Celebration of the Eucharist on TV

If you are one of the few readers that have actually read my , you know that I occasionally appear on the Television Mass that airs daily from 10 to 10:30 a.m. on WCCT. The Sunday Mass is a slightly expanded episode and goes until approximately 10:45 a.m. with the remainder of the hour filled with an episode of That’s the Spirit. Both of the shows are produced by the Office of Radio & Television of the Archdiocese of Hartford in a small studio in Prospect. Broadcast air time for The Celebration of the Eucharist is made possible by Counterpoint Communications, Inc. Studio facilities and broadcast equipment for The Celebration of the Eucharist are provided by Counterpoint Communications, Inc.

The personable Father John Gatzak is the man in charge and executive producer of the television shows. Various priests from throughout three dioceses say the Mass on a rotating basis and other individuals volunteer to serve as readers and musicians. If the priest assigned to the day does not bring along musicians from his parish, the producer often calls local people to provide the music. Lucky for me, my old friend Jeff Bingham is often called to fill in and if it is during one of my school vacations, he sometimes remembers to give me a call and invite me to come along to sing backup. Jeff is a really talented guitar player/singer/songwriter and our voices blend very well.

Once a month the crew does a remote broadcast from a Catholic church, but Tuesday is the day that they tape the other Sunday Masses after the live one that airs at 10 a.m. So Jeff and I were not able to enter the studio until after the participants of the live show exited. While we waited in the lobby, we reviewed the music he had chosen and we met the priest who would be saying the Sunday Mass. The producer finally came out and ushered us into the small studio. We began to rehearse the music so that the sound guy could listen to the levels of our voices and the guitar in the control room and adjust the microphones as needed. We knew that we would need more music than we normally do for the half hour show, so we practiced all the verses. Good thing we did, because the sermon was relatively short and there was lots of airtime to fill. While not on camera, we could sneak a look at the two clocks on the wall and we knew we would need to keep singing. As usual, Anthony Purcaro, of Purcaro TV and Video, was serving as the middle cameraman and floor manager. He kept giving Jeff the stretch sign, and we kept singing. Mr. P was out of my sight line so the only way I knew when we were “out” was when Jeff changed the lyric to something along the lines of “and we are done finally.” Everyone teased Jeff afterwards that this marathon singing happens often when he comes to sing. After we finished, but before they turned out the studio lights, I took some quick photos of the small studio to post along with this blog. When Kimberly Saunders was finished working camera three, I mentioned to her how much I enjoyed her performance as Miss Phillips/Inventor/Co-Dance Captain in the Warner’s recent production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She was kind enough to pose for a photo doing her day job; theater people are everywhere.

I have posted the photos I took of the studio and added some inside info in the captions. Truth be told, the main reason I first volunteered to sing for the Mass was because I wanted to see the inside of a television studio. Maybe to meet Fr. Gatzak as well.

So if you would like to see how our music turned out and how much camera time the musicians got, you can watch the Celebration of the Eucharist at 10 a.m. this Sunday August 21, 2011 on The CT WCCT. I used to be able to watch (and save) my appearances online, but since they switched to broadcasting in high-def they have been unable to post them. I will be getting the DVR King at my house to record it for me.