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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    This album of songs from the new musical "The Fourth Messenger" stars Vienna Teng as Mama Sid, a world-renowned spiritual teacher with a hidden past. Loosely inspired by the Buddha legend, this contemporary re-imagining poses the question of whether and how it's possible to be both enlightened and flawed.

    This pre-order package includes a physical CD and a digital download, to be released November 7, 2015.

    Music by Vienna Teng, lyrics by Tanya Shaffer and Vienna Teng, directed by Matt August, orchestrated/music directed by Ryan O'Connell.

    "An absolute delight." - SF Chronicle • "Profound and profane, combative and compassionate… Teng’s complex harmonies and inspired melodies stick with you long after the curtain goes down." - Art Animal • "Hugely ambitious and refreshingly original…Teng is a fresh and exciting new theatrical talent with a distinctive voice of her own…" - Huffington Post • "Masterful and compelling…both timeless and contemporary." - Stage and Cinema

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Fourth Messenger, featuring Vienna Teng via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
    ships out within 7 days

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • What if the Buddha were a woman, living in our times? In this captivating new musical, Mama Sid is a modern-day “awakened one” with a worldwide following. But a determined young woman seeks to unearth Mama Sid’s mysterious past, exposing long-held secrets that could change everything. Epic and intimate, comic and profound, The Fourth Messenger investigates what it means to be both enlightened and human. Book and lyrics by Tanya Shaffer, music and additional lyrics by Vienna Teng. Script includes all lyrics and text, not musical score.

    This is a digital pre-order. The PDF will be released on November 7, in conjunction with The Fourth Messenger album featuring Viena Teng.

    “An exciting and ambitious project, driven by Teng's eclectic score, Shaffer's inspired rewrites of the Buddha story, and their punchy, provocative lyrics… An absolute delight.” - San Francisco Chronicle • “Intelligent and skillfully crafted…hugely ambitious and refreshingly original... Shaffer's musical has the audience emotionally involved and on the edge of their seats.” - The Huffington Post • “A satisfying and remarkably entertaining new musical that takes on spiritual life with wit and emotional resonance…” - KQED/NPR • “Beautiful...A triumph… Shaffer’s book brims with intelligence and wit… ” - Theater Dogs • “Masterful and compelling...both timeless and contemporary…” - Stage and Cinema
    ... more

      $5 USD or more 

     

about

Enraged at Sid's explanation for why she left Raina when Raina was a baby, Raina unleashes a blistering tirade about growing up without a mother

lyrics

RAINA
Every time I’d see your face
Flash across a TV screen
Every time your name appeared
In another glossy magazine
Every time I’d hear you quoted
Every time I’d hear you praised
By some student so devoted,
Somebody whose life you saved,
Every time I’d hear a stranger
Rave about how much you give
How you walk divine among us
How you show us how to live
I’d want to rage
I’d want to cry
I’d want to tell them it's all a lie
I’d want to howl up to the sky:
What about me?
What about me?
How can it be
This miraculous “she"
Could forget about me?

SID
(Tries to take her hand) Raina.

RAINA
No!

Every time I’d see a woman
Lift a baby to her breast
Walk a toddler ‘cross the street
Or Scold a teen on how she's dressed
Every time I read about
How every mother loves her child
In my mouth the taste grows bitter
In my chest my heart beats wild
Every time I think of how
You left me when I had no voice
No words to tell you how I need you
No power that could sway your choice
I want to rage
I want to cry
I want to tell them it's all a lie
I want to howl up to the sky:
What about me?
What about me?
How can it be
This miraculous “she”
Could forget about me?

To sit there in the room with you
Hear your laughter, see your smile
It’s not as I imagined it would be
My heart’s a knot, a book shut tight
Unreadable even to me
Every time you meet my eyes
I lose my tether, lose my drive
Why do they love you?
Why can’t I hate you?
Oh why don’t you know that I’m alive
How can it be
This miraculous she

The teacher, the prophet, the seer, the sage
The one who shines light on this desolate age
The one whose compassion is vaster than earth
Who shows us the cycle of death and rebirth...
Oh how is it true
This miraculous you
Could just walk away
Stray till today
From your own body's issue
Your sinew, your tissue
This stubborn but vulnerable
Still, I hope, lovable
Me?

credits

from The Fourth Messenger, featuring Vienna Teng, released November 10, 2015
Music by Vienna Teng
Lyrics by Tanya Shaffer
Directed by Matt August
Music Directed and Orchestrated by Ryan O'Connell

RAINA: Cailan Rose
SID: Vienna Teng

Piano and keyboards: Ryan O'Connell
Violin: Anthony Blea
Cello: Freya Seeburger
Drums: Ken Bergmann

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The Fourth Messenger Berkeley, California

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