David Coffin is a firm believer in not doing anything full-time. While he’s been on the Revels stage since 1980 and performed as Master of Ceremonies since 1990, he also presents two very interactive School Enrichment Programs with Revels: The History of the Recorder and A Maritime Voyage in Song. March through November, David can also be found on the Boston Harbor, narrating harbor history and running the crew onboard the high-speed stunt boat, Codzilla. Working with kids is a passion for David, so taking over 10,000 inner-city kids out to the Harbor Islands every summer since 2000 through Save the Harbor/Save the Bay has been a nice way to round out his year.

During the pandemic, David created over 600 videos on TikTok trying to teach young people what a real sea chantey is (i.e. NOT WELLERMAN!) A byproduct of these videos is the digital album The Sound of Time, a series of “one take” songs requested by followers on the app. David has produced a series of virtual concerts, one of which became a digital album; A Revels Hymn Sing. David has several other solo CDs to his credit and was also featured in the Amazon Prime movie Blow the Man Down as the Singing Fisherman.

In his years with Revels, including 10 years standing behind Jack Langstaff and 33 years spent trying to fill his enormous shoes, David learned an awful lot about performing from Jack. He also owes a huge debt of gratitude to Paddy Swanson for giving him his various onstage roles and for preserving and honoring “the part that Jack built.”

Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) is a Boston-based dance organization that blends Haitian folkloric and contemporary styles. Founded by Jean Appolon, JAE creates a unique artistic vernacular that educates audiences about Haitian culture, traditions, history, and current issues.

JAE’s dynamic repertoire is designed to preserve Haitian folkloric culture while continuously revitalizing the art form in a way that is vital, accessible, inspiring, healing, and educational. The company is composed of dancers from diverse backgrounds, each committed to using dance to share and celebrate Haitian culture.

Appolon’s dance company has performed at major venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, Boston’s Paramount Center, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Yard, and the ICA, as well as in site specific community spaces with free public performances. JAE has had the honor of sharing the stage with notable figures such as Danny Glover, Henry Louis Gates, and Edwidge Danticat, and collaborates with community partners throughout the greater Boston area.

Don Veino is one of the organizers for the Monday night contra dance series at the Concord, MA Scout House. This dance specializes in highlighting our local New England talent and also helping new dancers and performers get their start working with experienced performers and dancers.

He currently serve as the Vice President and administer the website for the Concord Scout House, Inc. and help the organization with technology issues consultation and implementation.

Don has also been writing quite a few contra and other types of dances recently. His dances have been called in several venues across North America and overseas.

Here on the Hill is a whimsical New England-based Acoustic Trio specializing in contradance and epic fiddle tunes, with Tory Horner and Annie McDougall on fiddle and Rose Powell on guitar. Follow them on Instagram @hereonthehill.band!

Based in Chelsea, Grupo Torogoz is made up of adults, youth, and children who practice and represent Salvadoran folklore, its roots, and its customs. They celebrate their identity and other countries’ cultures through theater and dance.

The Puppeteers’ Cooperative is a group of artists and puppeteers working in cities around the nation to create giant puppet parades, pageants, and ceremonies of celebration and complaint, using simple materials and movements to build community cardboard extravaganzas. We have worked with groups around the US and Canada, from Nova Scotia in the North to Florida in the South, and with festivals including the Atlanta Arts Festival and the Bumbershoot Festival of Seattle, creating semi-instantaneous pageants, art installations, and parades. Our massive pageants at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival in New York have explored neurosis and traffic jams in “Romeo and Juliet in New York City”, space and parrots in “The Tempest on Mars”, the highway system from Troy to Ithaca in “The Odyssey” fear of Da Mayor in “Metropopolis”, and city as circus in “Grand Meg-o-lopolis Circus”. Our ‘Triumph of the Arts” parades with the Governor’s Institute on the Arts of Vermont have become a beloved tradition. Puppeteers from the Puppeteers’ Cooperative have worked with First Night of Boston and First Night International and with First Night celebrations around the country since their inception, creating both experimental commissioned parade works and sections, and sprited and colorful community group parade pieces.

