The Perkins Secondary Chorus is made up of students of the Perkins School for the Blind Secondary School and directed by Arnie Harris. The chorus joins Revels for the 23rd year of singing together!

David Coffin has performed throughout New England since 1980. He is widely known for his rich baritone voice and his impressive collection of musical instruments, which includes concertinas, recorders, penny-whistles, bombards, gemshorns, cornamuse, shawm, rauschphieffe – or, as he explains, “generally anything that requires a lot of hot air”. At the heart of David’s work is his extensive collection of songs from the Maritime tradition. To date, David has recorded four solo CDs; his latest, Last Trip Home, was released in the Fall of 2009 and features his daughter, Linnea, who is also a Revels performer.

David has performed with Revels since 1980 as a singer, instrumentalist and, since 1991, as Master of Ceremonies. Since 2014, David has served as Artist in Residence at Revels and has presented his acclaimed School Enrichment Programs to schools across the region as an extension of Revels Education. He runs tours of Boston Harbor during the summer months, leading over 5,000 inner-city children on boat trips to George’s and Spectacle Islands. He also directs the narration program for Boston Harbor Cruises and hosts the Brunch Cruises every weekend from May to October.

Paddy Swanson began his career in London as an actor at the Arts Theatre in the West End. In 1969, he toured Europe with La MaMa Plexus and subsequently got his world theater education from Ellen Stewart at La MaMa E.T.C. in New York. His numerous directing projects include opera, ensemble, music theater and circus.  He was a founding stage director of Circus Flora.

Paddy taught acting and improvisation at the London Academy of Dramatic Art (L.A.M.D.A.), the London Drama Centre, and New York University. He served as artistic director of the Castle Hill Festival at Castle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts, directing and co-producing opera and theater works, including the premiere of Julie Taymor’s Liberty’s Taken and Peter Sellars’ production of Cosi fan Tutte. Other directing credits include Tristan and Iseult with the Boston Camerata at the Spoleto USA festival; Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell at Houston’s Alley Theatre and Boston’s Charles Playhouse;  Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, The Caretaker by Harold Pinter, and two stage premieres at Gloucester Stage Company; Talking Heads by Alan Bennett; and Fighting Over Beverley by Israel Horowitz . His Actors’ Shakespeare Project (A.S.P.) production of  Shakespeare’s King Lear with Alvin Epstein was nominated for three 2006 Elliot Norton awards. For A.S.P. he subsequently directed The Tempest, The Coveted Crown  (Henry IV Parts One and Two) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His most recent acting performance was for Gloucester Stage in their 20th anniversary production of Fighting over Beverley.

For Revels, Paddy has directed a contemporary version of the medieval mystery plays, The Mysteries by Tony Harrison, co-produced by Revels and Shakespeare & Company, and Britten’s opera Noye’s Fludde. He writes and directs all Cambridge Revels scripts, and with music director George Emlen, serves as consultant to the other eight Revels production companies.

Revels Associate Artistic Director Debra Wise launched Underground Railway Theater in Oberlin, Ohio with founding Artistic Director Wes Sanders. From 1978-2008, they toured original works nationally and abroad to venues ranging from Lincoln Center to public schools. After opening Central Square Theater with The Nora Theatre Company in 2008, Wise worked with playwrights Alan Brody and Jon Lipsky, and physicist/author Alan Lightman, to found Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, CST’s science theater partnership. She led partnerships with Mount Auburn Cemetery (Our Town) and the National Park Service (Roots of Liberty – The Haitian Revolution and the American Civil War, featuring actors, dancers, musicians, and guests Danny Glover, Henry Louis Gates and Edwidge Danticat). Acting appearances at CST have included: The Half-Life of Marie Curie, Vanity Fair, Homebody, Copenhagen, and Brundibar & But the Giraffe! Appearances on other Boston stages: Much Ado About Nothing (Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.); Doll’s House 2 and Escaped Alone (The Gamm);  Mistero Buffo (Poets’ Theatre); Boston Marriage and Orson’s Shadow (New Repertory Theatre); People, Places & Things (Speakeasy Stage Co.); and Chosen Child (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); in NYC, The Haggadah (The Public, with Julie Taymor). Work as a playwright includes her adaptation of A Christmas Carol, States of Grace (inspired by Grace Paley’s stories); and Alice’s Adventures Underground (adapted from Lewis Carroll). She developed the curriculum Art Works for Schools with DeCordova Museum, public schools, and Harvard’s Project Zero, and collaborated with Harvard’s Graduate School of Education for 20 years. Though she continues as Program Director of Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, Wise left her CST Artistic Director position in 2022, to help invite increasingly diverse leadership. She is currently Producing Artistic Director for the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Theater Project (OWRProject.org), and Associate Artistic Director for The Revels. Her third audiobook in Gregory Maguire’s return to his Wicked franchise, Another Day, will be 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.

Revels Singers is Revels’ resident community chorus, open to everyone who loves to sing. The mission of Revels Singers is to engage people through singing, explore choral repertoire from around the world, hone musical skills, and build community through harmony. Revels Singers perform at Revels events including Revels Spring Sing and A Celebration of Spring with Perkins School for the Blind and host their own performances as well.