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 also produced a series of virtual concerts, one of which became a digital album; A Revels Hymn Sing. David has several other solo CD’s 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.” He also wants to give Paddy a sizable thank you for putting up with him for so many years!

Vincent Ernest Siders is a stage director, equity actor, producer, educator, and theater consultant. Currently, he is the Director and Lead Instructor for the ‘Ambassadors,’ the touring division of Youth Underground at Central Square Theater. Vincent has served as Artistic Director for two theater companies, both in Boston: New African Company and TYG Productions – Home of the Family Beef Feast Festival. 

As an actor, Vincent has performed throughout the East Coast. Memorable roles include but are not limited to: Pap and Rev in Fat Ham at the Huntington Theater; King Shahrayar in Arabian Nights at Central Square Theater, Uncle Diva in Mr g at Central Square Theater, Joe Bell in Guided Tour at Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall, Tom in The Glass Menagerie at Lyric Stage, Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Lucius in Jesus Hopped the A Train with Company One, Rooftop in Our Lady of 121st Street with SpeakEasy Stage Company, and James in Monticel at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, where he played the role of Thomas Jefferson’s unclaimed son. Dubbed a ‘Boston Treasure’ by The Boston Globe, Vincent has received the following accolades: two IRNE nominations for Best Direction, two IRNE Awards for Acting, the Elliot Norton Award for Best Actor, and Boston Magazine’s – Best of Boston Award for Best Actor. In March of 2024, Vincent will perform the title role in Othello at the Apollinaire Theater in Chelsea.

René Collins is a multi-disciplinary artist and native of the Bay Area, specifically South San Francisco. He has been a part of the Revels community for over 37 years and performed with Jack Langstaff. An accomplished performer in major disciplines which include singing, dancing, songwriting, acrobatics, clowning, and martial arts, René has recorded two CDs of original songs, Afromystic and Love and Revolution, and is the author of two publications, Magickal Qi Gong: Awakening the Dragon and Way of the Magical Intelligence. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

René brought his eclectic experience and love of community to his position as California Revels’ Artistic Director for their 2021 and 2022 productions, La Siréne and The Butterfly Lovers of Gold Mountain. René’s history with California Revels began over 36 years ago, when he first played the archetypal character of “The Fool” in their second production ever. René has graced the Revels stage as a featured performer a number of times since then, including his appearances as Star Fool alongside Jack Langstaff and Joseph Johnson in La Sirène, his inaugural production as Artistic Director of California Revels. Outside of Revels, René has frequently been involved with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Playhouse, and the Bay Area-based ensemble, Make*A*Circus, among other companies. He first received notoriety developing acrobatic and clowning skills in Make*A*Circus and went on to play Antonio in Twelfth Night and Lucius in Julius Caesar with the California Shakespeare Festival. He also played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Chicco the Pirate in Peter Pan and Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice with San Jose Light Opera, the god Enki in Queen of Swords with Theatre Rhinoceros, a role in Down the Dark Well  with NOHspace, Sandman in Little Nemo in Slumberland, and Andre in Ain’t Misbehavin’ with Oregon Cabaret Festival. René’s other pursuits include songwriting and performance, Capoeira, Mixed Martial Arts, and Qi Gong. You can read more about René on his website, renecollinsmusic.com.

Eliza Fichter (Fool) is an interdisciplinary artist from Massachusetts. She has worked with The Huntington Theatre (Summer Workshop Series – Oxbow), BEDLAM and The Nora Theatre (The Crucible), Central Square Theater (The Revolutionists), Underground Railway Theatre (Matchless & The Happy Prince), and Olney Theatre Center (Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors), and is a current Artist-in-Residence at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Eliza also works as a printmaker, and was delighted to contribute original designs for this year’s program! Elizafichter.com

Roger Reed (Fool)

How does a Western New York farm boy end up on stage at Midwinter Revels?

