By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS
ELK RAPIDS -- For two days every winter, the Elk Rapids High School gymnasium is transformed into a medieval "castle" for the choirs' popular madrigal dinner.
So it seemed only natural to make over the school cafeteria into a medieval "street fair" at the same time, reasoned Sara Quigley.
The new and improved event will take place Dec. 12 and 13 and will usher in the Yuletide season in 17th-century style, with feasting and festivities ranging from armored combat to hands-on heraldry.
Adding the street fair was a way to put her mark on the fifth annual Madrigal Dinner and to reach more area children than in the past, said Quigley, who took over this year as temporary choir director for the middle and high schools.
"The elementary school kids and a lot of the middle school kids don't have an attention span for a two-hour show and dinner. And how many 2-year-olds are worth a $20 dollar ticket for dinner?" Quigley said. "I wanted them to be able to come, to see the cool costumes and experience the music for a shorter amount of time."
The Madrigal Dinner will take place at 6:30 p.m. both nights and will feature the high school Chamber Choir as the King's court and his Royal Players. They'll entertain audiences with "The Wife of Bath," a lighthearted story with song and dance from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." Students from the school's Choral Ensemble and Maestoso Chansons will serve the meal and help provide ambience as roving beggars, magicians, mimes and other period characters.
A highlight of the entertainment will be the musical comedy number "Men in Tights," featuring the high school men along with nine middle school students.
"Everyone looks forward to this number every year," said Quigley, who has been choir pianist for the past three years.
Tickets for either night will get audiences into the street fair from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Dec. 13. Organized in conjunction with a northern Michigan group of the Society for Creative Anachronism, the fair will feature demonstrations of 17th-century armored combat, fencing, textile crafts and medieval games, along with hands-on heraldry (making a personal banner using only heraldic colors) and a display of period food including meats, fruits, and root and leafy vegetables.
"New world foods would not have been available so they made nothing with tomatoes, corn, green peppers, potatoes, and nothing from the South Pacific, like pineapples and bananas," said Annette Yasin of Gaylord, whose SCA name is Ailikn Olafsdottir, Baroness Donnershafen -- part of the so-called greater Middle Kingdom encompassing Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and parts of Ontario. "Most of the things you have at Thanksgiving, they didn't eat."
A sampling of those foods will be served at the Madrigal Dinner, whose menu includes Cornish game hen stuffed with wild rice, Prince Charles vegetables, dinner rolls, holiday greens salad with raspberry vinaigrette, Madrigal cheesecake and, of course, wassail.
Elk Rapids junior Zak Henley will not only perform at the feast, but will give fencing demonstrations at the Street Fair with dad, Jeff, and older sister, Gen. The family has been involved with the SCA for about 10 years.
"We've always liked the medieval period," said Henley, who joined the group when he was 6 and now specializes in sword-and-dagger, soft and hard parry and other Renaissance-style fencing work. "It just seems cool, the feel of it. You get away from real life, what's going on with modern-day stuff, you don't have to worry about technology. You get to walk around, hang out, eat, fence."
Other choir students will preside over a bake sale, storytelling, Renaissance-style hair braiding, tarot card reading, palm reading and jewelry making.
Tickets are $25 for the Madrigal Dinner and the street fair or $5 for the street fair only. They can be ordered at the high school office, 264-8108.
