Here you'll find articles about how we put a Revels performance together, interesting personal insights, and bits of stuff that just don't seem to belong anywhere else. Feel free to rummage.
“Folk art is, indeed, the oldest of the aristocracies of thought, and because it refuses what is passing and trivial, the merely clever and pretty, as certainly as the vulgar and insincere, and because it has gathered into itself the simplest and most unforgettable thoughts of the generations, it is the soil where all great art is rooted.”
- W.B. Yeats By The Roadside, 1901
- W.B. Yeats By The Roadside, 1901
Abbots Bromley Dance
Our first annual Abbots Bromliad was a stunning success, drawing hundreds of participants and international press coverage. It has continued now for nearly a decade, and become yet another Revels tradition.
The Work Of The Fool
A long time reveler once asked me to explain the unlikely scenarios and odd anachronisms that frequently appear on the Revels stage. Here's my response.
Resources for Living
This is a very touching article written by Revels chorister and Solstice singer Lynn Ungar. In it she describes the role that Revels participation plays in her family life.Read it here.
Rehearsing With Geoff Hoyle
In 2003, Artistic Associate and clown extraordinaire Geoff Hoyle created the character of Will Kemp for our Elizabethan Christmas show. Here some observations on the working process.
Wild Folk Customs Video.
Reveler Cliff Stevens contributes this video compilation of English folk rituals. Many of them will be familiar to those who attend various CalRevels events, but don't look for us to enact the “flaming barrels of pitch” ceremony any time soon.
Complaint ChorusThere is apparently a worldwide movement where people achieve community by itemizing in choral form the petty irritations they share in daily life . This is a (longish) clip of a “complaint choir” performing in Helsinki, Finland. I find it oddly moving as well as quite funny. Probably my favorite line: “Why is the cord of the vacuum cleaner too short - just like Summer?
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Breton MagicFor those of you who remember the wonderful music and unique headgear of our 1997 Breton show:
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The Summer Solstice in PolandAn amazing sight - 11,000 floating lanterns are released into the night skies on the summer Solstice.
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Poignant VideoCalRevels Board member Sandy Gess passed around this lovely video. I find it a touching reminder of the ephemeral quality of life and a call to in every moment we are given.
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