He graduates from Syracuse University with degrees in Photocology and Psychojournalism.
He goes to Celebration Mime Theater in South Paris, Maine with Tony Montanaro and discovers his true love for performing and being funny.
He takes a job as a singing maître d’ until he spills flaming drinks on a man in a wheelchair.
He moves to Boston and begins street performing.
He moves to New York to perform in Mummenschanz on Broadway.
He leaves New York to “recreate the wandering lifestyle of the medieval fool,” travelling throughout 24 countries and performing where he finds the space and the people.
He performs in circuses in Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland.
He sails across the Atlantic Ocean seven times.
He meets his wife in Antigua and marries her eight years later.
They move to America.
He starts performing within a 100-mile radius of home, preferring to be with his young family.
He goes outside of that circle three times to go to Cameroon with Project Troubadour.
He attends more circle gigs at festivals, schools, camps, parties, and community events.
He goes to Haiti three times after the earthquake to provide jesterelief.
He becomes a faculty artist at Community Access to the Arts, teaching juggling to people with disabilities.
He gets hired to teach and perform at a Family Dance Camp at Ogontz in New Hampshire.
He meets Paddy Swanson at said event.
He gets an email from Paddy saying “What are you doing next Christmas?”
He says “Nothing.”

Et voilà.

Laurel Swift is a performer, composer, workshop leader, and an inspiring instigator of creative new projects and performances rooted in the folk arts. Laurel plays double bass and clog dances with Gadarene, a high-energy band blending obscure 18th-century manuscript tunes with modern beats, and plays fiddle with irresistible ceilidh-dance groovers, The Gloworms. She has recently moved to the USA, so watch out for some exciting new acts! Laurel is currently absorbed in Travelling with Thomas, a project that invites people to write a folk musical in public and see inside the journey of the artistic process.

Laurel co-created and performed Under her Skin with the incredible storyteller Debs Newbold, directed by John Wright. It is a fully integrated inventive and theatrical show, sharing the tale equally between Debs’ charismatic storytelling voice and Laurel’s double bass, fiddle, and clogs. 

She also loves to dance and has taught Morris dance and choreographed for theatre and film, with projects including the Bristol Old Vic’s version of Midsummer Night’s Dream, on which she worked with Tom Morris. She directed national touring dance productions for Morris Offspring, a ground-breaking young Morris dance company. Laurel also spent twelve years as the Artistic Director of Shooting Roots, creative folk arts projects for and by young people, and ran regular classes and ensembles in London for The English Folk Dance and Song Society. She regularly teaches folk music, putting particular focus on helping people find their own ownership of our shared traditions through creative approaches to variation, ensemble skills, and simply having a good time!

Barbara is highly regarded for her artistry and versatility, specializing in performing and recording the music of the Middle Ages through the present day. Recent solo performances include Mozart’s Coronation Mass (soprano), Mozart’s Requiem (mezzo-soprano), Richard Clark’s Te Deum (soprano), and Britten’s The Company of Heaven (soprano), as well as concert appearances with Seven Times Salt, Hesperus, The Henry Purcell Society of Boston, and the Cambridge Midwinter Revels. She is also the soprano cantor at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. Ensemble appearances include performances with Emmanuel Music (Boston, MA), Ensemble Altera (Providence, RI), Nightingale Vocal Ensemble (Boston, MA), and The Crossing (Philadelphia, PA). An enthusiastic supporter of new music, she especially enjoys the opportunity to premiere and record new works. Highlights include Gavin Bryars: The Fifth Century (GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance), premiering Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth with the NY Philharmonic and The Crossing, and making her Carnegie Hall debut as the mezzo-soprano soloist in the premiere of Heidi Breyer’s Amor Aeternus: A Requiem for the Common Man. She was also honored to be featured in the premiere of director Angela Yam’s choral opera, ADRIFT, performed with Nightingale Vocal Ensemble.

