The Christmas Revels: A Scottish Highlands Celebration of the Winter Solstice When: Thursday, Dec.17, 6 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 18, 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 19- 20, 1 and 5 p.m. Where: Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center, Hanover, N.H. More information, go to hop.dartmouth.edu.
(Read more about Jeremiah McLane, another local Reveler – click here)
Darby Heibert
Since her family moved from New Jersey to North Pomfret in 1984, Darby Hiebert has rarely missed a Christmas Revels production.
Hiebert was about 16 years old the first time she saw Christmas Revels. She sat in the audience and watched her father sing Italian songs on stage. He was in the chorus of the Christmas production that told the story about a famous juggler who traveled Italy until he got older and lost his way.
She was awestruck.
“Seeing that made me say ‘I want to do that,’” Hiebert said.
Eventually Hiebert’s entire family got involved in Christmas Revels. Hiebert sang in the chorus with her father and brother while her mother, who isn’t a singer, worked on costumes.
It was part of their holiday tradition.
“It’s like a ritual,” Hiebert’s mother Joyce said. “You become attached to it and emotional.”
This year will be Hiebert’s first time making an appearance in the Christmas Revels since her son was a baby 12 years ago.
Hiebert is the narrator in this year’s production, Dec. 17-20 at Dartmouth College’s Hopkins Center in Hanover, New Hampshire. This will be her first speaking role in the performance. She’ll tell the story of a nobleman’s daughter named Margaret who travels to Caterhays — haunted land Margaret’s father once owned. In Caterhays, Margaret meets a knight imprisoned by a queen and tries to reclaim her family’s land.
The last time Hiebert was in Christmas Revels, her son Andrew was an infant. Hiebert held him in her arms on stage. But as her son grew, Hiebert took a break from the production. Hiebert’s brother also moved to North Carolina and her parents started traveling the country in an RV.
“This is going to be the first time we’re all together in Vermont, let alone the Christmas Revels, in I don’t know how long,” Hiebert said.
Hiebert’s entire family plans to show up to the production to see Hiebert. Her 4-year-old nephew is going to be there. Her 72-year-old father and 70-yearold mother who live in an RV in Georgia are coming home for the event and her brother in North Carolina is coming back to Vermont to see his sister perform.
They are rekindling a tradition. Christmas Revels is tells stories and shares music about Christmas traditions around the world. Each year it focuses on a different culture. More than 5,000 make attending the play a tradition, 80 people work on stage and 20 work behind the scenes to put it together. To the Hieberts, Revels is about community as much as it is about tradition. Hiebert and her father sing in a chorus called “Where’s my Glasses?” when they are both home together. The chorus is which is made up of current and past Revelers who wanted to be together during the non-production time. The group meets once a month and performs small concerts in churches.
“It’s a trip down memory lane,” Joyce said of the family’s return to Revels.
No matter the theme, “The Lord of the Dance” is always sung at the end of the first act. Audience members jump from their seats and sing and dance along in the aisles. It’s become such a tradition that one year, when Christmas Revels decided to play a different song at the end of the first act, audience members sang “The Lord of the Dance” over the band anyway.
“Sussex Mummers’ Carol” is sung at the end of every Revels performance.
“At times it just chokes you up,” said Hiebert’s father, Brian.
This article first appeared in the December 3, 2015 edition of the Vermont Standard.