The Madrigal Christmasse Feaste was created in 1991 by Dwayne Ibsen of Ibsen Costume Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska. He and musical director Jerry Gray created an evening of great food, humor and special music acted and sung by a cast of 26. For 29 years the event was held the first week of December and had sold out performances for groups coming as far as Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, California, Texas and Colorado. When the Pandemic hit, the show took a hiatus and was dormant for five years.
This year, 2024, it was recreated for the 30th time and again played to huge houses. It is now hopeful that the new location at the Hoff Art Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa will house the event for the coming years.
(An educational session on how this all happened was presented at the NCA Covention in Portland, Oregon in 2003 and the full show with food and merriments was presented at the NCA Convention in Omaha, Nebraska in 2008.)