PUGET SOUND REVELS

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Thank You To Tacoma Creates


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Puget Sound Revels 


Building community through the arts using traditional music, dance, and drama drawn from many cultures. Revels offers theater productions, seasonal celebrations,​ and educational opportunities for all ages. 

Connect with Revels

Many of our activities and events are only publicized through our email list. Sign up and always know what's happening with Puget Sound Revels.
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Connect with Revels

Many of our activities and events are only publicized through our email list.
​Sign up and always know what's happening with Puget Sound Revels.
Sign-up

Summer Solstice 2020

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  • 2019
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​2019 Christmas Revels, Balkan


Show Program
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Photo Gallery

​2018 Christmas Revels, mid-17th c. English 


Show Program
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Photo Gallery

The Christmas Revels 

2019 Christmas Revels, Balkan
2018 Christmas Revels, mid-17th c. English 
2017 Christmas Revels, Galician - The Camino
2016 Christmas Revels, Welsh
2015 Christmas Revels, Nordic Celebration
2013 Christmas Revels, 1930s Appalachia 
2012 Christmas Revels, England - Ghosts of Haddon Hall
2011 Christmas Revels, Old Bavaria
2010 Christmas Revels, Victorian England
2009 Christmas Revels, Celestial Fools
2008 Christmas Revels, 18th c. Scotland
2007 Christmas Revels, Eastern Europe
2006 Christmas Revels, French Canadian
​2005 Christmas Revels, Elizabethan
2004 Christmas Revels, English Medieval
2003 Christmas Revels, Breton
2002 Christmas Revels, Irish
2001 Christmas Revels, Italian Renaissance
2000 Christmas Revels, Celestial Fools
1999 Christmas Revels, English Victorian - 1899
1998 Christmas Revels, English Medieval
1997 Christmas Revels, Nordic
1996 Christmas Revels, Early American
1995 Christmas Revels, Celtic
1994 Christmas Revels, English Medieval
1994 Spring Revels, Sea Revels
1993 Spring Revels, English Traditional

Programs & Events 

Arts Month Events
Bridge Sing (Fall equinox)
Bromliad (Labor Day)
​Celebrations
Children's Workshops​
​Community Events
Concerts
Dances
​Dance Workshops
House Concerts
Maritime Events
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May Day
Pub Sings
Salons
​Spring Sings
​
Summer Solstice

Connect with Revels


Many of our activities and events are only publicized through our email list. Sign up and always know what's happening with Puget Sound Revels.
Sign-up

About Revels
Building Community Through Traditions of Song, Dance, and Story

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Throughout the year we offer pub sings, house concerts, salons, outdoor celebrations, workshops and more.  In December at Tacoma's Rialto Theater,
we present The Christmas Revels, a fully-staged theatrical production for all ages that intentionally blends professionals and amateurs, children and adults, audience and players, high art and folk idiom. It is full of singing, dancing, and storytelling - beauty, mystery, and hilarity. The production draws large audiences from all over the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

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Christmas Revels audiences expect a similar experience from year to year. Our challenge is to create that experience while each year setting the production in a different time and place (e.g. Welsh, Italian Renaissance, Galician, Nordic, Celtic, American, Victorian, Mediaeval, etc).

Although the time, place, and story arc change annually, the theme is always the winter solstice theme of light and dark. For millennia, communities have tracked the sun to know when to plant and harvest and to know when to expect the dwindling of life and light. The need to track this cycle bound communities together and produced countless cultural traditions, many of which reassure that the solstice marks the turning point toward renewal and regeneration...
the "promise that lies in the sleeping land."

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Some elements in the productions remain constant from year to year, whatever the setting, becoming the Revels rituals: the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance; the Shortest Day poem by Susan Cooper; the Lord of the Dance to end the first act; a hilarious mummers play (or other folk play depending on the culture and time, perhaps commedia or an English panto - always funny, often dragons are involved); and the Sussex Mummers Carol with brass and timpani and glorious descant to end the performance.
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St George and the Dragon Mummers Play
Puget Sound Revels (incorporated in 1992) produced its first show in May 1993, a Spring Revels at the Scottish Rite Temple in Seattle, followed by a Sea Revels at the same location in May 1994. In December of 1994, we presented our first Christmas Revels at the Rialto Theater in Tacoma and have presented The Christmas Revels every year since.
Join our email list here.

Revels’ success is that, while it refers to ancient tradition, it has become a living tradition for our community as evidenced by the quotes below.

"Revels has become a much cherished part of our winter holiday traditions.”

"Once again I have come away from your offering feeling filled with
joy, peace and a sense of fulfillment.”


“Thank you for sharing this delightful event!  As the light turns I join you in saying
Welcome Yule!”


“Many thanks for all the pleasure your productions give to so many.”

Revels Across the Continent   
We license the Revels name and logo from Revels, Inc. in Watertown, MA (founded in 1971).
Including Puget Sound Revels, there are nine active Revels companies throughout the country. Each Revels group has its own non-profit status, and is contractually and artistically affiliated with Revels, Inc. Since the  first production of The Christmas Revels, nearly two million people have enjoyed a live Revels performance.

