Chad Mason

Chad Mason is a musician, writer and technical theatre practitioner born in Oxford, UK in 1981.

While growing up, his initial creative outlet was acting, both at school and through his decision to study Drama at the University of East Anglia in 1999, necessitating a move to the city of Norwich.  As part of his undergraduate studies, he undertook training in technical theatre, which, when combined with his experience of playing in bands as a teenager, led to many adventures in live events in the years to come. Away from his studies he threw himself into yearly trips to The Edinburgh Fringe, acting in, directing (including an early, unpublished Mike Bartlett play) and sound designing various shows, eventually working as a venue technician for the Pleasance in his graduation year of 2002.

Seeking a further rounding of his theatre skills, he returned to UEA in 2004, studying for an MA in Creative Writing: Scriptwriting. While studying, his short play It Knew was performed at UEA Drama Studio, while his work Dropping the Gate featured in the MA showcase before going on to jointly win the Willy Russell Foundation Award. Other key writing work includes The Resident (Tristan Bates Theatre, London 2009) and co-writing (with Anita Shukla) the animation A Mad Harvest (Artivist Film Festival, Hollywood, CA.)

Chad’s “day job” often keeps him fairly busy in the evenings too, as he has cultivated a career as a Theatre technician and sessional lecturer specialising in Further and Higher Education. At City College Norwich he supervised the transforming of a sparsely equipped Sports Hall theatre into a professional local venue and designed and executed the install and fit-up of a brand-new recording studio facility. Alongside these technical endeavours, he undertook on-the-job training for a Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector, while tutoring in Studio recording at BTEC first and national diploma up to foundation degree level. In the midst of this he also designed lights and sound for much of the theatre’s output, more often than not passing the most valuable opportunities to students. He did however do a colleague a grudging favour one night, sound engineering for an unknown local lad named Ed Sheeran.

Simultaneously, Chad had been teaching sound to UEA students as an associate tutor leading to a full time return to his Alma Mater as UEA Drama Studio’s Theatre technician. He seeks to impart up-to-date technical knowledge and skills and works to parallel student learning with relevant professional parity. While this has been a challenge in Covid times, his knowledge of a/v streaming and conferencing has inspired new ideas for collaboration and creation.

Chad’s own music has been an ongoing reflection of his interest in technology and performance. Three self-produced solo albums have been released, and he has gigged in Austin, Texas; New York and key festivals and Folk Clubs in the UK - Latitude festival (twice), End of the Road Festival (three times), Folk East, Cambridge Folk Club. He also holds his own in the capital, playing at Brixton Windmill, the Slaughtered Lamb and the Troubadour. Sometimes his interests combine –as with his Gig Theatre show May ’14 – created for Central School of Speech and Drama’s Accidental Festival at the Roundhouse and revived for the E17 Art Trail. He is currently putting the finishing touches to two albums - one is a live album, the other was recorded on reel-to-reel in an World War II RAF command bunker!

He has produced music videos for all of his own releases, and for the band Left With Pictures as part of their In Time Project. He was thrilled to work on Paul Thompson and Jonty Rea's electronic music songscape films Das Rollerball (2019), Deliverance Now (2022) and All Quiet on the Culture Front (2025)and looks forward to future projects in its ilk.

Where live music, film and theatre technology combine, Chad Mason looks to be part of the process. He seeks to make this an educational voyage for all, as it always has been for him.