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!

Debra Wise (Revels 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.

Patrick “Paddy” Swanson (Revels Senior Artistic Consultant) 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.

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.