Map of Revels Across the Country
 
Revels, Inc. was founded in 1971 by John Langstaff, concert-trained baritone and music educator, to promote public understanding and appreciation of traditional dance, music, drama and poetry through the medium of participatory theater and communal celebration.

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Financial Gift -Underwrite JOY!  A $75 gift or greater ($40 for seniors) gives you early ticket purchase privileges for The Christmas Revels; a $300 or greater gift gives you access to Patron Seating for The Christmas Revels. Gifts are tax deductible.
Here are ways to give:
  • Send a check to Puget Sound Revels, 621 Tacoma Ave S, Suite 402, Tacoma, WA 98402
  • Make a donation online using our secure online form
  • If you want to spread your gift out through the year, we can divide your gift into monthly or quarterly payments. Call us at 253-756-1804 to set this up.
  • Host a table at our lovely brunch May 16, 2020. For information, please email Mary.
  • We encourage you to consider multi-year pledges. These express your on-going commitment to the flourishing of Revels AND they make for easier annual planning and budgeting . Call 253-756-1804 for more information or to arrange a pledge. You can make your first payment at that time or you can asked to be billed at another time.

2020 Events

May 1st, 2020 

May Day Celebration

We are turning our May Day Celebration into a digital event. So sorry not to gather in the park as we have done for years, but we're all adjusting to "Events in the time of Coronavirus"! We'll post info as we have it.
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Singing, dancing and flower-crown-making to welcome lovely May.
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MAY 16:  Brunch in the ballroom at Courthouse Square - Turning into a digital event.
We'll still celebrate Puget Sound Revels and our mission to spread communal celebration through song, dance, and story.
We're planning a happy event. Call us at 253-756-1804 or email psrevels@pugetsoundrevels.org for an invitation. Join us!


JUNE 21 – Summer Solstice Party –  All ages. FREE. Not this year.
Bring a Picnic. We’ll have a fire so you can cook a hot dog or a brat on a stick or something in foil. Be creative. We’ll provide s’mores ingredients. We’ll also have some beverages available.
The celebration will include a few presented songs and poems, as well as singing and dancing.
June 28 - Ocean (an end of the month reminder of Ocean Fest, which is now coming in September - more information soon)
July 25 - A Family Reveling Day (more information soon)

SEPTEMBER 7:  Abbots Bromliad (People’s Park, Tacoma – 1:30 to 2:45pm)  Dancing with antlers—FREE! All ages! People who come to The Christmas Revels are fascinated (or mystified!) by the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance.  So we have a Bromliad – just for fun. Come learn the dance and participate in it. Bring your own antlers (branches can make pretty good antlers – or hands). Or just bring a picnic and watch. We’ll also play some fun games and sing a few rounds.

SEPTEMBER 24:  Tacoma Sings Chihuly Bridge of Glass
6:30 – 7:45pm

Singing on the Chihuly Bridge of Glass to sing-out summer and sing-in autumn. Music to listen to as you arrive (on the Glass Museum side), then we’ll distribute song sheets and encourage everyone to join in. We’ll sing fun songs various places on the bridge and wrap up with a few lovely rounds in the amphitheater beside the History Museum. Bring a lantern if you want. We’ll light them as the sun sets. Beautiful.   
October is Tacoma Arts Month
- Join us in October for a Celebration of Trees

Date, time, location and a description of the celebration is coming....

The Christmas Revels – December 19 - 23, 2020   Rialto Theater, Tacoma 
A mid-winter Celebration of the Winter Solstice.

Because it was such fun in 2006, in 2020 we'll head back to the time of les voyageurs - 18th century Québec - to the village of Trois-Rivières and the wilderness around it. It’s a delightful adventure  filled with infectious music, dance, a flying canoe, and a dangerous bargain made with Old Beelzebub himself.
As always, a great celebration for all ages.
Saturday, December 19 @ 2pm & 7:30pm
Sunday, December 20 @ 1pm & 5:30pm (the 5:30 performance is ASL interpreted)
Tuesday, December 22  @ 7:30pm; Wednesday, December 23 @ 2pm

Tickets on sale to Revels Supporters ($75 +/ $45 seniors) on September 21. To everyone on October 5

Hear about our activities. Join our email list here.

ACTIVITIES

THE CHRISTMAS REVELS

SUPPORT US

TRADEMARK INFO

CONTACT

Puget Sound Revels
621 Tacoma Ave S, Ste 402
Tacoma, WA 98402
253-756-1804
psrevels@pugetsoundrevels.org

SOCIAL

  • Home
  • Activities
    • Calendar
    • The Christmas Revels 2020
    • Christmas Revels Movie Tickets
  • Get Involved
  • Support Us
  • About Revels
    • Our Story
    • Contact Us
  • Archives
    • The Christmas Revels
    • Events & Celebrations