Renaissance Band to Perform 'Mummers' Delight: Birds, Beasts, and Battles' in March

If you're a Philadelphia native, "mummer" likely conjures images of New Year's Day fancy brigades, but the tradition of mummery is ancient and artful. Piffaro, The Renaissance Band's March concert, "Mummers' Delight: Birds, Beasts, and Battles," hearkens back to the troupes of players that entertained crowds in town squares and great halls throughout Renaissance Europe.

Special guests Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell, artistic directors of Washington DC's Happenstance Theatre, are examples of the new respect today's practitioners of the old arts of physical theater are finding. Both have devoted their careers to practicing and teaching their craft (Jaster studied with 20th-century masters Marcel Marceau) and both are currently nominated for Helen Hayes awards: Jaster for Outstanding Lead Actor and Mandell for Outstanding Lead Actress and Best Costume Design. During their visit they will drop in at Philadelphia's School of Circus Arts, where a new generation is being trained up.

A Renaissance Bestiary (1613's Historia Animalium Sacra by Wolfgang Franuis) inspired Jaster and Mandell's flights of fancy for March's program. Mandell describes how "a mountebank - a traveling juggler and a bit of a quack -will summon forth a menagerie of creatures with the help of her long-suffering mute sidekick. There will be the dance of the bear, of the horse, of the ape in the temple. But there will also be the sad song of the swan who utters her only sound just before her death. The lowly flea will get its due, as will the crocodile." A sizable supply of 15th and 16th century music from composers like Nicolas Gombert, Michael Praetorius, Jacques Arcadelt, and Orazio Vecchi evokes the sounds and movements of birds and beasts and provides Piffaro with ample material to perform on its own menagerie of historical woodwinds, brass, percussion, guitars, and harp.

Tickets are $35-40 for adults and $10 for youth and students. Call 215-235-8469, email info@piffaro.com, or visit www.piffaro.org for more information.

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