She is thrilled to share her love for boundary-blurring, historically-informed performance by appearing again on the Revels stage as this year’s tradition bearer for Midwinter Revels: The Feast of Fools. Barbara is a member of Beyond Artists and donates a portion of her artistic earnings to organizations such as 350.org. (beyondartists.com) Learn more at Barbaraahill.com

Abe Finch is a Boston-area freelance percussionist and music educator. He has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Royal Ballet, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Portland Symphony, Dinosaur Annex, Pro Arte Chamber Ensemble, Chorus Pro Musica, New England Percussion Ensemble, Boston Brass Ensemble, and many more classical, jazz, and theater organizations. Abe was the featured percussionist in the world premiere of James Kallembach’s Audubon at Jordan Hall, performing with Chorus Pro Musica under the direction of Jamie Kirsch and making “salient work of Kallembach’s involved percussion writing” (Jonathan Blumhofer, Boston Classical Review).

Abe provided percussion for Chorus Pro Musica’s performance of The Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang, creating a tapestry of sound using iOS integration and Ableton Live software to capture, process, and transform acoustic sound with ethereal effects. Abe also played the solo percussion role in the world premiere of Songs for the Earth by Rebecca Sachs at Tufts University. 

Abe has performed with Revels since 2003, appearing in numerous Christmas and Midwinter Revels and on seven Revels CD releases. He also coached a group of his own students in the Revels production of Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Flood. 

Abe composes original works for percussion, including thematic pieces for children, advanced percussion ensemble repertoire, and arrangements for steel drum ensemble. He currently teaches percussion at Salem State University, where he is director of the small ensemble program. His other teaching positions include Phillips Academy, Groton School, Groton Hill Music, and Northern Essex Community College.

Tom Duprey has been freelancing as a trumpet player in the Boston area since the mid-1980s. His jazz friends say he’s a classical player, and his classical friends say he’s a jazzer with a good tone. Tom feels that he’s a “generalist” –  a Jack of all Trades – who noodles his way through the trumpet!

Tom has performed and recorded with pit orchestras; jazz bands; symphony orchestras; and rock, Latin and R&B bands, playing with the likes of Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, Tommy Tune, Robert Goulet, Serj Tankian, Madeleine Peyroux, Amanda Palmer, the Scottish indie-pop band Belle & Sebastian, and with his buddy David Hawthorne’s band Time Ghost on their release Reading For Cigar Makers. His longest-running gig has been playing with the band TickleJuice, led by friend and fellow NEC grad James Merenda, for over fifteen years. And near and dear to his heart, Tom has been blessed to play on many Revels productions and recordings, starting around 1999 as the sub for the now-defunct descant trumpet part up in the balcony of the amazing Sanders Theatre.

Greg Gettel is a versatile trumpet player and teacher who has spent over 25 years in the local music scene. After attending Oberlin Conservatory and New England Conservatory, he toured in South Africa, Zimbabwe, England, and performed at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Greg has also served as a guest coach at the SHOBI College of Music in Japan. Locally, he has appeared with many ensembles throughout New England including Boston Ballet, Emmanuel Music, Harvard Baroque, Portland Symphony, Plymouth Philharmonic, Opera Boston, Odyssey Opera, the American Repertory Theater, the Family Folk Chorale, and Midwinter Revels. Greg appears annually in A Merry Music Hall Christmas at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall. He has also played in the Trinity United Methodist’s Boar’s Head Festival in Springfield, MA for over 20 years. He was a student of Tim Morrison, Byron Pearson, and Louis Ranger. Currently, he teaches for Lexington Community Education and The Waldorf School of Lexington. Raised by musicians in rural Vermont, Greg can often be found outdoors with his wife, two kids, and their dog.

Austin Comerford received his Bachelor of Music from The Boston Conservatory and his Master of Music from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. His primary teachers are Steven Campbell and Kenneth Amis and he has completed additional studies with notable brass players such as Mike Roylance, Roger Bobo, Craig Knox, Larry Isaacson, and Sasha Johnson.

Mr. Comerford works at New England Conservatory as the Assistant Director of Enrollment and also maintains an active performance and teaching schedule in the Boston area. He is the instructor of tuba and euphonium at Bridgewater State University and for Weston Public Schools. As a teacher, Mr. Comerford has worked with a wide variety of students ranging from ages 9-55 and has presented master classes and clinics at high schools and colleges throughout New England and Minnesota. While pursuing his masters degree, he worked as an elementary and middle school band director and had the great pleasure of starting many students down their path in music. Many of Mr. Comerford’s students have achieved top marks at solo & ensemble competitions and have been accepted to music schools and conservatories around the country.

