Christmas Madrigal Feaste 2011 Highlights
by Steve Lawton
The 11th annual Christmas Madrigal Feaste served it traditional English, home-cooked meal to 770 guests, while surrounding them with the sights, sounds and savory smells of a Renaissance banqueting hall. Decorators Bill Dilling and Dave McMillan (Memories by McMillan) spent days making the Great Hall brilliant. When you hear the phrase “everything from soup to nuts” it is describing the traditional English Christmas feaste—ours consists of seven courses, from the potato/leek soup to the final course of fruits, nuts and cheeses.
A real boar’s head and a 28-pound turkey made the trip to the head table where thespian, William Higgins presided over the meal. The Advent banner collection was featured prominently this year, the work of Tennessee fabric artist, Doreen Kellogg, who was in attendance at the Feaste. Also present was composer/performer Dan Forrest, whose compositions rounded out the selections of the Madrigal Singers. The musicians included a brass choir, the Kingdom Kids children’s choir, our Vox Angeli Singers, the Jasmin Recorder Consort, troubadours Stephen and Tamara Wood, the King’s Ringers handbell choir, the Madrigal Singers, and Aubrae Wagner, harpist.
For many the highlight of the evening comes at the end, when a gypsy beggar (played outrageously by Justin Wagner) at last finds a welcome to the feast…as he becomes an object lesson of the Incarnation for us all. “Have we learned nothing of Christmas? Were we not all once beggars at the banquet feast of heaven?” asks the Lord of the manor, as he moves his own son from the head table, inviting the beggar to sit as one of his own family, wearing his son’s spotless robe instead of his beggar’s rags.
Charitable proceeds from the event totaled $2800, our largest gift ever. It was donated to Meals-on-Wheels, an upstate organization serving hot food daily to homebound seniors. Since their inception, they have served 9.7 million meals—hand delivered, one at a time.
Pictured: Lord Plushbottom-Chief Musician
(aka Steve Lawton, Director of Music and Worship)
