Lovers Feast

I didn't go to the local high school here in my current town. Bryan and I attended a high school in Salt Lake County. We are in a small minority due to that fact. Many of my neighbors grew up here, went off for college, missions and marriage...and then came back to settle and raise a family here...their children following in their footsteps. And I can see why. This town has a very distinct and tight community feel with all its quirks and traditions. Solid people, solid schools, solid way of life. I'm glad we are here. My children have expressed gratefulness that we are here. We plan to stay here. We're lifers.

But that being said, I am indeed a newbie. Which means that I didn't know about Lovers Feast at the high school until just last year when Rebekah had a chance to be a part of it as a "serving wench." A choral department wide fundraiser with most of the choir kids involved in some sort of way or another, truly it's the Madrigal's show. And Rebekah was chosen to be a Madrigal this year.

In it's 34th year, it's a seven-course renaissance style dinner with entertainment provided by the Madrigals...a dinner-theatre type show with audience involvement. And each year they take some sort of modern pop-culture theme and weave it into their tale. This year, a renaissance version of "Hunger Games" complete with tributes performing in the various arts (dancing, mime, cooking and paper mache) in an attempt to win the privilege of marrying whom they choose. Each of the audience members were assigned to one of four tables representing the four places the tributes were from. Rebekah was one of the two tributes from "Stuart". The rest of the Madrigals had various parts as people from the Capital. The whole thing was meant to be silly fun and not taken seriously. We laughed a lot. And there was singing, did I mention that? Lots and lots of singing.

As the dancing tribute, Rebekah had to improvise two different dances each night. Despite the fact that she hasn't had any sort of dancing lessons since she was 6 years old, she was rather graceful. Appropriate seeing as her name was "Grace."

And what would a Hunger Games theme be without a rebellion? Forks were strictly forbidden. We were not given forks to eat our meals....but somehow forks were slipped to various people throughout the evening by rebellion sympathizers. And if you were found in possession of a fork, you got hauled off to the stockade....

Julianne and Lilian were better at hiding forks....Julianne had three by the time the night was done. Brandon got caught fairly quickly and spent some time in the stockade. Grandma tried to fight off her jailers.... "Long live the rebellion!"

Soon the whole room was in full scale rebellion with people holding up three fingers (symbolizing the 3 tines of a fork) every time someone got caught. The longer the evening went, the more hyped up (and hilarious) the rebellion became.

Lilian and I attended both nights....the first with the family and Bryan's parents and then again the second night with my parents. Rebekah had asked a fellow madrigal friend to the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance and it was on the second night that she received her answer. During the "battle" scene between "Peter" and "Dale" (Dale aka Nolan) Rebekah was handed a rolled scroll by the high steward. This was not a part of the script. And of course the whole audience was watching the big fight playing out in front of the main table so I did not notice what was going on. "Lady Grace," he apparently whispered to her, "it is of the utmost importance that you read the message that is on this scroll immediately." She opened the scroll and read, "Lady Croft. I would 'die' to go to Sadie Hawkins with you! Yes!"
According to Rebekah, she gasped and looked up....because at that very moment Nolan/ "Dale" had just been run through by Peter with a baguette (silliness, I told you) and was lying "dead" on the ground. Apparently Nolan's parents who were in on the whole thing, enjoyed watching Rebekah's shocked face. What a very clever way to answer!