A Boy's War and an anniversary

David Michell's book, A Boy's War, about his time in the Weihsien concentration camp with Eric Liddell was a major source for research on my play about Liddell, Beyond the Chariots. I just found out two exciting things:

1) Though David Michell died several years ago, his widow and children are planning on attending my Toronto performance.

2) I don't think any of us planning the event realized until Ken Michell pointed it out, that August 17, the first of two performances in Toronto, will be the 61st Anniversary of the liberation of the Weihsien concentration camp.

If you're in the Toronto area, I hope you can make it. Go to RichDrama.com/Itinerary for details.

Either way I highly recommend...

A Boys War By David Michell / Overseas Missionary Fellowship A Boy's War is a true story of a boy in China in a Japanese concentration camp during World War II. Yet it is an account more about children and their adventures than the atrocites of a deathcamp. And it includes glimpses of Olympic Gold Medalist Eric Liddell not included in Chariots of Fire.

Roger's report

I came home from MasterWorks to find Roger's report on our Off-Broadway run. You can download a pdf by clicking here.

Enemies

Fear and laziness are the two greatest enemies of art.
--Rex Daugherty
MasterWorks student

The inredible white board of folly oaths

One day, an anonymous student wrote, "I will be good during rehearsal," on our white board (she later revealed her identity: Shell). Soon it was filled with all sorts of silliness.

I filled the last space on the board. There, in the lower left corner I wrote, "I will not tolerate the phrase, 'I can't return to MasterWorks.'"

John Kirby blessed us beyond expectation

Our second master class instructor, John Kirby, gave more than asked. He worked with each actor on a monologue, which took about three times more than the classes he committed to do. This is quite a gift coming from one of the best acting coaches in Hollywood. We discovered that one of the only films in which he didn't coach Jim Caviezel was The Passion of the Christ. Instead he worked on Peter Pan, which was filmed in Australia, where he stumbled into a church and committed his life to the Lord. He just finished coaching Jim on Tony Scott's Deja Vu. He took time off from coaching the young star of Disney's live action feature film Underdog to teach at MasterWorks.

Now he's back in Winona Lake blessing us again. He and his assistant Nathan flew out at their own expense to see our show!

We built an altar

Dr. Kavanaugh, founder and director of MasterWorks sent us back into the real world by challenging us to build an altar of rememberance for all that He's taught us this month and all that we've pledged to do. We each put one stone in an overturned conductor's platform. John Kirby coached one of our students, Staci Skiles, in a piece about Mary Magdalene remembering her encounter with the Lord. We planned it long before we knew about the altar.

Holy unto the Lord

Our friend, John Kasica, preached on holiness this morning. He shared how, nine months ago, the Lord called him to walk in holiness and share the message at MasterWorks. Today that message was born, powerfully. He pointed out the pattern of confession that has been boldly shared in faculty devotions. World class artists have been sharing how God has delivered them from pornography, drugs, homosexuality and other addictions. John shared this morning how, for three months (the first trimester), he had daily communion after examining himself and confessing sin. At the end of the message he invited people forward for a MasterWorks first: campus-wide communion. Our festival pastor, John Langlois, told how we come from many liturgical backgrounds, and though we didn't have a priest to bless the Eucharist, all were welcome to commune with the Lord and with each other. After that, many students came forward for prayer, some at very deep levels. May the Lord be praised! Can't wait to see what He does in our final week.

Since the spear hadn't been used yet...

...Jimmy thought he should make sure it works.

Seriously, he did have to file it down because the ironwood was so sharp.

Mincayani's spear

Jimmy Sites spoke to the students about the impact of media on culture: phenomenal! Mincayani, who speared Nate Saint and later helped raise his son, Steve, made this spear for Jimmy when he was filming a documentary on the tribe in Ecuador. Mincayani's story is told in the film, The End of the Spear.

And the rockets' red blare

Bold Humility

This morning Dr. Kavanaugh, artistic director of the MasterWorks Festival, spoke on bold humility. He challenged us to be the best artists we can be not so we can be at high places and live a little better those around us, but so that we can have a platform to share the Hope which lives within us. After the service he invited students to come up and pray with faculty if they were ready to pray for bold humility. Lift the many up who were ready and pray for those who aren't there yet.

Star Wars as the sun sets

The 1812 Overture sends us off to fireworks. Oh! There's an encore: Stars & Stripes Forever.

The MasterWorks Festival

We just closed out week one of the MasterWorks Festival.

We're exhausted in an exhillerating sort of way. Our play, A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, is cast, and blocking is well under way. I'll post seperate reports on our fabulous master class instructors Jimmy Sites (host of Spiritual Outdoor Adventures) and John Kirby (acting coach for Jim Caviezel among many others).

Full page in Word

I've performed several times in Bill and Melanie Jeschke's church, just outside Washington DC.

She just had a full page article run in Word Magazine (A Rocky Path) about her Inklings romance novel series. The books chronicle the lives of students of CS Lewis at Oxford. In her upcoming prequil Lewis actually makes an appearance.

Congratulations Melanie!