As guests begin to arrive at Joliet Central’s Madrigal Dinner, they are welcomed with warm and comforting smiles from staff and actors. The moment you enter the building, you will see the room filled with winter decorations, fancy silverware, table decorations, and a royal gate that is visually appealing. After being on hiatus for nearly a decade, the school choir hosted this year’s event at the school’s galleria. The Madrigal dinner was about bringing people together to celebrate the upcoming holidays, with people of all ages being welcomed by cheerful staff ready to entertain and have fun. 

This year’s theme took an exciting yet unique turn; the theme is Merrie Olde England, late 16th and early 17th century. To follow the Madrigal theme, the choir actors were dressed in 16th-century clothes while the staff was dressed as lords, ladies, and court jesters. Throughout the event, a storyline was told about the lords and ladies having a Royal Madrigal Dinner with guests being over at their castle. Aside from the show, a secondary main attraction was the food that was given between the performances, the adult’s menu included vegetable trays, potato soup, roasted potatoes, green beans, bread pudding, and more. The children’s menu included similar dishes to the adult’s menu but there were some differences, those differences being macaroni and cheese, chicken chunks, and potato wedges.

After asking several guests, staff members, servers, and actors, everyone agreed that it was a magical and well-organized event. Actors and actresses were delighted with the amount of interaction there was with guests and had an enjoyable night. A special thank you to the production staff for bringing back this event, the choir for hosting this, and a special thank you to the actors who played as the royal court, servers, and music ensemble!