ROCK SCHOOL: We love our kids. But that’s not why we had them. We had them so that they would become rock stars and put us up in mansions, the way Missy Elliott and Britney Spears did for their moms. It goes without saying in the Lil’ Bow Wow era that you’ve got to start ’em young — which is why the folks at the National Guitar Workshop invented DayJams, a national chain of summer camps that gives kids (ages 9 to 15) a crash course in playing rock and roll. Staffed by local musicians, the camps claim they can turn your kid — even if he or she has never picked up an instrument — into a functional punk(ette) in the span of a week, at the end of which everybody will perform live and record a song. The local DayJams runs at Labouré College, 2120 Dorchester Avenue, in two sessions, June 24 through 28 and July 1 through 5. Tuition is $365 a week; call (800) 295-5956 or visit www.dayjams.com.
TIME TO RAISE THE RENT: The last time the late Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer- and Tony-winning bohemian rhapsody came to Boston, just over a year ago, it broke the all-time record here for a week-long engagement by a musical, raking in upward of $1.5 million at the box office. That’s almost enough to cover the monthly nut on a two-bedroom in Harvard Square these days. Rent returns to the Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont Street, for a week-long summer sublet June 25 through 30. Tickets are $35 to $65; call (800) 447-7400.
NEXT WEEKEND:
Spring Revels
Padstow is a fishing village on the Cornish coast that has long sent its sons to sea, so it could well be that a sailor returning from a long journey to Africa brought back a tribal mask. This year’s edition of the Spring Revels is betting that such a souvenir and the stories that came with it account for the strange appearance of the Padstow Hobby Horse, which has led the village’s May Day processions for as long as anyone can remember.
The possible relationship between this beloved icon and the ritual dances of African witch doctors will occasion some unusual pairings — the Pinewoods Morris Men with De Ama Battle’s Art of Black Dance and Music, for one — when the Spring Revels take the stage at Sanders Theatre in Harvard Square next weekend. This production is an offshoot of the Christmas Revels, which re-create the traditional folk-drama, dance, and song heritage of countries around the world each December for sold-out houses. Patrick Swanson, director of the Revels since founder Jack Langstaff’s retirement, also writes the scripts. "The underpinnings of Revels are really the marking of the seasons or the stages of life," he points out.
Like celebrations of this season throughout the world’s cultures, the coming of spring in Padstow incorporates elements of the death of winter and the renewal of the earth. The story of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter is layered into the annual enactment. "The Padstow Hobby Horse sings lustily," Swanson explains. "Then it dies and leaps up again, reviving with the life force. It’s one of the links with the African material. Some of the tribes of West Africa and Guinea have figures that die and leap up again."
The Padstow holiday begins at midnight when the people are summoned to "rise up," take off for the nearby woods, and cut down greenery to decorate the town as visual incantations to fertility. The neighbors then dress in white for the day-long events. At 11 a.m. the Padstow ’Obby ’Oss appears, a strange-looking red-white-and-black creature that might represent a dragon said to have been chased from the region by St. Petroc. The body is made of a large hoop of black cloth topped by a horsehead and tail, with a large mask on his back. "The creature is particularly weird," Swanson observes. "It immediately reminds you of the costumes worn by the African witch doctors. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that a sailor brought back the artifact [i.e., a mask]. There was a well-established sailing route from England to West Africa, certainly by the 17th and 18th centuries. Later it was a slave-trading route."
One of the customs associated with the Padstow Hobby Horse is the attention it pays to young women. The horse tries to pull them under its skirt; it’s believed that any woman so caught will marry within a year. Swanson notes that the rehearsals in Padstow on the day before the festival, fueled by much drinking, are "sensuous and English at the same time, words that don’t go tripping together off the tongue."
The production will feature 70 performers, including traditional singers John Roberts and Tony Barrand, De Ama Battle’s troupe, the 35-member West Country Chorus, musicians David Coffin, Derek Burrows, and Malachy Metcalfe, the Pinewoods Morris Dancers, Nigerian poet Ifeanyi Menkiti, and the Clovelly Children’s Chorus, plus the usual audience participation. And there’s a "This Weekend" bonus: at 1 p.m. this Sunday, June 16, a team of oxen will pull a giant Maypole from 38 Oxford Street to Sanders Theatre, where it will be raised with dance and song. Everyone is welcome to watch, but if you want to join the procession, which will include morris dancers and other cast members, come early and check in at the Revels table for kazoo lessons. Instruments will be provided.
The Spring Revels play next Friday (June 21) at 8 p.m., Saturday (June 22), at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sunday (June 23) at 1 p.m. at Sanders Theatre in Harvard Square. Tickets $18 to $30 ($12 to $26 for children under 12). Call (617) 496-2222 or visit the Harvard Box Office in the Holyoke Center Arcade in Harvard Square.
BY IRIS FANGER