Mr. Comerford has performed with numerous orchestras, wind ensembles, brass bands, brass quintets, and more throughout New England and Minnesota and enjoys the opportunity to perform for audiences in these varied settings. When not playing tuba, he is an active baker, biker, and swimmer.

Hideki Yamaya is a performer of lutes, early guitars, and early mandolins based in Connecticut, USA. Born in Tokyo, Japan, he spent most of his career in the West Coast before settling in New England, where he is a freelance performer and teacher. He has a B.A. in Music and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studied with Robert Strizich, and an M.F.A. in Guitar and Lute Performance from University of California, Irvine, where he studied with John Schneiderman. He also studied with James Tyler at University of Southern California and with Paul Beier at Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan, Italy.

In demand both as a soloist and as a continuo/chamber player, Hideki has performed with and for Portland Baroque Orchestra, Portland Opera, Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Opera, Oregon Bach Festival, Astoria Music Festival, Folger Consort, Connecticut Early Music Festival, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. He is one half of the Schneiderman-Yamaya Duo and is the artistic director of Musica Maestrale, an early music collective based in Portland, Oregon. He is also recognized as an effective communicator and teacher, and has given masterclasses and workshops at Yale University, Montana State University, Oregon State University, Aquilon Music Festival, and University of California, Santa Cruz. A prolific recording artist, Hideki’s playing can be heard on Profil, hänssler CLASSIC, and Mediolanum labels. His recordings have received glowing reviews from Early Music America, Classical Guitar Magazine, and the Guitar Foundation of America.

Ben Matus enjoys a varied musical career, bringing music to life regardless of whether it was written in the Middle Ages or yesterday.  Ben performs on various bassoons, dulcians, shawms, recorders, bagpipes, and whatever instruments he can get his hands on with early music groups along the East Coast, including Alkemie Medieval Music Ensemble, New York Baroque Incorporated, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, The Clarion Society, Opera Lafayette, The Washington Bach Consort, The Handel and Haydn Society, Mountainside Baroque, and more. Ben studied Bassoon Performance for his Bachelor’s at the Eastman School of Music and received his Master’s in Historical Performance from the Juilliard School.  In addition to his performances in concert halls, Ben plays and sings for the Chivalrous Crickets, a band focused on the folk traditions and early music roots of the British Isles, America, Canada. With Alkemie, Ben recently prepared and recorded the music for the video game Pentiment. In his spare time, Ben can be found attending his friends’ concerts (pandemic permitting), learning new instruments, developing new hobbies, or recording birds deep in the woods. 

Karen Burciaga is an early strings specialist who bridges the worlds of classical and folk music. She is a founding member of Boston’s folk/early music ensemble Seven Times Salt and the viol consort Long & Away. Karen has performed on violin and viola da gamba across New England and Texas with groups including The King’s Noyse, Arcadia Players, Zenith Ensemble, Austin Baroque Orchestra, La Follia, and others. A lifelong love of Celtic music led her into the world of fiddling and folk traditions. She enjoys playing (and dancing!) Scottish, Irish, English, and contra styles, with occasional forays into Cornish and Breton territory. She has fiddled for the Celtic band Ulster Landing, the southern Italian folk band Newpoli, and English Country Dance bands in Greater Boston. Each spring, she attends the New England Folk Festival, where she can be spotted attempting Balkan dance or trying out the nyckelharpa. Karen earned an MM in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music, where she studied early strings with Dana Maiben and Jane Hershey and Renaissance and Baroque dance with Ken Pierce. She has taught both privately and in workshops for Pinewoods Early Music Week, the Texas Toot, and the Viola da Gamba Society – New England. When not making music, Karen can be found reading, petting cats, climbing small mountains, or playing pickleball. After years of attending Revels performances, she is thrilled to join the Revels cast on stage this solstice.

Philip Swanson has had a wide-ranging career as a trombonist, pianist, composer, organist, and teacher. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts from New England Conservatory, a Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music, and did his undergraduate study at Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Miami.

