Mark Shepard: A Life In Song

Archive for October, 2009

A love song…anybody got a picture that would go with this? Let me know in the comments below.

What Would it Be Like? | Song # 349 |Jan. – Feb. 2006

What would it be like to be your lover
And have the love we make fill up the day?
What would it be like to make you “suffer”
In the most intimately pleasurable way?

What would it be like to kiss your fingers
More thoroughly than they’ve been kissed before?
What would it be like to be the singer
Whose voice and words touch you to your core?

Refrain:
I want to touch you, I want to fill your mind
I want to break your resistance open wide
I want to focus you and breathe you up my spine
Beyond the petty cages of our lives
Beyond the confines

What would it be like to share a secret
With a simple look across a crowded room?
What would it be like to cross the threshold
On a winter’s night illumined by the moon?

What would it be like to make you dinner
And to knead your aching muscles for dessert?
What would it be like to kiss your temples
And soothe away your troubles without words?

Refrain:

Bridge:
Beyond the confines of who we used to be
Out to the edges of our sensuality
Where a man and a woman can set each other free…

What would it be like to touch your shoulder
In a way that turns you totally a round
What would it be like to whisper something
In your ear so softly there’s no sound?

What would it be like to paint your picture
To memorize the features of your face
What would it be like to take you walking
And show you something new, some secret place

Refrain:

What Would It Be Like by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please leave a comment below! thanks – Mark

Just got word that another awesome review of “Letters To Daddy, Jr” has been published!

Here are some highlights:

The concept of an all-kid musical, of course, has been tried before. But the genre is ripe for an update, and Letters To Daddy, Jr. offers a straightforwardness and sincerity rarely seen in today’s musical theater. Creators Mark Shepard and Jill Jaysen have owe a lot to the example set by You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, but in some ways their take on preteen angst is more believable…

the dedicated young cast is so engaging, and Shepard’s upbeat score so heartfelt, that it’s impossible not to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride…

Read the whole review

This was recorded live in April of 2006 at Watering Pond Yoga Studios in Guilford, CT. Thanks again to Dorothy Cochran & Michael Bowers for all your support!

Rain On A Tin Roof | Song #101 | April 1988

Lull me to sleep like a warm Spring rain
on a tin roof darling
Rise and shine to the clean dawn tune
of the Robins and Starlings

I’m getting that feeling like I’m gonna want
to live forever
And I’d kind of like to know
If we could spend that time together…

Refrain:(X2)
Hey oh, Hey ah
Hey oh, Hey ah
Hey oh, Hey ah

I want to dream with you
Like a rock, like a roll, like a river ride
Can’t you see that being with you
Is something rarefied?

You are the distant jet plane
Flash of light across dark skies
You are the wind of my love
You are the sight of my eyes

Refrain:

I was gonna bring you bacon and eggs
and English Muffins in bed
But I started singing in the shower
So I wrote this song for you instead

Hope you don’t mind but singing about you
Makes me feel so fine
And the rain on the tin roof
Drums along and hums along in time

Refrain:

Commentary: This is one of my all time favorite songs to perform live because it’s easy for audiences to sing along. It’s also one of those classic “feel good” songs that can help to shift a person into a place of hope and optimism. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Rain On A Tin Roof by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

I See The Blue Breaking Through | Song # 401 | 10/7/09

Now what? We begin to begin again
Now that the rain has decided to end
And our hearts are certainly on the mend

(Can you comprehend?)

How good it feels to look up and see
Blue sky begin to break through and The
Clouds of grey beginning to blow away

Gravity. Sometimes drags you down
Relax. Stretch out upon the ground
Look up. And watch the blue break through

Refrain:
I see the blue breaking through
Do you catch a glimpse of it too?
What’s it like to be brand new?

