Revels with a Cause

Photograph by Roger Ide

This month, while much of America is shopping on line for holiday gifts and hanging Christmas-tree ornaments, one group of New Englanders will be celebrating the season Italian Renaissance-style.

They are performers in a group called the Revels (above), located in the Boston area, which every year brings to the stage a holiday show from a different time and place. Last year, the show celebrated Victorian England; the year before, the Romany Gypsies — nomads who traveled from Northern India to Eastern Europe and on to Spain.

This year’s show, with a cast of 80 performers, will feature traditional 16th-century Italian music and dance, a clown, a comedian, folk tales, drama, poetry, elaborate costumes, and lots of audience participation.

The Revels got its start in 1971. Since then, the group has expanded from just a Christmas show to three shows a year and spread to 10 other cities, each of which has its own performers and its own non-profit status.

But of all the Revels performances across the country, the most popular remains the Boston Christmas Revels, which annually plays to sell-out crowds in 16 performances. Last year’s show netted $263,000. Ticket sales, along with workshops and sales of CD’s and other products, account for 85 per cent of the group’s $1.2-million budget. Private donations make up most of the rest.

The show is so popular that this year’s performances are already sold out, says Marisa Timmins, development director. “We’re thinking of adding shows next year, but we hate to do it,” she says. “It’s hard because the performers are mostly volunteers. It’s such a huge commitment.”