The Christmas Revels: A Virtual Celebration of Winter Solstice

For its 13^h annual production, Santa Barbara Revels presents The Christmas Revels: A Virtual Celebration of the Winter Solstice., to be streamed on Vimeo. This year’s production gets back to the early roots of the Christmas Revels: the show will feature choral music from Renaissance England, as well as favorite Christmas carols. The music will be interspersed with poems and dramatic readings reflecting on celebrating the season at the darkest time of the year.

In order to avoid the talking/singing heads-look look common to productions in this COVID-era, Revels Music Director Erin McKibben led the collected Revels choruses in recording the audio for the show outside, socially distanced and masked, while accompanied by the Revels’ instrumental consort and the Santa Barbara Trombone Society’s Trombone Quartet. Artistic Director Susan Keller, chorus members and musicians recorded the video for the show separately in the Marjorie Luke Theater, abiding by strict distancing guidelines to keep everyone safe. While singing and dancing together is not possible, the show will offer virtual sing-alongs with projected lyrics, so that those watching from home can join in. Additionally, there will be a virtual pre-show gathering for all Revels donors at 5:00pm on the December 21st, during which Music Director McKibben will teach songs, and dramaturg Anna Jensen will give some background to the Renaissance period in England.

The Christmas Revels first started in 1971 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and originally emphasized English folk traditions as a way to celebrate the season. These themes expanded to highlight cultures from around the world, and companies started in other cities around the nation (there are currently nine active Revels companies). Santa Barbara Revels’ recent shows have had Venetian, Irish, and Rancho-period California settings. Revels hopes that though gathering together in person is impossible, this show will be able to bring some of that celebratory energy into the audience-members’ homes. As revelers always say, “Join us and be joyous!”