Welcome to the first week of Masquers on Demand
We are very excited to bring you delightful music, stunning photography, engaging writing, and a hilarious radio play. Be sure to visit our Facebook and let us know what you enjoyed. A special thanks to this week’s contributors: Birches Bend, Sing For America, Bill Pickersgill, Richard Friedlander, Bill Chessman, Four Eyed Jacks Productions, and Mark Decker. Be sure to come back next week for brand new content!
Music
Boxing Real – Chad Manning (guitar) and Jasper Manning (mandolin)
Ranging in age from 11 – 14, these youth are the future of Bluegrass. The band features Lucy Khadder (fiddle), Jasper Manning (mandolin), Sophia Sparks (mandolin) with Chad Manning (guitar). Expect to be delighted by their artful new interpretations of both traditional and contemporary bluegrass tunes and songs with a sprinkling of originals thrown in. The band all met through a common love of bluegrass music, and through studying at the venerable Manning Music studios in Berkeley, CA. They have performed together for just a year, bringing their talents to farmer’s markets and a variety of public venues as well as house concerts in the East Bay. They recently participated at the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Kids on Bluegrass program in Raleigh, NC as well as showcasing at the California Bluegrass Association showcase there. They performed for Masquers Playhouse in 2018 for our holiday production Appalachian Christmas and also provided entertainment at last year’s film screening of White Christmas. They have become Masquers patron favorites! Learn more and support Manning Music Studios and Birches Bend.
Bill Pickersgill – “Man of La Mancha” – 2016 Sing for America Benefit Concert
Watch Bill Pickersgill sing “Man of La Mancha” for the 2016 Sing for America Benefit Concert at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on April 17, 2016. The Sing for America Foundation of San Francisco combines your love of the arts with social media skills to help you fund your charitable interests – arts, health, welfare – whatever social good you serve. For several years now, Bill and his wife Buffy Baggot have participated in Sing for America on behalf of Masquers, raising over $5,000 for our revitalization project. Learn more about Sing for America.
ESSAY
Read the essay Carnaby Street and Me, by Richard Friendlander.
Richard Friedlander is an East Bay writer, actor, mediator, and long-time member of Masquers Playhouse.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Lux Aeterna is a phrase from the latin requiem mass that means “Light Eternal”. I’ve sung it many times in my years as a choral singer, but it has significance to me as a photographer because light is the very essence of photography. As an amateur photographer I’m always striving to make better use of the light I find in my photos, and now as a computer animation lighter I’m striving to create better light for each shot.
Radio play
Masquers Playhouse presents a Four-Eyed Jacks Production, performed and recorded before a Live Audience in 2018. Written and directed by Bill Chessman.
In Bride of the Spaghetti Monster, Carolyn and Aaron are getting married. But will Aaron’s seemingly unnatural obsession with spaghetti cause more problems than just tomato sauce stains? Features live sound effects and talented voice actors.