SNYDER, Texas (AP) - What is a madrigal dinner?
“The idea is that we are all going to be transported into a Medieval banquet hall,” said Craig Robertson, describing his event. “The king and queen have thrown a celebration for us to get together and celebrate the yuletide spirit.”
The Abilene Reporter-News reports this is Robertson’s first year as the choir director at Snyder High School. He is also the theater director and head of the Fine Arts Department.
“So, I do a little of everything,” he said.
Robertson is also a 2008 Snyder High graduate and remembered the madrigal dinners from his days as a Tiger.
“We did it my sophomore and junior year. I loved singing the songs, the traditional hymns,” he said. It not being a traditional concert made the experience a memorable one for both students and the parents who came to see them.
But the tradition went on hiatus. Robertson wasn’t sure how long, but figured it was more than five years.
“We had lots of turnover in the choir department. I think it’s a great tradition and we thought we’d bring it back this year,” he said.
The show is pretty straightforward. It borrows a little from dinner theater, though the plot only exists to move the varsity choir from one traditional song to the next. In between, the experience was punctuated by a few jokes from court jesters and sword fight or two.
The show was recently held at London Bleu, an event center, with the 35 members of the choir serving the catered barbecue meal.
Senior Ethan Gowin, portraying the king, proclaimed, “Let the feasting begin, bring forth the salad!”
Now, there was some prior mention of a boar’s head. The Boar’s Head Carol is actually a song from the 15th century traditionally sung at the beginning of the Christmas feast. The head was brought out, which no one actually ate, and was presented to the hunter who brought the beast down.
Most of the songs were traditional ones you’d expect to hear at this time of the year.
“Even if you’re not super-up on your Christmas hymns, you would recognize probably 70 percent of them,” Robertson said. “There’s a few we added in that are not traditional hymns, we found some cool pieces about knights and their swords and stuff like that.”
The group sang 15 songs a capella. Robertson said one of his favorites was Brence Jasso’s monologue about a lone guard standing watch in the middle of the night.
“He talks about being outside, cold, afraid and almost forgotten in the dark. But then the stars come out and he remembers the story of Jesus coming and remembers why it’s important to make sacrifices for other people,” Robertson said.
Some theatricality that came into play as a brief love triangle drama played out. Robertson’s little sister, Brett, is a senior and played a unique role opposite Braison Kuhl.
In the scene, Brett’s character objects to her father’s decision for her to marry Kuhl’s character, stating she is in love with another. Later in the dinner, knight appears in armor to defend her honor and Kuhl engages the knight in swordplay. When Kuhl loses, the knight is revealed to Brett all along.
It was sort of reminiscent of a scene from “The Return of the King” where Eowyn takes her own helmet off to kill the ring wraith who is bragging that no man can kill him.
“Yes! I said that a lot, actually,” laughed Brett. “’I am no man!’”
But this is real life and Kuhl stands a full head over Brett. He’s also a middle linebacker on the Tigers football team.
“He’s terrifying, he’s so scary,” Brett said, laughing again. “Normally, he’s like this, right? Just happy and awkward and whatever. But then you put a sword in his hand and he comes flying at you? I mean, it’s terrifying.”
“In football, you learn to channel aggression, so this was a lot of fun,” Kuhl said. “I had actually never done any theater. But she has been preparing me for this for the past couple weeks and she’s done an amazing job just getting me ready for it all.”
Brett said she has had some stage combat training in theater and said Kuhl was a great partner in the scene. Still, they did have to adjust to each other’s strength.
“I pulled back a little bit,” he admitted. “But it was really easy going.”
“I could go full speed,” Brett replied. “But he works out, so.”
She trailed off, and they both laughed.
“But even with that,” Kuhl said. “I think we all did just amazing.”
Brett nodded.
“It’s less about swordplay and more about the choir,” she said.
Robertson echoed his sister’s thoughts and wants to see the madrigal dinner regain its traditional role in the city.
“My kids are fantastic, they are really hardworking. We’ve memorized 14 songs in two months,” he said. “We love reaching out to our community. I hope this continues.”
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Information from: Abilene Reporter-News, http://www.reporternews.com
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