What Is It Again? The Rebels?
One of the most fun, and sometimes most frustrating aspects of being a part of Revels is trying to explain to others just what this thing is that we work on for three months of every year. Even Revels’ founders Jack and Carol Langstaff and others who've been involved with the productions for many years find it almost impossible to describe Revels in just a few words. Do I dare try it one more time? O.K...here goes! (And with me, it won't even be close to just a "few" words!)
Revels is a series of musical-theatrical productions that celebrate seasonal changes with traditional music, dance, processionals, children's games, drama, and ritual. There are Spring Revels and Sea Revels, and so on, but the key Revels are the Revels presented annually in December in each of the ten Revels cities. Although we call them "Christmas" Revels, what we focus on in our December performances is really the Winter Solstice: the Shortest Day of the year, the Turning Point in nature's annual cycle of the seasons.
People Respond To The Winter Solstice
From the beginning of time, people living in the northern hemisphere have watched with concern -- and, in the old days, terror -- as fall came and they realized that the days were getting shorter, the nights longer and the air cooler. The sun's light and warmth grew weaker and weaker. The earth, so bountiful and full of life in spring and summer, appeared to be dying. Where once there was abundance and vitality, now there was death and desolation. Were the gods angry? Was the sun dying? What could people do to stop this process, to restore warmth and life to the earth?
In response to these questions, societies developed myths to explain what was happening. They devised rituals to appease the anger of the gods and ensure -- through magic or bargaining -- that the sun would be restored to health and that warmth and life would return to the land. Such practices included prayers and meditations, singing and chanting, ritual dances, and the offering of sacrifices: trading the life of an animal, or even a human being, for the life of the Sun / the Earth / the return of life in general. As societies changed over the centuries, these practices evolved. Attempts to explain the workings of the universe -- myths, spiritual beliefs and rituals --became religions. Legends and story telling became the foundations of literature and theater. The chants and ritual dances lost their significance and became...well...songs and dances!
At the heart of all of these Winter Solstice traditions was one central theme or pattern -- the dying of the light, the growing strength of the darkness, and then, miraculously, the return and triumph of the light. This process is mirrored in the universal cycle of life: birth, growth, death, re-birth. It is also similar to the daily cosmic procession of light and dark.
In our society, the best-known Winter Solstice festival is Christmas. The early Christians associated the celebration of Christ’s birth with older, pagan celebrations of the solstice and the sun god’s rebirth. In the Christian belief system, the SUN has become the SON, Jesus, the Light who comes into the world at the time of the Solstice. Jesus is overpowered by the forces of darkness (sin) and he dies, but is re-born in the Spring (as is the SUN -- its annual re-birth celebrated in the old religions). Our modern holiday practices include many symbols and symbolic acts: we gather pine trees and holly, evergreens, symbols of eternal and recurring life. We place lights on those evergreen branches, and on our houses, an echo of ancient attempts to ensure the return of the light following the Solstice. If we're Jewish, we observe Chanukkah, the Festival of LIGHTS, which also celebrates the eternal and inextinguishable Light of Life/God.
The Winter Solstice marks the darkest, coldest, bleakest part of the year. In response, people tend to turn inward, gathering together with family, with clan, with tribe. This companionship brings reassurance that times will be better in the future. It is an occasion for feasting, for sharing the bounty of the previous season's harvest and the hunt. As people enjoy the fruits of the past year's abundance, they give thanks and pray for similar good fortune in the coming year. They honor the earth, from which sustenance comes; the sun, which provides the energy that makes things grow; and life, the shared force which animates all things on the planet. The winter is also "down time" in an agrarian society, an opportunity to kick back, even relax a little from the non-stop, back-breaking labor of the planting-growing-harvesting season. It's a time for people to look around at what they have, and to celebrate, with song and dance, everyday existence, love, work, family and friends.
Out Of Tradition And Ritual Comes...The Revels!
Every Christmas Revels production includes elements that evoke various aspects of the Winter Solstice. Every theme and element we've talked about is included in some way or another. Most Revels material is traditional; some of it is ancient. The show is a compilation of "folk" music/ dance/ theater in the truest and broadest sense of that word. Each Christmas Revels celebrates the Winter Solstice traditions of a specific culture or region of the world, and sometimes a particular time in history.
