Learning About A Virtual Sea Revels Adventure

Courtesy: The Revels

Perkins invites you to a virtual time at sea with The Revels.

The event, which takes place on May 27, marks the 20th annual springtime collaboration between the organizations. While this event tends to be held in-person at Perkins’ campus, this year’s production will be live streamed for free through The Revel’s Facebook page.

This year’s theme: the sea! Written, narrated and edited by Patrick Swanson and musically directed by George Emlen, this year’s production looks to bring the old with the new, as this year’s production will consist of old songs through the modern technology. Combined with the choruses of The Revels and Perkins, A Virtual Sea Revels Adventure will make you want to sing along with all the songs, poetry and chanty’s throughout the livestream!

Previously mentioned, this year’s springtime collaboration marks the 20th anniversary of this fun-filled day. I recently had the chance to connect with artistic director Patrick Swanson to learn more about the event and what this event means to him.

With this being the 20th anniversary of the collaborations between The Revels and the Perkins School for the Blind, what has these meant to you and the organization?

This event means the everything to me. Every year, I look forward to this event, as it is marked on my calendar.

How was the theme of this year’s collaboration chosen?

David Coffin — The Revels songleader and artist-in-residence — is a chanteyman with a wide experience of sea related material. Because of this, The Revels has a good archive of material from previous Sea Revels that we performed in Boston and elsewhere.

Courtesy: The Revels

Compared to holding this event in-person, live streaming an event like this can be quite the challenge. What were some of the obstacles with planning and executing this event?

This has always been a very intimate event, as we normally assign our chorus members to have one-on-one contact with our Perkins students. They dance and sing with their partners and consequently form a real and short lived personal relationship. Because of the pandemic, we cannot reproduce in this virtual setting and had to adapt the best we could to help continue and grow these relationships.

How has the pandemic altered this year’s collaboration?

Normally, we keep the program focused on a Spring celebration where we usually have time to meet and rehearse with the Perkins students. Since that has not been possible, we decided to use our repertory of sea related material to take a virtual sea voyage using easily learned sea chanteys and filling the program out with appropriate imagery and dialogue.

Courtesy: The Revels

With this year’s event being virtual, would you say this year’s event is more significant than past years?

This year’s event is definitely more significant than past years, as we are able to take advantage of the intimacy of the medium and allows us to share our recorded experience with more people.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

The Revels have a 50-year history of producing large-scale celebrations and events like The Christmas Revels, which we perform every year at Harvard. But this lovely, intimate collaboration with Perkins is just as meaningful to everyone here at Revels, and it’s a partnership that we hope will continue for at least another 20 years!

For more information on A Virtual Sea Revels Adventure, make sure to visit The Revel’s website or call (617) 972-8300.