Shay Black - Singer, Instrumentalist

Shay’s most regular gig these days is the weekly “Starry Irish Session” at The Starry Plough pub in Berkeley. At 8 o’clock on Sunday nights a talented group of fiddlers, flute players, tin whistlers and other musicians gather and rip into reels, jigs and polkas for the best part of four hours. He has recorded and performed with the California Revels, Shira Kammen, Peter Kasin and Richard Adrianovich, Sharon Knight, Steve Baughman and many others. He continues to be an avid songcatcher and is known for his extensive knowledge of sea music and sea songs, and loves performing songs from the Irish, English and Scottish traditions.

Kevin Carr - Instrumentalist, Storyteller

Kevin has performed in Revels dating back to 1993 and has been generous with his knowledge of Celtic, Galician and Quebecois music and culture. In addition to performing with his musical brethren in the venerable Hillbillies from Mars, he performs with the Celtic/Grateful Dead band, Wake the Dead, and plays with his wife Barbara, both as a duo and as members of a couple of fine ensembles that feature the music of Québec. He also performs solo as both a piper and a storyteller, and may be found every summer in Port Townsend, at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, coordinating the music tutorial program, and at the Lark In the Morning camp in Mendocino.

Peter Crompton - Scenic Designer

Peter Crompton is the Revels set designer and is responsible for the artful and evocative scenery that has delighted audiences for many years. In addition to revels, Peter has designed for Festival Opera, Opera San José, Diablo Light Opera Company, Lamplighters,  Marin Theatre Company, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Summer Repertory Theatre in Santa Rosa, Western Ballet,  University of Santa Clara, West Bay Opera,  Santa Barbara Grand Opera, Berkeley Opera, Sonoma City Opera, and San Francisco Camerata, among others. He has won Bay Area Critic’s Choice, Shellies, and Goodman Choice awards. He  lives in Santa Rosa, where he teaches set design at Santa Rosa Junior College and tends an increasingly bizarre sculpture garden with his wife Robyn. 

Callie Floor - Costumer

For many revelers the experience of the Winter Solstice show is defined by the apt and elegant costuming of Callie Floor. Her artistry has defined the look of the Revels chorus from the very beginning.

Callie earned her BFA from the University of Utah, and her higher diploma in Theatre Design from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London. Since coming to the Bay Area in 1987, she has designed for many Bay Area theaters, including ACT, the ACT Masters Program, Aurora Theatre,West Bay Opera, San Francisco Mime Troupe, and Zaccho Dance Theatre.  She is the resident designer for the California Revels and currently holds the position of Costume Rentals Supervisor for ACT.

Geoff Hoyle - Performer

Geoff has appeared in six Christmas Revels since 1991. He was the original Zazu in the Broadway cast of The Lion King and appeared off-Broadway in his solo Feast of Fools and more recently in Mr. Fox by Bill Irwin. He trained with Marcel Marceau’s teacher, Etienne Decroux, and clowned with Circus Flora, Pickle Family Circus, Teatro Zinzanni and Cirque de Soleil. .

"Revels stirs in me the sense of expectation and wonder I had as a child in a wintry England waiting for Father Christmas, a roast dinner and the family party. Everyone seemed to be laughing. Crazy, but happy. And the world was, for a few delirious days, impossibly perfect."   

Shira Kammen - Instrumentalist, Arranger

California Revels owes much of its musical identity to Shira Kammen. A multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Shira  has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A member for many years of the early music Ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, the Balkan group Kitka, the Oregon, California and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance on river rafting trips. She has performed and taught throughout the world.

Susan Rode-Morris - Singer

A centerpiece of the California Revels for over two decades,Susan Rode Morris is a singer of unusual versatility whose accomplishments encompass a wide range of repertoire and musical styles. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she has received much critical acclaim for her expressiveness and naturalness in singing, as well as her communicative presence. She is a founding member of Ensemble Alcatraz and has sung with many ensembles including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Sequentia Koln, Sex Chordae Consort of Viols, Foolia!, Magnificat!, Women's Philharmonic and others in North America and Europe. She has premiered numerous works of Bay Area composers, including opera and theatre pieces.