Haddon Hall in 15th and 16th century England. The 20th Anniversary gala production of The Christmas Revels shall hail the passing of the shortest day with fantastic stories, glorious songs and dancing in the aisles as the Revels once more welcome Yule!

This year brings the outstanding talents of special guest Ensemble Alcatraz to the production. Susan Rode Morris (soprano), Cheryl Ann Fulton (medieval harps), Kit Higginson (recorders and psaltery), Shira Kammen (vielle and rebec) and Peter Maund (percussion) have been featured individually and together over the years. However this year the entire group will join the merry Revels on this landmark year. Several key artists who have been in every Revels production since its inaugural year will also be performing.

The Christmas Revels will be performed for ten shows December 9-18 at the Scottish Rite Theater on beautiful Lake Merritt in Oakland.

The 20th Anniversary marks an extraordinary time in the Revels history. At the twenty-year anniversary, The Christmas Revels is transitioning into a new era after the passing last year of their beloved leader, Artistic Director Dr. Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer (1947-2005). Dr. Mayer’s dedication and leadership built The Christmas Revels into a major holiday event for Bay Area families. Dr. Mayer wrote in her, About Revels:

“People need celebration. We need those wild and holy expressions of who we are which lift us out of isolation and into connection with each other. We need moments that inject the ordinary with awe and engage our capacities for the extraordinary. Celebration does that. And Revels does that.”

The 20th Anniversary gala production of The Christmas Revels is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Mayer.

David Parr, a director of many past Christmas Revels stepped into the role of Artistic Director and he’s maintained all of the wonderful elements that have made The Christmas Revels such a unique and powerful theatrical event.

From the annual recitation of the hopeful “The Shortest Day” to the sheer delight of joining hand and hearts for the “Lord of the Dance” and filling the hall with everyone’s voices for the “Sussex Mummer’s Carol,” the California Revels invite you to join them in ushering in this new era along with the Winter Solstice and the New Year.