A YULETIDE MADRIGAL FEASTE: CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL PRODUCTION FRIDAY AND SATURDAY AT CENTENARY METHODIST CHURCH

Guests at the upcoming Yuletide Madrigal Feaste will be expected to dress well for the occasion. After all, their female hosts will be wearing high-waisted dresses with flowing sleeves, and the males will be in tunics, tights and feathered hats.

The Cape Central High School Vocal Music Department will present a Yuletide Madrigal Feaste at 6:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Centenary Methodist Church.

Madrigal singing is a style brought to England from Italy in the 16th century. Originally it consisted of private entertainment in castles and country homes and might have lasted for days in celebration of the 12 days of Christmas, explains Dina Strickert, the Central High choral director.

The singing was complemented by jugglers, acrobats, fortune tellers and jesters, and the Central High version will be no different. Nick Ryan, a veteran of many roles on the Central High stage, is playing the jester.

Strickert, who is in her second year at Central High School after 12 years at Notre Dame, said she has always wanted to stage a madrigal.

"They are fun to do and fun for the students," she said. "It's a good thing for the community to present something like this. It brings together the community and school in an elegant way."

The Town Crier will announce each person to be seated, followed by a grand procession into the candlelit hall.

The tables will be laden with round bread, dill dip and sweetened cheese so guests can get into the spirit of the occasion by eating with their hands, Strickert said. But silverware will be used for the meal.

Each course of the feast will be presented with fanfare and pageantry presided over by the madrigal king and queen, Nathan Gibbar and Lauren Hirschburg. Hirschburg will sing the evening's only solo.

The performers will serve the food, which the school's food service is preparing. The menu includes wassail, bread, cheese and fruit, green salad, Chicken Cordon Bleu with wild rice, green beans with almonds, Yorkshire pudding, coffee and tea.

The Chamber Madrigal Singers will entertain throughout the evening. The members include Christy Hey, Meagan Edmonds, Sarah Bruening, Shelley Simmons, David Nall, Mike Oslund, John Beaudean and Mark Anderson.

Also entertaining will be a group of dancers and a string ensemble led by string teacher Steve Schaffner.

The combined Chamber Choir, Women's Concert Choir and Junior Varsity Choir, with a total of 75 students, will present the royal concert after the meal, then exit the hall.