November 28, 2001
WSH Madrigal Dinner feast for the senses
West Senior High performance full of food, song and costumes
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
It will be dinner theater with a twist.
Traverse City West Senior High School's upcoming Elizabethan Madrigal Feaste will use song and food, costumes and decoration to create a medieval fantasy.
With three evening performances held in the school's commons area, the normally utilitarian space will shimmer with banners and glow with torches and greenery as students pull out all the stops to create an enchanted evening.
Each evening will feature a different Lord and Lady, chosen from the community, to preside over the happenings.
A six-course dinner will have attendees feasting on gourmet hors d'oeuvres and Cornish game hen while members of West High School's choral groups provide rousing entertainment.
Choral director Russ Larimer said that a program of this complexity and musical depth is usually reserved for college level choral groups.
"Maybe five or six colleges in Michigan do this, but I don't know of many high schools that do this with such zest that we do," he said, adding that the script for the performance is completely new each year. "The performance is really quite astounding."
One of the choral program's main fund-raisers, the first Madrigal Feaste was held mere weeks after West High School opened five years ago. This year's program features a range of holiday music, from medieval to modern, performed by the Chorale, the Choral-Aires, the Westmen and Bella Voce.
Musicians from the local group Heartsease will play ancient instruments, including bagpipes, recorders and Renaissance guitars, to accompany the students. Members of the West High School band will perform in the program as Royale Herald Trumpeters.
Students have been rehearsing for weeks all aspects of the music and performance.
"The Madrigal Dinner is always a challenge musically," said Kristi Heck, a 12th grade student and veteran of one previous dinner. "The Chorale-Aires, the most advanced group, has one piece that is real long."
Heck is also a member of Bella Voce and plays a lady in waiting at the dinner. Donning the beautiful dresses and headpieces helps get the singers into the medieval spirit, she said.
"The costumes really put you in the mood," said Heck, noting that costumes were chosen on the basis of what fit best.
Larimer, too, sees how even during a dress rehearsal, putting on their costumes motivates his singers.
"I think they are really transformed by them," Larimer said.
And, what costumes they are. The shimmering long dresses in a rainbow of colors have gilded braid, flowing trains and swirling skirts Male singers and trumpeters are decked out in velvet vests, lace cuffs and tunics with tights.
From a polished knight and merry jester to a bevy of ladies in waiting and the Queen's court, the costumes are the loving product of many hours of design, sewing and trimming.
While some students each year have a family member make their costume, the lion's share of the costumes have been hand-crafted over the past five years by Joann Larimer, Russ Larimer's mother. Larimer volunteered to help because she knew so many parents were too busy to craft costumes themselves.
"I felt that if Russ could have the consistency of having just one person doing it year after year, it would help," she said.
Joann Larimer reluctantly acknowledges that a few costumes still come from outside sources, but fewer of them each year as she and some helpers slowly build up the school's inventory.
"We hope to get our stock high enough to the point where we don't have to use any outside ones," she said.
The Fifth Annual Elizabethan Madrigal Feaste will be held December 14, 15 and 16 at West High School's Commons banquet hall. Tickets are $20. For more information or reservations, call 933-7509.