Connecticut College hosted the annual Make We Joy pageant on December 6, a tradition that dates back to 1981, in which students, faculty, staff and outside community members partake.
Make We Joy is based off of the Cambridge-Boston area production of “The Revels,” a performance that “celebrat[es] the seasons through traditional song, dance, storytelling and ritual from cultures around the world.”
Make We Joy also focuses on celebrating the winter solstice and “life’s triumph over darkness and death.”
Derron Wood ‘88, who has actively directed Make We Joy since 1990, spoke of his high hopes for this year’s program.
“Make We Joy is one of the few events at Connecticut College that truly reaches out and incorporates the community into an on-campus event,” he proclaimed to the cast of over 130.
The event has proven to be so successful that, Wood noted, “families come from as far as Vermont just to see the showcase. Families who have almost no connection with Connecticut College still make it a point to come to this performance.”
Part of what makes Make We Joy so impressive is that the entire event is organized in just a few short hours the day before, under Wood’s scrupulous direction.
With high expectations to fill, Paul Althouse, Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities, worked hard to ensure that Connecticut College’s renowned Chamber Choir didn’t fail to impress. The Chamber Choir, featuring a little over sixty students divided into 6 sections of Soprano 1 and 2, Alto 1 and 2, Tenor and Bass, meets twice weekly for an hour and fifteen minutes to sing classical music songs.
Make We Joy filled the chapel with attendees from front to back. The Chamber Choir sang songs ranging from the ‘Agincourt Hymn’, to the beloved ‘Make We Joy’ verse, contemporary composer John Rutter’s ‘Jesus Child’, ‘Boar’s Head Carol’ – a carol dating back to Medieval England – and the traditional ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’.
To further add to the fun and humor of the performance, each of the Chamber Choir singers dressed in Renaissance robes, with underclassmen appearing to be of “Lower Class” status in plain colored robes and sheaths, while upperclassmen who had endured the previous poorer years, were now entitled to “Upper Class” clothing, with gaudy hats, bodices and tunics.
This year, class of 2011 dance major Wayne Ong contributed to the “festival,” as many loyal attendees refer to Make We Joy, with a modern dance rendition entitled “Seasons”.
When asked to describe his piece, Ong responded, “The dance is like an awakening from dormancy. I’ve never really experienced winter before, and the transition into spring and summer and back to autumn and winter, so it’s pretty much my exploration into what it may feel like from different perspectives, and the natural beauty of it all.”
As Wood worked hard to get his cast in the mood for a great performance, he proclaimed, “Make We Joy, make we happy, make we ridiculous – the more we can put on a fun, great show that puts a smile on our audience members, the more successful I think the festival ends up being,” Wood commented.
Prior to the first show, Wood delivered a rousing speech to his cast and crew, even reading a letter sent in from a previous Make We Joy cast member who was unable to participate this year, due to serving in Iraq at the moment.
“Make We Joy is really all about joy. It’s a reminder to me,” Wood said, “that sometimes we need to play. To let the child in us come out and play.”
The festival commenced with the Chamber Choir strolling down the center aisle singing the Agincourt Hymn, followed by soldiers carrying swords, and characters Mother and Father Solstice and their royal court. The performance reenacted the symbolic passing of the winter season, as darkness was killed off and Father Solstice produced light – both figuratively and literally after pointing his staff at a chandelier, and a light switch was flicked. The Chamber Choir stayed on stage throughout the duration of the show, interspersing their own songs amongst those performed by other cast members and boosting the energy with “yips” and goblet clanking.
At the end, the entire audience engaged in The Revels’ “Lord of the Dance” song, with many attendees standing up and joining hands, dancing around the chapel for several dozen verses. Participants were then encouraged to throw pieces of paper containing written out wishes for the new solstice into a fire just outside Harkness Chapel.
Althouse felt the program ran quite well, with his only concern being that “it seems like more of the outside community knows about the Make We Joy performances than even Connecticut College students.”
