As we engaged with the community last year, we listened. You shared that you want to see our beloved playhouse as a home for different community groups, events, and causes. Yet, opening up the theater for others has been challenging in large part due to the user-unfriendliness of our lighting system. Every event requires multiple hours to hang, focus, and customize the lighting. We need to make the space more welcoming for our community! So we set a goal to overhaul our lighting system in tandem with our reopening.
The new lighting system is user-friendly and provides flexible and ample lighting for events and productions of any size. We can customize everything directly from a tablet or cellphone. No ladders required! With the new lighting system, Masquers can more thoughtfully commit to community use of the theater. But to achieve our goal, we must raise $50,000 to fully fund a new state-of-the-art lighting system. In December 2019, we received a $5,000 grant from the Point Richmond Gateway Foundation to help seed this project, and now we ask for your financial support.
Can you donate $25, $50, $100, or more to fully fund this project,
and in doing so welcome new communities to Masquers?
Click here to donate online. You can also call 510-232-3888 to make a donation over the phone. Finally, you can mail a donation to Masquers Playhouse, c/o: Light Up Our Stage, PO Box 71037, Richmond, CA 94807.
SEE the New Lighting SysteM IN ACTION
We are embarking on a whole new technical adventure at the Masquers Playhouse. We have completely revamped, re-designed, and replaced our lighting system. We had been using old-school traditional lighting instruments and high-powered electrical dimmers, controlled by a venerable and aged lighting control system. It uses floppy disks, if that helps to date the technology!
Our new system will be comprised of a complete set of fully color- and intensity-controlled LED professional lights by ETC, an American manufacturer and one of the leading theatrical lighting companies in the world.
We will be able to put up a standard, or repertoire, system of lights, which can selectively cover any and all parts of the stage, varying color and brightness in each and every area. We will be graduating to a whole new state of the art computer control system, which will give us more options than we know what to do with (yet!). The whole thing will allow us to use as much as one-quarter or less of the electricity previously used to light a show. And we will be able to fold in any of our old instruments as required for specials or effects. This will be in all a wonderful new experience for the audience and the technical people as well.
-Rob Bradshaw, Masquers Scenic Coordinator
To learn more about the lighting specs or explore the app that controls the lights, visit www.etcconnect.com