The artistic staff

John Langstaff

Revels founder John Langstaff studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music and at The Juilliard School. As a concert baritone, he had a successful concert career in the U.S. and abroad.

In addition to his classical training and performances, he developed a deep fondness and appreciation for traditional music through his friendship with Douglas Kennedy (director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society), and with composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

As head of the Music Department at the Potomac School in Virginia for thirteen years, and the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, MA for six years, he enriched the lives of thousands of children.

During that time he continued to record in Europe on HMV with producer George Martin. For five years, he hosted the popular Making Music program on BBC TV in London and was the moderator of an NBC TV Saturday morning children's program, Children Explore Books.

Mr. Langstaff is also an award-winning children's author whose twenty-four books include his version of the traditional children's tale, Frog Went a-Courtin', winner of the Caldecott Medal, St. George and the Dragon, and most recently I Have a Song to Sing-O, a Gilbert and Sullivan primer for children.

In 1956, Langstaff presented the first theatrical production of The Christmas Revels in New York's Town Hall. Ten years later, in 1966, Langstaff wrote and hosted an NBC TV Christmas Eve special called A Christmas Masque. Both productions had the beginning elements of what was to become The Christmas Revels, which he began in Cambridge, MA in 1971.

Mr. Langstaff recently produced an award-winning series of educational singing videos for teachers and children which are sold throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Production staff

Stepan S. Simek

Director

Simek's association with the Revels dates back to 1998 when he saw his first Revels show and "fell in love with the spirit of the true communion between the performers and the audience." Simek says "that communion is the ultimate goal of the theater since it reaches deep into the ritual origins of the theatre."

A graduate of the MFA program in directing at the University of Washington, he has directed professionally in Europe, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, and New York, and he's taught in theater departments at Reed College and Evergreen State College.

He has directed more than 25 plays in professional theaters and in colleges and universities.

In 1996, Simek was the recipient of the prestigious Drama League of New York Directing Fellowship for the most promising young director in the U.S. During the fellowship, Simek spent a year in New York City assisting on major productions and personally directing two Off-Broadway productions.

A native of Prague, Czech Republic and a resident of Portland for five years, Simek travels back to his native city regularly to conduct research on Czech theater and to translate new Czech plays into English.

Simek has also adapted a number of novels for theater, including Kafka's Amerika and Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray.

Robert M. Lockwood

Music Director

Robert first appeared as a chorus member in the 1998 Portland Christmas Revels production and became music director the following year.

He was first introduced to the Revels by the first Revels recordings in the late 1970s, but his connections to Revels music run back to singing as a chorister and early music consort member in Massachusetts in the early 1960s. His first music teacher and choir director was a long time supporter of the Revels and a colleague of Revels founder Jack Langstaff.

"The Christmas Revels complete a circle back to my childhood when I was exposed to choral and instrumental music from many centuries," Robert says. "The shows allow me to further explore music from many different eras and traditions."

Robert studied music at Yale University, graduating in 1977. In 1985 he founded and directed the Philadelphia Wyndmoor Consort before moving back to Portland in 1987. He also founded and directed the Rose Chamber Singers and Circle of Song.

He has sung in many choruses and choirs throughout the years including Portland's Cantores in Ecclesia, Trinity Cathedral Choir, and St. Michael's Singers.

Robert has composed a number of choral and instrumental works and is published by the Oxford University Press.

Kate Sokoloff

Associate Artistic Director

A founding Portland Revels board member, Kate currently serves as producing director and vice president.

When not reveling, she works as a free-lance writer, arts administrator and fledgling knitwear designer.

She began her long Revels career as the dove ("from the rafters high") in John Langstaff's 2nd grade Christmas pageant at the Potomac School in Hanover, New Hampshire. Her adolescent angst was greatly assuaged by the arrival of the yearly Christmas Revels productions.

She later served as General Manager and Producer for the San Francisco Bay Revels for over five years before moving to Portland in 1994.

Bonnie Toon-Sweeney

Production Manager