As a trombonist he has performed with the Miami Philharmonic, where he served as principal for five years, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Opera Boston, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Ballet Orchestra, and numerous other orchestral and chamber ensembles. He has performed with many small group and big band jazz ensembles including Chamber Jazz, which he founded with guitarist Anthony Weller, and The Bob Nieske 10. He has also collaborated with the poet J.D. Scrimgeour, Director of Creative Writing at Salem State University, forming the group “Confluence” which combines Scrimgeour’s poetry with Swanson’s music. Swanson is a Professor of Music at Salem State University, where he teaches music theory, composition, trombone, and piano. Since 1991, he has been Music Director of the First Congregational Church of Rockport, where he serves as organist and choir director.

Swanson has written and published numerous works in both instrumental and vocal genres. He can be heard on a wide range of recordings including several jazz group recordings, two solo piano recordings, an album with J.D. Scrimgeour of poetry and music, two CDs with brass and organ, seven CDs with the Cambridge Revels, and performances with larger ensembles including the Boston Pops and John Williams. For more information on his compositions, recordings, and current performances, please visit www.swansonmusic.com.

Patrick “Paddy” Swanson (Revels Artistic Director) began his career in London as an actor at the Arts Theatre in the West End. In 1969, following a European tour with the La MaMa Plexus Troupe, he moved to New York and received his world theater education as a resident actor at La MaMa E.T.C. His numerous directing projects include opera, ensemble pieces, music-theater, and circus. He was a founding stage director of Circus Flora and the Artistic Director of Revels. Paddy taught acting and improvisation at the London Academy of Dramatic Art (L.A.M.D.A.), the London Drama Centre, and the Tisch School of the Arts at N.Y.U. He served as artistic director of the Castle Hill Festival in Ipswich, Massachusetts, directing and co-producing opera and theater works, including the premieres of Julie Taymor’s Liberty Taken and Peter Sellars’ production of Cosi fan tutte. He directed the Boston Camerata in Tristan and Iseult at the Spoleto USA festival and Shirley Valentine at the Alley Theatre, Houston and the Charles Playhouse, as well as numerous other productions in the U.K. and Europe. His Actor’s Shakespeare Project production of Shakespeare’s King Lear with Alvin Epstein was nominated for three 2006 Elliot Norton awards and subsequently transferred Off-Broadway. Paddy’s most recent acting role was as Father Jack in Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa at Gloucester Stage. He currently researches, writes, and directs all Cambridge Revels scripts and serves as consultant to the other eight Revels production companies performing throughout the United States. He is delighted to be co-directing this year’s Midwinter Revels with his brilliant colleague and conspirator, Debra Wise.

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 (Revels Music Director), a Boston-based conductor, arranger, choral educator, and performer, was named Revels’ Music Director in December of 2021. He graduated from Northeastern University in 2015 with bachelor’s degrees in Music History & Analysis and Mathematics. While at Northeastern, Elijah founded and directed the Northeastern Madrigal Singers, served as President and Assistant Conductor for the NU Choral Society, and sang with and arranged for the award-winning a cappella group Distilled Harmony.

Elijah’s work on Distilled Harmony’s quarterfinal-winning performance set won the distinction of Outstanding Arrangement from the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. 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.

In addition to his role with Revels, Elijah continues to direct the NU Madrigal Singers and was recently named the Interim Music Director of the Reading Community Singers for Spring 2023. He is also a frequent performer with a variety of professional ensembles in the Boston area, with recent and upcoming performances including appearances with Carduus and the Renaissonics at New England Conservatory’s First Mondays concert series, with the Nightingale Vocal Ensemble for their concert, Avian Menagerie, and with the NU Madrigal Singers for their Tenth-Year Anniversary Concert in April.

Susan Dibble is a choreographer, teacher, dancer, and painter. She is an Emeritus Professor of Theater Arts at Brandeis University, where she taught for 34 years, and has been teaching and choreographing productions at Shakespeare & Co. for 40 years.

