VIENNA – On Saturday, Dec. 16, at 7 p.m., the Vienna Union Hall Association will present the fifth annual Winter Revels. A wonderful homespun affair, the Revels brings together local and professional talent while offering a warm greeting to the winter solstice and the holiday season for family and friends.
This year’s show, emceed by Tom Saviello, will offer several local acts for the first half of the show including musical trio Dan Simons, Stan Keach and Julie Davenport, local children and several other show stoppers. Long time performer, mime, master of the shadow theater and illusionist Leland Faulkner will complete a rounded evening of fun, food and community.
Leland Faulkner’s performances are a feast for the heart and mind. He is a magician, a character actor, and a mime artist. His performances stir the imagination and bridge our differences by bonding us with creative spirit, humor, and mystery. He is famed for his Shadowgraphs and Chapeaugraphy, two lost arts that have been given a fresh breath of life under his care, yet he is more than that.
Leland Faulkner has been an actor, mime, and magician for over thirty years. Early in his career he worked with Affiliate Artists as a corporate arts liaison in communities throughout the United States. For many years he partnered, toured, and taught with master mime Tony Montanaro, and was the artistic director of Celebration Barn in South Paris, Maine. In the years following he has taught and performed at major venues, schools, colleges, theatre festivals, cultural exchange programs, international circuses, and in private workshops for professional performing artists. He has also created original content and special effects for both motion picture and stage productions.
His devised production Shadowplay brought him two Kennedy Center College Theatre Festival Accolades, one for Directing and one for Technical Innovation. He has toured his solo material to Turkey, Canada, China and Russia for international festivals.
From an early age, Leland was exposed to a wide range of ethnic cultures. He was born in Afghanistan to American Indian parents, he grew up there, and in Iran, one of his earliest memories is being placed on the foot of a gargoyle in the ruins of ancient Persepolis. As a young boy, he spent seven years on the coast of Tanzania, East Africa where he saw his first magician, John Calvert. Leland has toured and traveled to Asia and Europe, and credits his experiences around the globe with stimulating his love for theatre.
His theatre work has had him featured at Arts Carnival in Hong Kong, The Ojai Storytelling Festival in California, the Equitable Center in New York City, an extended tour of Japan for the Kageboushi Theatre Company, a month long, multi-city tour of China with the Wuqiao Circus Festival in 2011, and in Russia at the Ivhesk International Circus Festival in 2012, to name a few.
Leland received a Bachelor of Arts degree in film making from the Brooks Institute, in Santa Barbara, California, and continues to create many award winning film and media projects. Most notably, he was an artist/consultant to the major motion picture, The Polar Express.
Tickets for the Revels are $8.00 for adults $4.00 children 10 and under. They may be purchased in advance by calling 293-2674, 293-2362 or emailing viennaunionhall@gmail.com Seating for the Revels is limited and it is often sold out so get tickets early.