I can’t say I knew it would work this way
Had a moment when I had to keep fear at bay
But at the end of a very long day

(I have to say we found a way)
To have fun while we got the job done
And I want to thank everyone
Who joined in and helped us with our play
(hip hip hooray)

Refrain:

So what’s next?
Where do we go from here?
Climb with me up to where the air is clear
And watch the blue break through for you…

Refrain

Commentary: This song arose out of a conversation I had with Playwright and Director, Jill Jayson of Center Stage Theatre Company reflecting back on the intense week of rehearsals and 4 performances of “Letters To Daddy, Jr” with 19 amazing elementary school age actors. Saturday We did 2 performances in Westport CT. It poured rain all day. But that did not dampen anybody’s spirits! The rain let up just as we had to break down the set and pack it into a half dozen parent’s cars for the NYMF performances in Manhattan on Sunday. Sunday dawned clear and beautiful and everyone and every thing got to New York City by 9 am! We set up. We did a run through for lighting cues. We checked the sound. The kids did two great shows (although by the 4:00 pm show you could tell they were tired (I know I was exhausted!).

Then we had to break down the set and pack it all away in all the different cars and head back.

It’s all a blur now but, Tuesday morning Jill and I were discussing future projects and while we were speaking the sun broke out of the heavy clouds and blue sky began to show through…I said to Jill, “I see the blue breaking through…”

“There’s a new song!” she said.

So here it is still in a bit rough form but you get the basic idea. Can you imagine 19 kids belting out the chorus?

I just want to send out a special thank you to Jill Jayson, and the Parents of all the cast members! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Copyright by Mark Shepard

I See the Blue Break Through by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please leave a comment below!

Letters to Daddy, Jr. is chock full of life’s lessons without ever being preachy – in fact it’s all done with humor and bright and catchy soft rock tunes that the kids obviously relish singing especially the wonderful “Together We Can Change The World”. Oscar E. Moore (read the rest of the review here)

Well. We did it. Somehow Director Jill Jayson managed to get 19 seven through eleven year old kids and their parents AND the entire Center Stage set packed up Saturday night in half a dozen cars…

Early sunday Morning in Manhattan we found the theater, unloaded the sets and the props and the musical instruments and the sound equiptment…

Then set it all up, ran through the show for lighting cues, checked the sound… and all of a sudden it was 1:00 pm and time to start the first show.

The kids were wonderful and as always full of surprises and the kind of earnest intensity that performing live in a real theater creates.

But don’t take my word for it, check out the full review of Letters To Daddy by Oscar E. Moore!

Hey, everybody, just a quick post to update you on what’s happening with the production of Letters To Daddy, Jr that will be performed this weekend by 19 amazing 7 to 11 year old actors.

My former neighbot Milli got to sneak in to yesterday’s rehearsal. She was blown away! She said, “I knew it would be good because you’ve been telling me about it for a while…but I had NO IDEA IT WOULD BE THIS FANTASTIC! THE KIDS ARE UNBELIEVABLY GOOD!!!!”

I still get chills every time this kids raise their voices up together on “You have a Secret” and “Together We can Change The World”. This really and truly is a unique experience that will probably never be repeated.

So…..

If there is any chance that you can come to either the Westport CT shows on Saturday, October 3rd either at 1:00 PM or 7:00 PM, please call this number below to make your reservations and mapquest directions:

Seabury Center
45 Church Lane, Westport, CT

all tickets to the Westport shows are $15
Call 203 341-9659 for reservations (seating is extremely limited so reserve ASAP!)

The NY Shows will be On Sunday October 4th. This cast will be the youngest group of actors to appear in the prestigious New York Musical Theater Festival (a.k.a NYMF )

Here’s the info for that:

Get Tickets To Letters To Daddy, Jr. (a NYMF Special Event)
Seating is Limited so get your tickets Now!

Sunday, October 04 at 1:00 & 4:00 PM

at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
248 West 60th Street
New York, NY 10023
The theater is located between Amsterdam and West End Avenues.
Take the 1, A, B, C & D to 59th Street/ Columbus Circle.

Hope to see you there!

- Mark