On the other hand, no Revels production is made up exclusively of material from the selected culture. There may be components from other places, or even other times. An old Winter Solstice dance from one region may be juxtaposed with a nineteenth-century Christmas carol from elsewhere or a contemporary poem. This shows us similarities among cultures and makes them relevant for us today. For instance, in past productions we've seen the similar spirit that lies at the heart of the ancient Abbots Bromley Horn Dance from western England, the Yaqui Deer Dance from northern Mexico, and the Reindeer Lure Charm Poem from Iceland. And what are the elements of a Christmas Revels? Fanfares. Traditional carols and songs. Village dance tunes. Colorful processionals. Authentic period costumes. Poetry. Ritual dances. Chants. Reminiscences of holiday traditions. Children's games, nursery songs and group dances. Flags and banners. Folk plays and dramas. A Revels show may have a story-line, a plot that runs through it, but often it does not. It is a medley, a pastiche, a hearty stew of seemingly disparate elements which nonetheless are all related on a basic level. What will the audience see on stage? A traditional village made up of people of different ages, sizes and shapes. Family groups of grandparents, parents, children, husbands, wives, uncles and aunts. Musicians, singers, dancers, actors, a juggler, an acrobat, a ballerina, a fool, and even a dancing bear.
So What Does This All Add Up To?
At its best, Revels is not just an entertainment. The audience is encouraged to participate, to join in the rituals. The audience members sing and harmonize. They help usher in the holidays by shouting “Welcome Yule!" And, in the famous custom that concludes the first act of every Christmas Revels performance, the barrier between cast and audience dissolves as they join hands and sing and dance in a glorious celebration of life and humanity. And at the last, cast and audience join in a blessing that permeates the hall and remains with them as they return to cold reality.
Revels co-founder Carol Langstaff says that one of the things Revels is about is connections. By breaking down the "barrier of the footlights," we create a connection between us on the stage and those sitting in the hall. We look just as they do; we're members of families, as they are. We create a connection between the present and the past -- with those who have gone before us -- by offering a show made up of traditional materials that previous generations have participated in, enjoyed and taken meaning from. These materials belong to all of us. They connect us to our mother planet, Earth, whose changing cycles we celebrate. We create a harmonious connection between ourselves and something larger, as we honor our place in the universe and our understanding of it. And so I come back to my original statement: Revels is a celebration.
Our national artistic director Patrick Swanson says that a celebration is a time for paying attention to something that's important: the birth of an individual, a marriage, a death, an anniversary of emancipation, a festival of thanksgiving. And the most universal of these occasions are the days marking the turning of the seasons, particularly the moment when the darkness ceases its advance and recedes once more before the blazing light of the Sun, the Gift of Life which unites us all. These ideas hint at the reasons why those who experience a Revels celebration walk out of the theater buoyed up, smiling, "strangely warmed," in the words of the old evangelist. This is not just any old Christmas pageant you've signed up for. It's unique. You'll never forget it.
One of the most fun, and sometimes most frustrating aspects of being a part of Revels is trying to explain to others just what this thing is that we work on for three months of every year. Even Revels’ founders Jack and Carol Langstaff and others who've been involved with the productions for many years find it almost impossible to describe Revels in just a few words. Do I dare try it one more time? O.K...here goes! (And with me, it won't even be close to just a "few" words!)
Revels is a series of musical-theatrical productions that celebrate seasonal changes with traditional music, dance, processionals, children's games, drama, and ritual. There are Spring Revels and Sea Revels, and so on, but the key Revels are the Revels presented annually in December in each of the ten Revels cities. Although we call them "Christmas" Revels, what we focus on in our December performances is really the Winter Solstice: the Shortest Day of the year, the Turning Point in nature's annual cycle of the seasons.
People Respond To The Winter Solstice
From the beginning of time, people living in the northern hemisphere have watched with concern -- and, in the old days, terror -- as fall came and they realized that the days were getting shorter, the nights longer and the air cooler. The sun's light and warmth grew weaker and weaker. The earth, so bountiful and full of life in spring and summer, appeared to be dying. Where once there was abundance and vitality, now there was death and desolation. Were the gods angry? Was the sun dying? What could people do to stop this process, to restore warmth and life to the earth?
In response to these questions, societies developed myths to explain what was happening. They devised rituals to appease the anger of the gods and ensure -- through magic or bargaining -- that the sun would be restored to health and that warmth and life would return to the land. Such practices included prayers and meditations, singing and chanting, ritual dances, and the offering of sacrifices: trading the life of an animal, or even a human being, for the life of the Sun / the Earth / the return of life in general. As societies changed over the centuries, these practices evolved. Attempts to explain the workings of the universe -- myths, spiritual beliefs and rituals --became religions. Legends and story telling became the foundations of literature and theater. The chants and ritual dances lost their significance and became...well...songs and dances!
At the heart of all of these Winter Solstice traditions was one central theme or pattern -- the dying of the light, the growing strength of the darkness, and then, miraculously, the return and triumph of the light. This process is mirrored in the universal cycle of life: birth, growth, death, re-birth. It is also similar to the daily cosmic procession of light and dark.
