Now in its 35th year, “Welcome Yule: A Midwinter Celebration,” a holiday performance, is will be returning to the Shea Theater at 71 Avenue A in Turners Falls next weekend.
Rose Sheehan, the Welcome Yule founding director, led the performing group for 15 years before moving to eastern Massachusetts. After a 20 year hiatus, Sheehan is returning for the 2019 production. She has been commuting every week from Gloucester to direct this year’s production.
The play will run Dec. 13 to 15. Friday and Saturday’s performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m., and Sunday’s will begin at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for children 5 to 16 years old, and seniors. For reservations and information visit welcomeyule.org or email info@welcomeyule.org.
“Welcome Yule: A Midwinter Celebration,” has been celebrating the return of the sun with a show full of music, dance, song and story for decades, according to Sheehan. The cast features adults and children, in the all-volunteer endeavor. None of the production team, directors nor performers are paid.
“The drive and motivation for most is a combination of community expression and a simple joie de vivre (joy of living)," Sheehan said.
The lively show is designed to brighten up the cold winter season. According to a press release, the show finds the audience and cast in a forest with magical and mythical beasts in the form of puppets large and small, as it tells a tale of the importance of music in our lives.
The production’s story is centered on “the wisdom of trees, the power of animals and the deep magic of music.”
“The whole performance plays out more like a pageant with thematically linked seasonal pieces,” Sheehan said. “It follows a mood of celebration and excitement.”
Sheehan first conceived the idea for a mid-winter play that would emphasize folk music and customs in 1985. She served the Shea Theater as artistic director for 15 years and helped the production grow from a basement coffee house program to a full theatrical production.
This year’s play will feature the Abbots Bromley Horn dance and will be performed by Juggler Meadow Morris Men of Amherst. Additionally, a sword dance and social dance will be performed by the cast. Instead of traditional storytelling through extended dialogue, the action of the story is played out in the characters’ actions throughout the program. The play features two child actors whose characters become involved in the events of the play and overcome the conflict of the story.
“The actors and audience have an opportunity to connect to a deeper sense of being,” Sheehan said of the performances.
A “mummers play” is another anticipated part of the performance. Mummers performances are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, known as mummers or guisers. The comic, folk drama centers on the death and revival of one of its characters.
“The speeches, delivered in rhyming couplets, are written for laughs and the puns are sure to elicit a groan or two,” Sheehan said.
The performance also makes use of puppets, built by cast members. Some stand as high as 12 feet tall, Sheehan said. They’re handled by actors carrying the puppet’s head on one pole and maneuvering the puppet’s bodies with others. Others are smaller and handled as classic marionette puppets.
Sheehan collaborated with Artistic Director Liz Smith and Music Director Kathryn Aubry-McAvoy for the 2019 production. The play is written by Liz Smith and includes traditional songs and dances, as well as new material from Sheehan and Colin de la Barre, one of her children.
“A lot of attention has gone into the visuals, music and movement of this play,” Sheehan said, noting she was heavily involved for the first 15 years of the “Welcome Yule: A Midwinter Celebration” production. After moving from the area, Sheehan says she remained friendly with many of the Shea Theater community members, including Smith. Because they were regularly chatting about the show as friends, Sheehan said she was encouraged to get fully involved again for the 2019 performance as the stage director, helping with blocking movements and performances.
“It’s exciting to come back for the 35th year,” Sheehan said.
Her two sons, now in their 30s, used to perform in the annual holiday production when they were children. Both will be returning to the stage for next weekend’s production.
One son, Owen Bear, remains local and de la Barre lives out of town as a performing and recording artist. He has written an original song to debut in this year’s show, which Sheehan says “touches at the heart of both the cycle of the year,” and showcases how the rhythm of music and dance carries the pulse of that yearly, seasonal cycle.
After 35 years, the “Welcome Yule: A Midwinter Celebration” remains a community event where the audience dances and sings along to the carols in the play, now familiar to the local theater community. The play brings friends and neighbors together to bring each other joy and hope as they prepare to face the winter and coming new year.
“It all amounts to people getting together to share their talents and enthusiasm, and then present it to the community,” Sheehan said.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 264.