WHO'S WHO in Washington Revels' 2010 "Christmas Revels"
For Washington Revels' 28th annual Christmas Revels in Washington, DC, come travel to novelist Thomas Hardy’s beloved “Wessex” to the little town of Mellstock in the countryside of nineteenth-century England. Celebrate an English Country Christmas with traditional carols, anthems, rounds, country dancing, and a hilarious mummer’s play. Characters and story-line are based on Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree.
It takes a A LOT of people to put on a Christmas Revels production, both on and off stage! Here are just a few of the key personnel working on Washington Revels' 2010 Christmas Revels:
Specialty Performers
The Mellstock Band, from Oxford, England, present the genuine sound of English traditional folk music - merry and majestic tunes, songs of love and laughter, carols and original harmonies.
Why “Mellstock”? Mellstock was the fictional name the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy gave to his native village of Higher Bockhampton in Dorset. His family were leading local musicians, who led the church band and played for dances. Hardy’s vivid descriptions, the players’ own manuscript books, and music from local tradition were the initial inspiration for the formation of The Mellstock Band in 1986.
* Dave Townsend (Concertina, Violin, Voice) is the founder and director of The Mellstock Band. He is an acknowledged master of the concertina, composer, researcher and collector of musical traditions, who has provided music for film, television and radio, published books, produced albums, and taught and lectured on many aspects of traditional music.
* Tim Hill (Clarinets, Voice) is an amazing wind player with roots in jazz and contemporary music. He runs the band Tongues of Fire, and performance groups Rag and Bone and Leviathan Whispers, creating myriad haunting musical and multimedia experiences.
* Phil Humphries (Serpent, Voice) studied at Trinity College of Music (London) and later became trombonist with the Andy Ross Band, which played for BBC TV’s Come Dancing. His interest in early music led him to the serpent. He is currently playing in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas around the world, with the New London Consort directed by Philip Pickett.
* Pete Cooper (fiddle) plays, teaches, composes, records and writes about fiddle music. After years of performing, travelling and playing in too many late-night sessions, he brings a relaxed, good-humoured approach to his workshops and concerts alike. He also sings, backing himself on fiddle, and plays the mandolin.
Rachel Carlson (Fancy Day) enjoys a versatile career as a soprano soloist, chamber ensemble singer, conductor, and voice teacher based in the Washington, DC area. Ms. Carlson has appeared as a soloist with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Tucson Chamber Artists, Festival Chorus of Madison, Potomac River Chorale, and Washington Revels.
Accomplished as a choral musician as well as a soloist, Ms. Carlson is a member of some of the finest ensembles in the United States, including Conspirare (Austin, TX), the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Tucson Chamber Artists, Washington Bach Consort, Potomac River Chorale, Woodley Ensemble, and the professional octet at St. Paul’s Rock Creek Parish. She performs extensively at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra and has sung under Helmuth Rilling, Simon Carrington, Emil de Cou, Iván Fischer, and Paul Goodwin. Ms. Carlson performs widely at ACDA and NCCO regional and national conventions around the United States and in 2007 made her first international choral tour. In Wales, she competed as an alumna with the University of Maryland Chamber Singers at the prestigious International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen and the ensemble was awarded Second Prize in the Mixed Choirs division.
As a teacher and choral conductor, Ms. Carlson maintains a private voice studio and directs the “Six Degree Singers,” a community chorus in Silver Spring, Maryland. She acts as assistant music director for the Washington Revels and is in demand as a vocal coach and adjudicator in the Washington, DC area. Ms. Carlson holds Bachelor’s degrees in both vocal performance and music education from the University of Maryland, as well as a Master’s degree in choral conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Danny Pushkin (Parson Maybold), tenor, returns to Washington Revels, this time as a performer, after serving as Assistant Director for the 2009 Christmas Revels. Mr. Pushkin is a Resident Artist at Adventure Theatre. His credits include Toothfairy (Goodnight, Moon); Albert (The Red Balloon), Magician (Spot's Birthday Party), Caldwell B. Cladwell (Urinetown), Red Dog (Go Dog Go), Barnaby (Babes in Toyland), Stinky Cheese Man (The Stinky Cheese Man...), Frank Butler (Annie Get Your Gun), Njegus (The Merry Widow), and Tony (West Side Story). Mr. Pushkin has a degree in Theatre Performance from Montgomery College.
Josh Sticklin (Dick Dewey), tenor, recently appeared in The Red Balloon (Pasquale) at Adventure Theatre, and in How I Became a Pirate (Jeremy) at Imagination State. Other credits include: Red Noses (Scarron) at Washington Shakespeare Company; Kit Marlow (Young Actor) and Myth-Appropriation: Creation Stories (Actor) at Rorschach Theatre; They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Robert Syverton) at the Volkov International Theatre Festival in Yaroslavl, Russia; and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (William Cartwright), Into the Woods (The Baker), Godspell (John the Baptist/Judas), The Country Wife (Master Horner), and Our Country's Good (Lieutenant Ralph Clark) at American University. Mr. Sticklin is a graduate of American University's Political Science and Musical Theatre programs.
The Quire (the West Gallery church musicians who are being displaced by Fancy Day and her harmonium): Bill Hoffman, Jim Lazar, Alden Michaels, Alan Peel, Jamie Sandel, and Will Wurzel.
Washington Revels Production Staff
Roberta Gasbarre (Stage Director) serves as Artistic Director of Washington Revels as well as Stage Director for the Christmas Revels. Roberta is also the Director of the Smithsonian Institute's Discovery Theater. Roberta’s professional theatre career includes work at most Washington, DC-area theaters. She worked with the groundbreaking Living Stage Company, Arena Stage’s outreach company; served as choreographer or movement stylist for six seasons with Michael Kahn at The Shakespeare Theater; and styled dances and movement for such theaters as Roundhouse Theater, Woolly Mammoth, Studio Theatre, and Washington Jewish Theatre.