In our society, the best-known Winter Solstice festival is Christmas. The early Christians associated the celebration of Christ’s birth with older, pagan celebrations of the solstice and the sun god’s rebirth. In the Christian belief system, the SUN has become the SON, Jesus, the Light who comes into the world at the time of the Solstice. Jesus is overpowered by the forces of darkness (sin) and he dies, but is re-born in the Spring (as is the SUN -- its annual re-birth celebrated in the old religions). Our modern holiday practices include many symbols and symbolic acts: we gather pine trees and holly, evergreens, symbols of eternal and recurring life. We place lights on those evergreen branches, and on our houses, an echo of ancient attempts to ensure the return of the light following the Solstice. If we're Jewish, we observe Chanukkah, the Festival of LIGHTS, which also celebrates the eternal and inextinguishable Light of Life/God.
The Winter Solstice marks the darkest, coldest, bleakest part of the year. In response, people tend to turn inward, gathering together with family, with clan, with tribe. This companionship brings reassurance that times will be better in the future. It is an occasion for feasting, for sharing the bounty of the previous season's harvest and the hunt. As people enjoy the fruits of the past year's abundance, they give thanks and pray for similar good fortune in the coming year. They honor the earth, from which sustenance comes; the sun, which provides the energy that makes things grow; and life, the shared force which animates all things on the planet. The winter is also "down time" in an agrarian society, an opportunity to kick back, even relax a little from the non-stop, back-breaking labor of the planting-growing-harvesting season. It's a time for people to look around at what they have, and to celebrate, with song and dance, everyday existence, love, work, family and friends.
Out Of Tradition And Ritual Comes...The Revels!
Every Christmas Revels production includes elements that evoke various aspects of the Winter Solstice. Every theme and element we've talked about is included in some way or another. Most Revels material is traditional; some of it is ancient. The show is a compilation of "folk" music/ dance/ theater in the truest and broadest sense of that word. Each Christmas Revels celebrates the Winter Solstice traditions of a specific culture or region of the world, and sometimes a particular time in history.
On the other hand, no Revels production is made up exclusively of material from the selected culture. There may be components from other places, or even other times. An old Winter Solstice dance from one region may be juxtaposed with a nineteenth-century Christmas carol from elsewhere or a contemporary poem. This shows us similarities among cultures and makes them relevant for us today. For instance, in past productions we've seen the similar spirit that lies at the heart of the ancient Abbots Bromley Horn Dance from western England, the Yaqui Deer Dance from northern Mexico, and the Reindeer Lure Charm Poem from Iceland. And what are the elements of a Christmas Revels? Fanfares. Traditional carols and songs. Village dance tunes. Colorful processionals. Authentic period costumes. Poetry. Ritual dances. Chants. Reminiscences of holiday traditions. Children's games, nursery songs and group dances. Flags and banners. Folk plays and dramas. A Revels show may have a story-line, a plot that runs through it, but often it does not. It is a medley, a pastiche, a hearty stew of seemingly disparate elements which nonetheless are all related on a basic level. What will the audience see on stage? A traditional village made up of people of different ages, sizes and shapes. Family groups of grandparents, parents, children, husbands, wives, uncles and aunts. Musicians, singers, dancers, actors, a juggler, an acrobat, a ballerina, a fool, and even a dancing bear.
So What Does This All Add Up To?
At its best, Revels is not just an entertainment. The audience is encouraged to participate, to join in the rituals. The audience members sing and harmonize. They help usher in the holidays by shouting “Welcome Yule!" And, in the famous custom that concludes the first act of every Christmas Revels performance, the barrier between cast and audience dissolves as they join hands and sing and dance in a glorious celebration of life and humanity. And at the last, cast and audience join in a blessing that permeates the hall and remains with them as they return to cold reality.
Revels co-founder Carol Langstaff says that one of the things Revels is about is connections. By breaking down the "barrier of the footlights," we create a connection between us on the stage and those sitting in the hall. We look just as they do; we're members of families, as they are. We create a connection between the present and the past -- with those who have gone before us -- by offering a show made up of traditional materials that previous generations have participated in, enjoyed and taken meaning from. These materials belong to all of us. They connect us to our mother planet, Earth, whose changing cycles we celebrate. We create a harmonious connection between ourselves and something larger, as we honor our place in the universe and our understanding of it. And so I come back to my original statement: Revels is a celebration.
Our national artistic director Patrick Swanson says that a celebration is a time for paying attention to something that's important: the birth of an individual, a marriage, a death, an anniversary of emancipation, a festival of thanksgiving. And the most universal of these occasions are the days marking the turning of the seasons, particularly the moment when the darkness ceases its advance and recedes once more before the blazing light of the Sun, the Gift of Life which unites us all. These ideas hint at the reasons why those who experience a Revels celebration walk out of the theater buoyed up, smiling, "strangely warmed," in the words of the old evangelist. This is not just any old Christmas pageant you've signed up for. It's unique. You'll never forget it.
© Houston Revels 2006, all rights reserved
site design by web designs of houston
site design by web designs of houston