Chs madrigal has been bringing holiday cheer for over 30 years

By: Miranda Gregis, Contributing Writer

Centralia High School performed their annual Madrigal dinner theater December 3rd-5th. ​

 This year’s performance was about the royal court putting on the play Rapunzel and consisted of chamber choir, concert choir, and orchestra members. In total, 116 students participated in 
Madrigal.

The main characters of the play were: Landin Burton as the Jester, Jay Caballero as the King, ReaLee Smith as the Queen, Margret Stanley as the Beautiful Maiden, Josh Russell as the Handsome Prince and Mara Davis as the Generic Witch. 

Madrigal is directed by Mrs. Leah Rolfson and Mr. Scott Long. 

This is Rolfson’s 17th year putting on Madrigal. Rolfson said her favorite parts about Madrigal are, “The entrance of the whole cast singing Masters in This Hall, the prayer at the beginning, the silly play, the performances, seeing and getting to perform with the alumni, and hearing Silent Night with the candles in the background.  It touches me every year.”

Rolfson hopes one thing her students can take away from the process of practicing and performing for Madrigal is team building. Students spend the whole week prior to Madrigal at school practicing. They have dress rehearsals Monday through Thursday and have shows Friday through Sunday. Rolfson wants her students to appreciate the beauty of music and come together as one cohesive choir. 

Senior ReaLee Smith has participated in Madrigal since her freshman year. She said the hardest part of Madrigal is, “definitely the amount of time we have to learn everything. It always goes by so fast and you feel like there is no time, but it always works out.”

While Rolfson has directed Madrigal for 17 years, the first Madrigal was put on about 35 years ago. Claude Westfall was the first teacher to host the dinner theater, and it has been a tradition in Centralia ever since. 

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