Jackson students prepare for annual Madrigal Feaste

On a recent Thursday afternoon, Christy Shinn could be found prompting her classroom of choir students with a shout of, "Drink ale!" in a hearty English accent. They eagerly jumped to respond with a resounding, "Wassail!"

In the midst of practicing for Jackson Senior High School's annual Madrigal Feaste, Shinn and her students seemingly had been transported through time to the medieval period.

Jackson's 19th Madrigal Feaste concert and dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m., with doors opening and seating beginning at 6 p.m., today, Friday and Saturday at the Bavarian Halle in Jackson.

With more than 150 students participating in the sold-out show, the theatrical concert will consist of traditional holiday music, dancing and a lineup of medieval-themed jokes, all while students serve dinner to the guests.

"[The show is] based around the meal, so it's a king and queen's castle, of course, and they have a royal court, so they've invited different royal couples from different places, and then those people, themselves, have traditions that they've brought along per the king and queen," Shinn said.

Jackson High School students rehearse for their upcoming Madrigal Feaste. (Laura Simon)

Every year the program has a different theme, and this year's is based on the popular children's book series "The Magic School Bus," including the bizarre and unconventional methods of the series' teacher, Ms. Frizzle.

"The kids at the beginning are getting ready for a class project on the ancient times, and they're really not too happy about having to do something medieval, so Ms. Frizzle comes to visit, and she takes them back and visits the king and queen's castle and explains all of the traditions and songs," Shinn said.

Junior Levi Kempf, along with junior Emily Ladd, holds the role of court jester.

He said he enjoys participating in the Madrigal Feaste because it is an opportunity to meet new friends and build relationships.

"We all get to know each other really well," Kempf said. "Like last year, I made some friends that I'd never talked to before, so it was really cool because you get put by some random -- well, not random -- but people are just kind of scattered around in the Bavarian Halle, so it's cool to get to know them."

Ladd agreed.

"Choir itself is just kind of made up of people from different groups. Like there's people from sports; there's people from band; there's people from all that stuff, so this is the one place where you're actually all together. It's really cool," she said.

Shinn, who rewrites the script every year, said she has students interested in the lead roles of queen, king, court members and so on audition for the parts.

She also asks them to come up with a short, impromptu character presentation.

If the part fits well with the rest of the script, she might work to incorporate the theme or character into the script to allow more students to participate.

She said typically, she ends up with about 30 pages of material.

In the past, Shinn has used comedy bits throughout the show, such as having "royal court DJs," the "royal court news" and the "knightettes," which would be a group of female knights.

Other standard parts include those of the fortunetellers and court jesters, such as Ladd and Kempf, who said he gets to play a prank on Ladd and spray her with a water bottle during the show.

"I told him not to spray me in the face," Ladd said.

"But I'm going to," Kempf added, laughing.

Unlike the choirs' other yearly concerts, the Madrigal Feaste allows nearly the entire group of students to get involved and work as a team to present the show.

"We pride ourselves in family in our classroom, and so this is part of that, too, you know," Shinn said.

"Everybody has a part to play; even if they don't have a speaking part or something, they're interacting with the audience and with the other kids in the group, because you're always out and about with everybody, and so it's just a neat experience rather than just another concert."

A new experience for incoming sophomores or transfer students, Shinn said the feaste can be overwhelming at first because those students don't know what to expect.

"Sometimes people call it the 'magical feast' on accident, and it's funny, after kids kind of do it, you can't explain it to them ... my little sophomores or my kids that have never done it before have no clue what they're about to get ready to do, and after the first night, they come out of it, and they're just (wide-eyed), and there's not words," she said.

Shinn said she enjoys watching her students relax and learn how to interact with the guests and have fun with the people in the audience in non-scripted situations.

As time goes on, the students become more comfortable, which makes it easier for them to embrace their characters and truly put on a show.

More than 840 friends, family and community members will attend the concert, making the experience a sort of "community affair" for the students and guests.

"I have some kids that have lots of family and get to experience good Christmas family traditional things, and I have some that don't, and this becomes a really neat experience for them," Shinn said.

"So it touches on so many different aspects besides just the music that we make. They're getting to be outside of their shell with more than just the music making, and getting to see the music making from a different side than what we normally do."

Shinn said having the choir program at Jackson is a blessing because it allows students from all areas of the school to come together and form a solid unit, especially for larger productions such as the Madrigal Feaste.

"We say, you know, at any other point in the day here at Jackson High School or any other event, these 80 kids that you just saw in this room would not ever really be together, but when they come in here, they create something really awesome. So they can leave drama at the door, and they can leave this and that and break out of shells and get to work with people that they wouldn't otherwise to create something really awesome," she said. "I feel like I'm a coach all year long, but the really cool thing about my job is I don't ever really have to sit anybody on the bench. We talk about how that's really important, and a positive and important thing to keep with them when they leave here."