Welcome Yule! A Midwinter Celebration at the Shea Theater

Celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, "Welcome Yule!" returns to the Shea Theater with an annual celebration of light-filled traditions during the darkest time of the year. This family show full of music, dance, songs and stories explores ancient cultures and their roots; and celebrates how those traditions are passed down to each new generation. This year's setting is an imaginary Yule village where families gather in a local pub and the children absorb the village's culture. The Keene Sentinel reached Janice "Jinny" Mason of Whateley, Mass. by phone to talk about this year's production. Mason is the artistic director and wrote the show this year. "In 1989 my husband, Alan (McArdle), and I went to see friends who performed their 'Welcome Yule!' show at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Amherst, and it was absolutely magical. The people and their love of what they were doing came through, and my husband said, 'We're going to do this next year,' which was rather amazing. But we went and we joined the show." Two daughters of Mason's, Devon and Casey, were in the production for many years when they were teens while their other daughter Soren helped design artwork and the poster. "Our founder, Rose Sheehan, came up with the idea for this production in the mid-1980s. She had performed in the Revels in Cambridge, and then she moved to Western Massachusetts and started her own show because she wanted to be able to do a very similar show," recalls Mason. "This year, it's a very family-oriented show! There is a lot of lively music. We have dancing and the kids are great. They have learned dances and the second half of the show the kids emulate the adults; they take on the traditions, and they are even doing a sword dance," says Mason. "The other theme is the fact that the performers in the show are aging, and we have to prepare our younger people to take over. So you'll see adults, who are doing much of everything in the beginning, and some of the kids will also be singing and dancing, but as we move through to the second half of the show, all of the children will be copying, emulating the adults and taking over," says Mason. The cast and chorus of 43 are all volunteers and many have returned year after year to take part. "This year the youngest is a 6-year-old boy and I think I am the oldest one at age 77," Mason explains. "And we have seven off-stage volunteers to help run the production." The Shea Theatre has been home to "Welcome Yule!" for many years. "It's a very interactive theater. You can move the seating around. There's an area at the bottom of the apron of the stage that you can put your chairs in various positions and have more or fewer depending on what you're doing." Annual show favorites include the eerie "Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance" in which cloaked figures dance with large reindeer antlers. Audience members also have the chance to touch the Yule log with a sprig of holly to gain a whole year of good luck! "We're really pleased to have a good children's chorus this year, because we go up and down in numbers of kids. We have eight kids and they are enthusiastic," Mason adds. Mason, originally from Northampton, England, moved to the United States when she was 18 to take a nanny job. "I came here when I was 18, theoretically, for one year to be a children's nanny and to get a taste of what it was like here. And in those days, you could get a green card if you did a job that was less than desirable. And being a children's nanny was considered less than desirable, so I applied for a green card and stayed," Mason says. "The amount of enthusiasm that we all put into "Welcome Yule!" comes through to the audience. We have a slogan amongst ourselves, and I think it has been put into the program. My husband coined it: It was never knowingly over rehearsed," Mason says. "We love what we're doing, and it just shines through. It's a very sort of natural, live show. It's community theater so it's not perfect but it's wonderful and it's magical," Mason says. IF YOU GO What: Welcome Yule: A Midwinter Celebration! When: Dec. 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. Where: The Shea Theater, 71 Avenue A, Turners Falls, Mass. Tickets: $15 adults; $12 seniors and children; free for children under 5 More Info: Visit sheatheater.org and welcomeyule.org