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.”

Great Meadows Morris and Sword is a group of high school-age students from the Greater Boston area who perform traditional English morris and rapper sword dances. Since 1999, Great Meadows Morris and Sword has danced at festivals and special events throughout Massachusetts and New England, including NEFFA and the annualLilac Sunday event in Boston’s Arnold Arboretum. Great Meadows also has performed on the international stage, including the Dance England Rapper Tournament and the 2004 World Sword Spectacular in Whitby, England.

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.

Jackie O’Riley is a longtime member of the Irish dance community in Boston who now teaches and performs across the US, Canada, and Ireland. She directs O’Riley Irish Dance, a unique, non-competitive dance program in Cambridge/Watertown, now in its 15th year, and received an MCC Choreography Fellowship in 2022. In 2019, she co-released the groundbreaking “visual album”, From the Floor, and in 2023 she was the first dancer—and American—to contribute to ITMA’s “Saothar” (composer) series.

Hannah DeRusha is a lifelong Irish dancer. She grew up competing with the Griffith Academy and performed for several years with the Griffith Celtic Dance Company. Since moving to Boston, Hannah has studied old-style step and sean-nós dancing with Kieran Jordan and others. She has also performed with Kieran Jordan Dance, the MIT Dance Troupe, and most recently with Rising Step. Her choreography has been showcased at many regional venues and festivals, including the Boston Celtic Music Festival. Hannah holds a degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from BU. She has been teaching Irish Dance to children and adults for over fifteen years! She also has a background in improv comedy, which she has been integrating with dance for teaching and performing purposes. She has produced a week-long Irish dance theater camp where students were in charge of all aspects of production, from choreography to sets to costumes. Her mission is to give children the tools to practice agency and express their thoughts and emotions through movement, to connect joyfully and thoughtfully with audiences, and to foster a greater appreciation of the natural world around (and inside) us.

Tom Kruskal, from Sudbury, Massachusetts, fell in love with the Anglo concertina at the age of 13 while attending the Berea Christmas Dance School in 1962. Tom plays Anglo concertina and banjo for Orion Longsword and the Pinewoods Morris Men and is leader and founder of youth teams Velocirapper, Candyrapper, Beside the Point, Great Meadows Morris, and Sword and Hop Brook Morris. A frequent musician at Pinewoods since 1966, Tom’s playing for display dance is strong, driving, rhythmic and attentive to the needs of the dancers and the dance.