“Participants traveled back in time to year 1576, where the Apollo Room was transformed into a great hall,” explained Eric Corbitt, executive producer of the event and director of the Student Union. “The Baron of Wright Manor welcomed guests for a medieval holiday filled with food, laughter and song. The townsfolk relaxed amidst the flurry of his majesty’s performers — musicians, singers, dancers, the puppet master and the jester.”
The only break in the entertainment occurred, Corbitt said, when it was time to feast on beef and leek pie, turkey and dressing, plum pudding and more.
The cast of 40 includes students, members of the faculty and community performers. It features holiday songs by the Wright State University Chamber Singers and always includes traditional madrigal choral music. The show also featured the Tudor Rose Performing Troupe and the Wind in the Woods Early Music Ensemble, which was honored this year because of commitment to the project since 1997. Hank Dahlman, who directs the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus, is the Madrigal artistic director and Drew Collins is music director and conductor of the Chamber Singers. He also created new musical arrangements for this year’s show.
Well-known puppeteer Jim Rose and popular guitarist Jim McCutcheon have been involved for years. So has Tom Tumbusch of Cincinnati, who began as as a dancer 23 years ago.
“When I started, the dancers were drawn from a medieval and renaissance living history group, and I was in that group,” Tumbusch said. “My role now is the Master of Revel, essentially the master of ceremonies. My character’s job is to make sure everyone has a good time.”
Wearing the garb of an Elizabethan nobleman, Tumbusch also is the Lord of Misrule.
“That means I get to break a lot of the rules, and it’s great fun,” he says. “Although much of the show is scripted, there is also room for improvisation.”
The evening typically begins with a wassail and egg nog reception, after which guests are ushered into the Great Hall by trumpeters. After the “procession of the lords and ladies in the company of the singers” and the “procession of the Boar’s Head,” dinner is served and is accompanied by small roving acts — a juggler, a jester and carolers. After dinner, the concert features dances and “music of the season.”
According to the official program, the madrigal is an Italian musical form of the 16th century for a small group of unaccompanied voices that came to England in 1588. The form flourished for 40 years, and madrigal singing became a type of private entertainment at the great houses of the landed gentry.
Locally, the memorable event got its start in 1983 when Lorna Dawes — director of the Wright State University Center at the time — heard about Madrigal Dinners at other schools and was determined to introduce them at Wright State. Though smaller versions had been held in the past, Dawes and co-founder Kathy Morris — now the associate vice president for student affairs at Wright State — had a larger community event in mind in which the school’s dining services and music departments would become intimately involved as well.
“We’ve had a wonderful succession of student union directors, and the event has continued to grow and develop over the years,” said Dawes, who still returns every year for the special dinner. “It’s always wonderful to hear and see the students; they perform with humor and fine vocal skills.”
One of those talented students is Ashley Leasure, a Wright State vocal performance graduate student who is a member of the chamber singers and has been a part of the Madrigal Dinners for the past three years.
Leasure said she loves the special evenings because they are “so different.”
“Usually when you go to a show, it’s a ballet or Broadway musical, and very rarely do you get to see a Renaissance theater piece,” said Leasure, who is from New Carlisle. “I love the music and the costumes and the Old English banter. The Madrigal Dinner is my favorite thing in the Christmas season; it really kicks off Christmas for me.”
Mark your calendars: The 31st annual Madrigal Dinner is scheduled for Dec. 12-15, 2013. Tickets — ranging from $35-$50 depending upon seat location — will go on sale at the Student Union box office (937)-775-5544) in August.
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