Music, candles, delicious food and drink: all normal parts of a delightful and atmospheric holiday gathering. For the Greenleaf Singers and the Not-Ready-For-Reformation Players the gathering also includes “comely wenches and sturdy lads” as well as Renaissance-era songs of the season.
Next week, the two groups will perform in the 40th annual Renaissance Theatre and Christmas Rout at Eliot Chapel in Kirkwood. The performance includes appetizers, libations, and dessert for the crowd as well as period garb for the performers and volunteers who serve the food.
The Not-Ready-For-Reformation Players will put on a play with various hijinks and silliness featuring Queen Elizabeth and entitled “A Prescription for Christmas.”
“We have no serious bones in our body,” said Jim Gottschalk, a co-writer for the group. “The show is typically very silly.”
The Greenleaf Singers, a local madrigal group, will perform music from their repertoire, which features mostly a capella selections, and mixes the reverent with lighter musical fare.
“It’s all part of that ambience,” said Ted Jander, the artistic director of Greenleaf Singers. “You have this reverence that’s a good counterbalance with the silliness and even some of the other stuff we do.”
Listen in to “Cityscape” to learn more about the two groups with a bit of madrigal magic thrown in.
Bonus: A special director's cut from The Greenleaf Singers of Jander's original song "Lule My Liking." Shout out to St. Louis Public Radio’s data visual specialist Brent Jones, who is a performer in the group!
Related Event
What: 40th Annual Renaissance Madrigal Theatre and Christmas Rout: "A Prescription for Christmas"
When: December 3-5, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Eliot Unitarian Chapel, 100 South Taylor at Argonne, Kirkwood, MO 63122
More information.
“Cityscape” is produced by Mary Edwards, Alex Heuer, and Kelly Moffitt. The show is sponsored in part by the Missouri Arts Council, the Regional Arts Commission, and the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis.