Ames High School Opens Ye Olde Madrigal Dinner Thursday

Places are set, voices are ready, 's best of the best is ready for the show.

The 23^rd Ye Olde Madrigal dinner — combining the high school's top voices, best instrumentalists, actors and writers for a Christmas meal that might have taken place 500 years ago — opens at 6:30 tonight.

“It's theater, instruments, singing, drama — the whole package,” said Robyn Dennis, who co-chairs the Ames High School Choral Boosters along with her husband, Kevin.

The Ye Olde Madrigal dinner, with catered meals, takes place at the across from the high school at 6:30 tonight, Friday and Saturday. The weekend shows held in the 176-seat sanctuary have already sold out.

“King” Jackson Griffith, who has performed in the dinner theater for the last three years, said, “It's a unique experience, nothing else is really like this.”

Guests will be greeted at the church's south entrance and escorted to their tables as their names are announced and the singing king's court will take a seat at the head of the sanctuary.

Horn players will perform six musical pieces from the sanctuary entrance and string players perform from the back of the sanctuary.

“It's a dinner and a show (as) if the dinner were in the year 1542,” said Daniel Heddendorf, a high school student who wrote a skit about an overthrown jester who plots to reclaim his job.

The show takes place during the main feast, which will be served by students, but is catered by the Hilton Garden Inn.

Breeana Glenn, who plays the queen, said, “there's not many opportunities in high school to do something quite like this where you have acting with singing in such a Renaissance manner. It's a lot of fun to go back in time like this.”

The $27 ticket price primarily covers the cost of the meal.

Costumes and decorations are all kept and recycled. Each year students find the costume they fit best. Decorations are also reused and recycled, Dennis said.

“It looks different every year somehow,” she said.

Ames High Choral Director Steve Linn has directed the performances for 21 of the last 23 years.

“It's tradition and there is a big interest in auditioning for the group. It's a very select group of 28 students,” Linn said.

Students are very dedicated, practicing countless hours before school and on Monday evenings, he said.

Griffith said he enjoys the music because the songs have multiple harmonies, a challenge left out of other high school chorus performances.

“The reward for the students is when they actually get to perform, because they rehearse a lot in preparation for this,” Linn said.

Want tickets? Call Choral Director Steve Linn at 817-0600. His e-mail isn't working.