Post by ruffles on Jan 11, 2016 11:16:59 GMT -5
We have just completed our Boar's Head Festival. It is 5 performances from Friday through Sunday. Over the course of the entire year, it is thee most incredible, spectacular event in our area. The whole church comes together to make it happen. I am part of the props committee. The cast involves about 200 people from children through adults who are dancers, singers, musicians, shepherds, orange girls, monks, gargoyles, woodsmen, 'royalty', snow sprites, a storyteller, magician and others. . New this year was the Flemish giant rabbit which weighed about 20 lbs., a soloist whose incredible singing doesn't leave a dry eye in the house. and the stars in our rafters! Ohhh the stars!!!! We have a gothic church with a whole long ceiling of lofted rafters. After the wise men have arrived, the choir sings about the star. The entire church is darkened. A person dressed in black (invisible) slowly carries a very tall pole which has a tight cluster of eight lit candles on top. This "star" is brought slowly from the rear to the front of the church and then back again during the singing. And this year, our whole, entire arched, raftered ceiling was lit up with a ton of green stars. It was completely inspirational.
During the pageant, we have sheep, goats, a donkey, geese, a duck, a pair of doves, a pair of roosters, the knight on his horse, and a couple of lamas and three camels plus the new rabbit. Some of these critters end up in the chapel which becomes a bit of a petting zoo for visitors after the pageant. I had Saturday night off to join my family where we sat together on inside aisle seats at the front of the church. When the camels were exiting, one of them lowered it's head and all but nuzzled Mallarie on her cheek! We thought she had gotten "kissed." By the time she realized what happened it was over. When you are sitting in a pew, a passing camel is HUGE! ......................... We have a props person who always brings apples for the horse. It is always the same horse each year and he looks forward to his apples. The donkey also is looking for her carrots. Then we had a duck this year that absolutely LOVES water. There's a kiddie pool in the pen for the 2 geese and duck. Both geese were in the pool when the duck got in. The duck immediately went into a penguin mode, completely submerged and swam rapid fire in a mad rush all about the pool. This annoyed the heck out of the geese. One of them fled out of the pool. When the duck was finally done with all of that, it rose up and shook enough water off of its wings to water an entire lawn.
One of my most favorite dances is the Holly & Ivy dance. The festival happens in 1425 in a small English town. For the dance, the Beefeaters, who are dressed in very fine, fire engine red, (or British red?) costumes come in with 4 girls in red & green dresses. The pair of Beefeaters one of whom has the tall pole, stand in the center of the church. The girls dance up and down the aisle to gather the red and green ribbons one at a time. The ribbons are about 5 inches wide and are rolled on huge spools. Each ribbon has a ring on it's end. They bring the ribbons to the Beefeater with the pole where the ring for each ribbon is placed on the spike at the top of the pole. There are 10 ribbons. When the Beefeater lifts up the pole the ribbons are up over everyone's' heads and coming from all sides and corners of the sanctuary. When the music suddenly stops, the Beefeater jerks down the pole which releases all of the ribbons in mid air over the congregation. It's stunning. (As a props person, I spent a lot of time rerolling and resetting the ribbons this weekend.)
I returned home exhausted at night. By Sunday night I was extremely tired. My plan was to watch Downton when it reran at 12:30AM but I fell asleep in the chair anyway.
My heart is filled with memories this morning.
Until next year .............. !
During the pageant, we have sheep, goats, a donkey, geese, a duck, a pair of doves, a pair of roosters, the knight on his horse, and a couple of lamas and three camels plus the new rabbit. Some of these critters end up in the chapel which becomes a bit of a petting zoo for visitors after the pageant. I had Saturday night off to join my family where we sat together on inside aisle seats at the front of the church. When the camels were exiting, one of them lowered it's head and all but nuzzled Mallarie on her cheek! We thought she had gotten "kissed." By the time she realized what happened it was over. When you are sitting in a pew, a passing camel is HUGE! ......................... We have a props person who always brings apples for the horse. It is always the same horse each year and he looks forward to his apples. The donkey also is looking for her carrots. Then we had a duck this year that absolutely LOVES water. There's a kiddie pool in the pen for the 2 geese and duck. Both geese were in the pool when the duck got in. The duck immediately went into a penguin mode, completely submerged and swam rapid fire in a mad rush all about the pool. This annoyed the heck out of the geese. One of them fled out of the pool. When the duck was finally done with all of that, it rose up and shook enough water off of its wings to water an entire lawn.
One of my most favorite dances is the Holly & Ivy dance. The festival happens in 1425 in a small English town. For the dance, the Beefeaters, who are dressed in very fine, fire engine red, (or British red?) costumes come in with 4 girls in red & green dresses. The pair of Beefeaters one of whom has the tall pole, stand in the center of the church. The girls dance up and down the aisle to gather the red and green ribbons one at a time. The ribbons are about 5 inches wide and are rolled on huge spools. Each ribbon has a ring on it's end. They bring the ribbons to the Beefeater with the pole where the ring for each ribbon is placed on the spike at the top of the pole. There are 10 ribbons. When the Beefeater lifts up the pole the ribbons are up over everyone's' heads and coming from all sides and corners of the sanctuary. When the music suddenly stops, the Beefeater jerks down the pole which releases all of the ribbons in mid air over the congregation. It's stunning. (As a props person, I spent a lot of time rerolling and resetting the ribbons this weekend.)
I returned home exhausted at night. By Sunday night I was extremely tired. My plan was to watch Downton when it reran at 12:30AM but I fell asleep in the chair anyway.
My heart is filled with memories this morning.
Until next year .............. !