Susan is the director of DibbleDance Theater and has shown her paintings in galleries in Massachusetts and Vermont. She has choreographed productions for the Actors Shakespeare Project, Boston Playwrights Theater, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Nora Theater, and The Underground Railway Theater. Before Brandeis, she taught at New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, University of Ohio, University of Utah, and Webster College. Susan also wrote the article Shakespeare Honors the Three Centers of the Body in Movement for Actors, published by Allworth Press. She received the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Festival of Creative Arts Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Arts at Brandeis University.

Jeff Adelberg celebrates his 13th year designing for Revels! A Boston-based designer, he is responsible for over 300 productions in New England and beyond. Recent work includes Million Dollar Quartet Christmas (Capital Repertory Theatre, Albany NY), El Matrimonio Secreto (Florida Grand Opera),  Topdog/Underdog and Describe the Night (The Gamm Theatre, RI), Heroes of the Fourth Turning and People Places and Things (Speakeasy Stage), and Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Central Square Theatre). Jeff has won four Eliott Norton Awards and four Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards for his designs. He attended the University of Connecticut and teaches at Harvard University and Boston College. A member of IATSE/USA-829, Jeff lives in Holliston, Massachusetts with wife Tess and daughter Jo. www.jeffadelberg.com Instagram: @jdadelberg

Bill Winn has toured all over the world working with many of music’s top acts such as Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, and Joni Mitchell. He has designed and implemented sound for the DC Jazz Festival, 2004–2014; Barbara Streisand Live at Shrine Auditorium; 2000 DNC; and the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition, 1987 to the present. His television-broadcast sound and mixing work has included the 2017 Emmy Award-nominated Front Row Boston (WGBH featuring Sean Lennon and Les Claypool), The United Nation’s International Jazz Day at the White House (ABC, 2016), and the White House Tribute to Thelonious Monk (2008). Bill has been working with Revels since 1995. He met Revels founder Jack Langstaff and former music director George Emlen while working on several Revels recordings with John Newton of Soundmirror. In 1999, Revels sound designer Berred Ouellette passed on the task of creating the Revels sound to Bill, who has been sitting at the board in orchestra row V every December since.

Heidi Hermiller has been designing Revels costumes for 30+ years and loves each exciting new challenge! Along with the Revels, Heidi has designed the Harvard Hasty Pudding (now with actual women in the cast!), but wherever she is in Cambridge, Heidi loves the craziness, research, and outright joy of designing costumes for director Paddy Swanson, including Sanders statues brought to life, pirates, dragons, trolls, killer fish, dancing crabs, tiny ballerinas, incredible singers, beautiful dancers… anything to make Midwinter Revels magic burst to life! She would especially like to thank her husband John for his love, patience, and understanding when asked to climb up the ladder and hand down the Jingly Jesters… no, not the sparkly jester or the French Jester… or the Velvet Jester…etc.

Jeremy Barnett is a Detroit-based scenic designer and professor of theatre at Oakland University in Southeast Michigan. Boston credits include work for Opera Boston, Boston Midsummer Opera, The Opera Institute at Boston University, Mssng Lnks Inc., Gloucester Stage Company, and Stoneham Theatre Company. Jeremy has assisted designers on productions at The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The New York Philharmonic, The Pasadena Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Huntington Theatre Company. He holds an MFA in Scenic Design from Boston University and a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, and has studied fine art in Ukraine, Italy, and Zimbabwe. Jeremy co-founded Amarant Design Collective, an installation art organization that produces site-specific work in repurposed spaces in and around Detroit.

Elizabeth Locke is celebrating her 28th straight year on the Revels production crew, either as props coordinator, assistant stage manager, or in some years, both! Other credits include props coordination for the first four years of Actors Shakespeare Project, props for Central Square Theater and Concord Academy, stage management at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and helping to found Cornerstone Village Cohousing in Cambridge.

Revels is a family affair: all three of Elizabeth’s children, two of her grandchildren, two ex-husbands, and her current partner have appeared on the Revels stage. The opportunity to work with a multi-generational backstage team has been the most satisfying part of her Revels experience. She is energized and inspired by the cooperation and collaboration (and just plain fun) that gets the team to opening night!