Petaluma Profile: From the Broadway boards to Petaluma’s Senior Center

During lunch at the Senior Cafe on the east side of the Petaluma Senior Center building, the diners are frequently serenaded by a mellow baritone rendition of Broadway show tunes. On other days, the same man may be telling jokes in a foreign accent or calling out bingo numbers.

The distinctive voice belongs to Craig Mason.

This talented son of a small-town minister grew up south of Indianapolis, where his first stage role was playing the lovable Uncle Max in the high school production of “The Sound of Music.” Thirty years later, he played the same character on Broadway opposite Richard Chamberlain as Captain Von Trapp. In fact, Broadway actors named Richard have been important parts of Mason’s acting career. Richard Burton and then Richard Harris sang and acted with him as he played both Sir Dinadan and Sir Sagramore in different performances of the road-show revival of “Camelot.”

After 9/11, “Broadway became catatonic,” Mason now says. “Nobody was hiring, and when my cousin relocated from Portland to Sonoma County, my girlfriend and I headed west.”

An equity actor, Mason soon discovered that local theaters offering union pay were quite limited, so to get roles, he was forced to travel to (and often live briefly) in Los Angeles, San Jose and the East Bay. “I was gone for days or weeks at a time, and my home life suffered,” Mason admits.

Sixteen years ago, Mason decided he needed to, in his words, “shift my lifestyle and get a 40-hour-a-week job to pay the rent and have a social life.” That job turned out to be director of Petaluma’s Meals On Wheels and the Senior Café, both programs run by Petaluma People Service Center and dependent upon donations and volunteers. “We serve between 30 and 50 seniors every lunchtime in the dining room,” he says, “while our fifty volunteer drivers deliver up to 150 meals to individual homes.”

Mason considers the seniors and volunteers his extended family, and the job allows him to tap into his unique set of job skills.

“Before heading to Broadway, I earned my psychology and philosophy degrees from Yale University,” says Mason. “Then, after my father died, I left acting for a while, got my law degree from NYU, and headed to San Francisco to work as a corporate attorney for Petit and Martin.”

Some may recall that firm’s name, as it was the site of the infamous 101 California mass shooting in July, 1993.

“I wasn’t in the office that day,” Mason says, “but I instinctively decided that law wasn’t the answer for me, so I picked up my father’s work and returned to the midwest to be closer to my family and become a minister. I didn’t head back to Broadway again until after my mom died.”

In addition to the occasional theatrical presentations he does at the Senior Cafe, Mason is still drawn to the mystical roar of the greasepaint.

“I’m active in the Flying Leap Improv Theater Ensemble which performs at various locations around the county,” he says. “We had an amazing overflow attendance which spilled out onto the deck for Saturday’s “Trip to the ’60s” show, and we’re looking forward to scheduling some other venues. I love performing improv. It literally keeps me on my toes.”

(Contact Gil Mansergh at gil.mansergh@comcast.net)