The Puppeteers’ Cooperative is also involved with a number of interrelated groups: Hi-Art videos, which makes videos of giant puppet pageants and miniature tabletop productions; News of the Week, for mini street shows; the Back Alley Puppet Theater, which creates parades and parade puppets in the Boston area; the Puppet Free Library, which lends puppets, banners, and masks to people and institutions in the Boston area; and the Construction Section, puppet makers.

The Puppeteers Cooperative was formed in San Francisco in 1976 by George Konnoff and Sara Peattie, two puppeteers formerly with the Bread and Puppet Theater. It was incorporated as a non-profit in Massachusetts1994. In 1993, Theresa Linnihan, then the director of the Newburyport Children’s Theater at Maudslay State Park, met Konnoff, and joined in about 1997. George Konnoff died in 2001.

Debra Wise (Revels Associate Artistic Director) co-founded Underground Railway Theater in Oberlin, Ohio; from 1978-2008, URT toured original works in the collaborative spirit of the Underground Railroad to venues ranging from Lincoln Center. to schools, to Symphony Hall, including Sanctuary-The Spirit of Harriet Tubman, Home is Where, InTOXICating, and Christopher Columbus Follies; with the Boston Symphony, Firebird, Creation of the World, and Tempest. As URT’s Artistic Director, she created performances for non-traditional venues in the area, including Museum of Science, MIT Museum, Mary Baker Eddy Library, the MFA, and on the streets of Cambridge. After founding Central Square Theater with Nora Theatre Company in 2008, Wise co-founded Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, CST’s science theater partnership. She led partnerships with Mount Auburn Cemetery and the National Park Service (Roots of Liberty–The Haitian Revolution and the American Civil War). Productions Wise helmed have won Elliot Norton awards, including Vanity Fair; black odyssey boston; The Convert, and Constellations. Acting appearances at CST have included Angels in America, Half-Life of Marie Curie, Homebody, Copenhagen, Einstein’s Dreams, Arabian Nights; other stages include Commonwealth Shakespeare, New Rep, Speakeasy, Boston Playwrights, and the Public in NYC (The Haggadah, designed by Julie Taymor). She has adapted for the stage works by Dickens, Grace Paley, Lewis Carroll, and Gregory Maguire. She developed the Art Works for Schools curriculum with Harvard’s Project Zero, the DeCordova Museum, and area schools. Wise left her CST Artistic Director position in 2022 to invite diverse leadership; she continues as CoChair of the CC@MIT Advisory Committee. She consults with the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Theater Project (www.owrproject.org); co-authored a digital book on URT’s history (www.URTheaterEbook.com); and her third audiobook, The Witch of Maracoor by Gregory Maguire, was released this fall.

Elijah Botkin graduated from Northeastern University in 2015 with bachelor’s degrees in Music History & Analysis and Mathematics. During his time at Northeastern, Elijah founded and directed the Northeastern Madrigal Singers; was President, Bass Section Leader, and Assistant Director for the NU Choral Society; and sang with and arranged for the award-winning a cappella group Distilled Harmony. In 2015, Elijah won the award for Outstanding Arrangement for his arrangement of Distilled Harmony’s quarterfinal-winning set in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. In the same year, his arrangement of “Nothing Feels Like You” by Little Mix also won a CARA (Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award) for Best Mixed Collegiate Song. In 2014, Elijah was granted the Gideon Klein Award in order to write his composition The Closed Town, which was premiered by the Northeastern University Chamber Choir in April 2015. Currently, Elijah continues to direct the NU Madrigals and serves on the Board of Trustees for Chorus pro Musica. He also sings with the Boston-based chamber choir Carduus and serves as their Treasurer and Business Manager.