Now this event was really fun even though it was tiring since it lasted 3 days. Madrigal is a medieval English tradition held at Christmas and the college holds it every year. The people in the choir were all lords and ladies of song/court( Vox Nova people wore green while others wore a variety of different costumes). We were provided with this amazing costume; mine was a green velvet kind gown with a yellow silk under gown. Although it made e feel pregnant what with the high empire waistline...still...it was gorgeous!
2 or 3 of us were given charge or of different tables and it was o
ur job to introduce to them what was going to happen,make them feel comfortable and also let them know about their part in the singing. You see....at a certain point we would be singing 'The 12 days of Madrigal', a sort of parody of the 12 days of Christmas and each table was assigned a day. Eg. My 2 tables had to sing 'three castle maidens' and we had to get them to swoon (to make it seem funny)and sing as loud as possible cause it was kind of like a competition between tables. The whole object is to sing it loud and make it as funny as possible. Each day the crowd was different but I loved the second days crowd cause a lot of people got drunk even before the event started so they'd do anything you said:P We also had to encourage them to leave tips for their wenches who would serve them for the night and I heard from one of my friends that at his table, this lady was so drunk she kept acting a little too friendly with him and in the end she left him a tip of $100!! (he said it was worth all the discomfort...haha..)whoo! Sadly, only the wenches get to keep the $$...unfair! 
The other people of the court was Hazzah, the Jester, and Ms Rule ( both of whom have their faces painted white in the pic). The guy who plays Hazzah is seriously very funny!! Even when we were practising he kept cracking jokes:)At the beginning, a couple of us, myself included, had to go up on stage and introduce the 'rules of etiquette'. Everyone put on a British accent and tried to be as funny or creative as possible. It was a little unnerving on the first day but the other 2 days I got used to it.
We had lots of events in between the singing and eating like 'the flaming raisin' game but I personally think the highlight was the dance called the 'Wenches' toss'. An even number of girls and guys get into a circle and dance a couple of simple steps and then the guy have to 'lift' the girl next to him from his right ti his left. We girls are supposed to hop into the air so that its easier for the guys to move us.Now, before the actual event, all of us participating got a chance to practice and Kitty told me (since I had no clue as to what to do)that I was just going to hop from one side of the guy to the other,no sweat. My first partner happens to be this guy who's way over 6 feet tall and 2 times bigger than me. Since he's so tall I could barely place my hands on his shoulders and when it came to the hop part I hopped and he gave me the shock of life by lifting me totally off my feet, above his head and then to his other side. I actually screamed and he thought that he'd hurt me or something...gosh...that was frightening! But once I got used to it, it was actually kinda fun!
By the end of the 3 days I was totally exhausted cause it kinda used up all my weekend...thank goodness its only once a year! Unlike the concerts in Singapore, this was very laid back; we hardly had any rehearsal and this is because I find that people here don't care about concerts having to be 'perfect'. Here, if you made a mistake, its fine! Somehow or the other, it would be integrated into the program as though it was meant to happen. I like this...I think sometimes)not always)we Asians need to lighten up a bit and just go with the flow.
Here's the rest of the pics! Enjoy!
http://mtaloy.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13489&l=cec95&id=617829821
