Archive for Announcements

Stage and Cinema REVIEW: You’d Be a Fool to Miss this Feast of Fun

By Lynne Weiss. Updated December 18, 2023 The long-playing Midwinter Revels (founded as Christmas Revels in 1971) is a unique mix of professional performance, volunteer talent, and audience participation that has created a joyous community that comes together each holiday season to delight in forms of music and dance that…

Broadway World REVIEW: Midwinter Revels – A Journey of Comfort and Joy

By Nancy Grossman, Globe correspondant. Updated December 21, 2023 Midwinter Revels: The Feast of Fools A Medieval Celebration of the Solstice Written and Directed by Patrick Swanson and Debra Wise; Elijah Botkin, Music Director; Sarah Higginbotham, Children’s Music Director; Choreographer, Susan Dibble; Set Design, Jeremy C. Barnett; Costume Design, Heidi Hermiller; Lighting…

Boston Globe HOLIDAY ARTS PREVIEW: A medieval ‘Midwinter Revels’ will suffer these fools gladly

By Terry Byrne, Globe correspondent. Updated November 10, 2023, 10:00 a.m. Across 34 years as artistic director of the Revels, Patrick Swanson has taken audiences from every corner of Europe to North America, from medieval times to the 20th century, in an exploration of the mysteries of life, death,…

Debra Wise Appointed Associate Artistic Director of Revels, Inc.

WATERTOWN, MA – Revels, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Debra Wise as its new Associate Artistic Director. Co-Founder and former Artistic Director of Cambridge’s Underground Railway Theater @ Central Square Theater and an artistic leader at Central Square Theater, Ms. Wise has established herself in…

Chorus Auditions for The Midwinter Revels: A Celebration of the Solstice

(May 19, 2022 – Watertown, MA) — Revels Inc., a national cultural performing arts nonprofit, announced today Audition for The Midwinter Revels, one of the region’s most popular holiday entertainments! THREE DATES – TWO LOCATIONS: WHEN:  Monday, June 13 & Tuesday, June 14, 2022(4-6 pm children ages 7-12; 7-10…

In Memory of Ashley Bryan

It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of our friend Ashley Bryan, who passed away earlier this month. Ashley was a writer and illustrator of children’s books, many about the African-American experience. He was U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006 and…

Revels, Inc. Names Elijah Botkin as New Music Director

(December 15, 2021 – Watertown, MA) — Revels Inc., a national cultural performing arts nonprofit, announced today that it has selected Elijah Botkin as its new music director. Botkin will ramp up over the month of December during the production of Revels’ flagship event The Christmas Revels in…

Behind the Scenes at Revels

from Simon Horsburgh, Revels Board Chair We are looking forward to seeing you in Sanders this year! (COVID protocols are in place and the theater’s air filtration systems have been upgraded – for more info,visit our website.) For those of you still feeling a bit hesitant, we are offering…

Revels is here! Revels is here!

The Revels Immigration Residency for Elementary Schools “Revels is here! Revels is here!” echoes down the hallways of the Bedford Elementary school each morning as we arrive to lead and run our week long Immigration Residency.   The Revels Immigration Residency came into conception when I was thinking about…

The Holy and the Broken Hallelujah Or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Acadian-Cajun Revels

by Nicole Galland (novelist and alto) It’s been a rough year for music lovers; the music died too often in 2016. The recent passing of Leonard Cohen hit me especially hard, in part because of my exceeding attachment to his song “Hallelujah” (I even incorporated a line from…