No matter what the current situation of your life, there's a song that relates to it, said Carole Mason. "When we're happy, there's a song about being happy, and when we're sad and we need to be built up, there are songs that give us inspiration and encourage us." "My songs are more praise and worship," Mason said.
"They're edifying and uplifting." Daughter of the Rev. R.
D. McClain of Shiloh Baptist Church in Scranton, Mason has been singing in church for as long as she can remember. She's been writing songs for a decade and has been recording for at least five years, but didn't really take making music seriously until recently.
Mason will celebrate the release of her first single on Saturday evening during a program of live gospel music titled Night of Worship. "There are so many people who die and take their gifts, their talents, cures for diseases, so many things, to the grave with them because they don't follow up or they don't share or maybe they lose hope or motivation. Whatever it is, I didn't want that to happen in my life," she explained.
"You're Everything To Me" is a preview of Mason's full gospel album, projected for release in May. An abbreviated version of a second song off the full album, "Thou Are Welcome," also appears on the CD single. Both songs were penned by Mason and are accompanied by Marcus Graves and his group of musicians, A Special Blend.
"I can actually hear the songs," she said. "I write them and I sing them for Marcus, and then he takes what I sing and he puts the music to it. So he essentially brings the songs to life.
" In addition to Mason and other local performers, Night of Worship will feature the infectious Jason Wright and the Master's Touch, a 30-voice choir from Rochester, N.Y., as well as a smaller, traveling youth outfit from Syracuse called The Anointed Ensemble.
No stranger to such event planning and promotion, Mason recently launched No Limits Productions Company, under which name she will continue to bring gospel music to Scranton as well as promote her own music. More Mamet Notable for some of playwright David Mamet's earliest word play, The Duck Variations (1972) is the probably the least-known of the trio of off-Broadway plays (also including Sexual Perversity in Chicago and American Buffalo) that drew the Chicago-native's first national acclaim in 1976. The Duck Variations finds two old men watching ducks in a park transferring their own experiences from life on to the birds' behavior, arguing and occasionally agreeing about the deepest of subjects.
King's College Brown Bag Theatre will present the second of two lunchtime performances of the play on Thursday at 12:10 p.m. in the Administration Building theater.
Admission is free. Visit www.kings.
edu for more information. Suite Gift It's been staging The Nutcracker for 20 years, and Scranton Civic Ballet will celebrate its production milestone by offering free admission to this year's performances. Running Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.
m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.
, the ballet will be staged at the Scranton Cultural Center. The Nutcracker is only one, albeit the largest, facet of the "gala" the company is calling a Holiday Celebration of the Arts. Festive activities begin 90 minutes prior to curtain and include storytelling, visual artist demonstrations, a visit from Santa, and performances by musical ensembles and choral groups.
Though the show is free, tickets are required and can be obtained at the box office at 344-1111 or at Scranton Civic Ballet at 343-0115. Visit www.scrantoncivicballet.
com for more information. Victorian Secret A private Victorian-era home in Scranton's Hill Section will be the setting for The Northeast Theatre's latest production. Newlywed musicians Jessica Medoff and Michael Bunchman will perform together in concert for the first time on Saturday afternoon in a benefit titled A Victorian Holiday.
Medoff was inspired by the house itself to create the show for TNT while in town for a cabaret performance earlier this year. A professional opera singer and cabaret artist, Medoff has performed both classical and popular music at such venues as the Aspen Opera Theatre Center and Lake George Opera. Bunchman is a classical pianist, on the faculty of the Music Conservatory of Westchester.
The event's traditional menu will be prepared by actress Heather Stuart, who just so happens to be a pastry chef. The party will begin at 3 p.m.
with the music scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Tickets are $30 and must be purchased in advance at the box office at 558-1515 or via www.
the northeasttheatre.us. Directions will be shared at the time of ticket purchase.
Artistic Encore Conspiring photographers Ivana Pavelka, Rolfe Ross, and Michael Poster have hosted 10 top-notch exhibitions at Camerawork since launching the gallery in Oct. 2004. The region's only gallery dedicated solely to fine art photography, Camerawork will celebrate the arrival of its third year on the scene with a group showing from the diverse pool of artists that has previously exhibited in the space.
Titled Encore, the exhibition will feature work by Bernie Andreoli, Carl Backlund, Paul Bracey, Sally Wiener Grotta, Lisa Hinkle, Rob Lettieri, Megan Elise Monczewski, Pavelka, Poster, Ward Roe, Ross, Curtis Salonick, and Sally Tosti. Encore will open on Saturday with a reception from 1 to 4 p.m.
The work will remain on display through April 3. Call 344-3313 or visit www.camerawork.
org for more information. (Editor's note: This event was incorrectly listed for Sunday, Dec. 10 in the print editions of electric city and diamond city.
) CFP Returns In golf they call it a mulligan but in the short film Clara, writer/director Trish Blaine settles for "do-over." "Haven't you ever just wanted a do-over," she poses in the edgy and engaging work, which will launch the second Community Film Project series of short films this week at the Endless Mountains Theatre in Dickson City. Filmed from the point of view of an amateur filmmaker/musician inquiring into his emotionally distant girlfriend's enigmatic past, Clara will play before all shows of The Holiday Friday through Thursday, Dec.
14. CFP's Shorts #2 will continue in subsequent weeks with movies by Robert Sweeney, Tony DelRegno, and Jeff Fowler. Visit communityfilmproject.
org for more information. Comfortably Fun Perhaps most proud of its status as the only Pink Floyd tribute band asked to perform for one of its musical heroes, The Australian Pink Floyd has dubbed itself "the world's No.1 Pink Floyd Tribute.
" The hero in question is none other than David Gilmour, at whose 50th birthday celebration in London the APF was joined on stage by Richard Wright and Guy Pratt, for what the band remembers as a "rousing" rendition of "Comfortably Numb." The APF formed in Adelaide in South Australia in 1988 and in 1993 became the first Pink Floyd tribute band to tour in the U.K.
According to Wikipedia, the APF's approximately two one-hour sets of original Pink Floyd music are complemented by a continuous "psychedelic" light show. See it Tuesday at the Scranton Cultural Center at 8 p.m.
Tickets range from $37.50 to $43.50.
Call the box office at 344-1111 for more information or visit www.aussiefloyd.com.
For the Kids As if everyday life wasn't hectic enough, someone had to come along and turn up the hustle and bustle with a never-ending list of additional holiday chores. Why not sneak in a little shopping while the kids kick back and enjoy readings of holiday stories in the cozy children's section of Borders in Dickson City? Sponsored by the Lackawanna County Library System, the holiday readings will be held Wednesdays through Dec.
20 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Stories this week include Cobweb Christmas, Mooseltoe, Santa's Secrets Revealed, How Santa Got His Job, A Snowman Just Named Bob, and Mrs.
Wishy-Washy's Christmas. Children will also enjoy assembling a holiday craft and will go home with a candy cane treat. Call 562-1234 for more information.
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