With more than 35 years in the field of educational theatre, Roberta Gasbarre is recognized as a Washington leader in all aspects of arts-based learning. A Fulbright Scholar (touring Central and South America and doing her residency in Poland) whose primary interest is in heritage and traditional arts, she has created a museum theatre form that weaves the factual and the imaginative into exciting, interactive experiences for audiences of all ages. Fluent in sign language, she served on the faculty at Gallaudet University, and has also taught at George Washington University, American University, Montgomery College (Rockville, MD), and in Poland at the University of Poznan. Her dedication to educational theatre is evident in her extensive experience with the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts field trip program and Kaiser Permanente’s AIDS and health education initiative, among other programs.
Roberta received her BA from the Catholic University of America and an MFA from Towson University, specializing in interdisciplinary world experimental theatre and art. She is an active member of the International Museum Theater Alliance, the Association of American Museums, and ASSITEJ-USA (The United States Center for the International Association of Theater for Children and Young People). Roberta has served on grants panels in educational theatre for many years, including the NEA, DC Commission on the Arts, and Prince George’s County Arts Council. Roberta is married to Oran Sandel, local actor and master drama teacher, and has two sons. They live in Silver Spring, MD.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Miller (Music Director) has performed with Washington Revels since 1993 and served as its Music Director since 2004. In addition to providing music direction for the annual Christmas Revels, she also directs or oversees the direction of all other Revels productions, including outreach performances, and personally directs the Washington Revels Singers, a small ensemble that has performed at numerous venues. Betsy is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (BM '80 and MM '82), where she performed roles in many operas, oratorios and chamber works. She was awarded three separate fellowships to attend the Aspen Music Festival and School in the areas of choral music, vocal chamber music and opera theater. An active professional singer in the D.C. area, Betsy performs as soloist in local concerts and events, sings as a professional chorister with the National Master Chorale, and serves as section leader and cantor at Augustana Lutheran Church in Washington, DC. She has also sung with many local groups, including the Wolftap Chamber Singers, Washington Bach Consort, Master Chorale of Washington, Washington National Opera Chorus, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington.
By day, a librarian and Webmaster at the Library of Congress, Betsy also designs and maintains many Web sites for local artists and musicians, including the Washington Revels (www.revelsdc.org). She and her husband Bruce, an active Revels volunteer who often portrays "the Green Man" in Spring Revels events, live in Alexandria, Virginia with their son, Austin.
Colin K. Bills (Set & Lighting Design) is a Helen Hayes Award winning lighting designer based in the Washington, DC area. His designs have been seen at The Berkshire Theater Festival, CENTERSTAGE, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Didactic Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Forum Theatre, Imagination Stage, Intiman Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Maryland Stage, Metro Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Round House Theatre, The Smithsonian Institution, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, Synetic Theatre, Theatre for the First Amendment, Theater J, Tsunami Theatre, Vermont's Northern Stage, the Washington Revels, and The Williamstown Theatre Festival. He is an Associate Artist with the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Mr. Bills has won two Helen Hayes Awards, for his designs of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Dead Man's Cell Phone. He is a 2009 recipient of a Princess Grace Fellowship in Theater and was a TCG/NEA Career Development Grant Finalist. Mr. Bills has taught design at American University and as a visiting designer has worked with students at Dartmouth College, George Washington University, and Loyola College of Baltimore. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
Matthew M Nielson (Sound Design) is a Helen Hayes Award winning sound designer and composer based in the Washington, DC area. Mr. Nielson has been involved with Washington Revels for many years as both a sound designer and performer. His designs have garnered two Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Sound Design, Resident Production (one for A Prayer For Owen Meany with Round House Theatre and another for 1984 with Catalyst). Area credits include: Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Olney Theatre Center, Franklin Park Arts Center, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, The Kennedy Center, Rorschach Theatre, the Washington Revels, Imagination Stage, Discovery Theatre, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington Shakespeare Company, Barrington Theatre Company, Very Special Arts, Studio Theatre, TFA, ArtStream, Philadelphia Theatre Company. Off-Broadway sound design credits include the Joseph Papp Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival. He is the owner of Some Random Sound, providing sound design and composition. Mr. Nielson is a graduate of Montgomery College.
Rosemary Pardee (Costume Designer) is a Helen Hayes Award winning costume designer. Her career has spanned thirty-three years, almost five hundred productions, dozens of theatre and film companies and little sleep. Her work has been seen at The Kennedy Center, the National Theatre, Arena Stage, the Folger Theatre, Washington Revels, and the Smithsonian Institute. She holds resident design positions at the Round House Theatre, InterACT Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, and Gallaudet University's Department of Theatre. Rosemary also adjudicates the Maryland State Theatre Scholarship Program. She has designed costumes for national tours of The Importance of Being Earnest, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, Frankenstein, and A Few Good Men. Ms. Pardee is a recipient (and eight-time nominee) of the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Costume Design. She has designed a number of shows for the Kennedy Center's Youth and Family Programs.
SHOW DETAILS
Washington Revels will offer eight performances of The Christmas Revels over two weekends, December 4-5 and 10-12, 2010 at GW’s Lisner Auditorium, 21st & H Streets, NW, Washington, DC.
Tickets $12 - $45. Discounts for youth under 18 and groups of 10 or more.
* Family Friday 12/10: all youth tickets 25% off! *
www.revelsdc.org or 1-800-595-4849
Group Sales 301-587-3835
Bel Cantanti Opera
DOUG BOWLES & ALEX HASSAN
CAPITAL CITY SYMPHONY 
