What a glorious day!

Priscila Netto's music video

I posted this earlier with not link to the video! Here it is: Give It Up.

Priscila Netto, a member of Christians in Theatre Arts and a friend of ours, was featured in a music video of Give It Up by Christine Evans. The video shows powerfully the value of human life in comparison to the things we think will give us happiness. Evans says this about the song:

I would have to say that "Give It Up" is probably my favourite song. This song follows an ongoing theme of mine which is the transient state of our existence. This world is passing and so are we from this world, so it’s important not to hold on too tightly to things that are only temporary.*

Passing the Torch

I just saw the following quote, framed in a theatre. It could surely be applied to the life of Eric Liddell...

This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

--George Bernard Shaw

Question

I was just asked the following question about Beyond the Chariots, so I thought I'd answer it here:

Begin forwarded message:

How long did it take you to write and rehearse it before you put it together?

It took three months to write and perform the first draft, but it wasn't until the following fall that it really started falling into place.

Bev Holloway's bio

Beverly Holloway just sent her bio.  It makes me even more excited to have her coming to MasterWorks!

Beverly Holloway has worked in LA as a Casting Director for TV and feature film projects for over 13 years.  Her credits include recently released film The Ultimate Gift (Starring James Garner, Abigail Breslin Drew Fuller, Brian Dennehy), Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (Starring Jim Caviezel, Claire Forlani, Malcolm McDowell, Jeremy Northam), and the soon to be released films The Least of These (Starring Isaiah Washington, Jordan Garrett, Robert Loggia, Andrew Lawrence), Like Dandelion Dust (Starring Mira Sorvino, Barry Pepper, Cole Hauser) and a new comedy from Director David Zucker (Starring Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight).  In addition, Beverly is responsible for casting the children's video series Hermie & Friends with amazing talent such as Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Richard Kind, Judge Reinhold and Vicki Lawrence.  After starting her career with primarily faith-based projects, Beverly continues to be excited by projects that use the power of TV and Film to encourage and inspire the world around us.  Beverly lives in Southern California with her husband Douglas and "wonderdog" Oscar.

Interview with George Flores

Part 1


Part 2


Aired February 17, 2008 on Star 99.1FM, Profiles with George Flores.

Posted by permission.

An excerpt

This scene is from the Off-Broadway production of Beyond the Chariots.



Music composed by Fritz Kreisler. Arranged and performed by Claude Chew.

NYC on a misty night

And the winner is...

Ken Wales is featured in the article Joy finally returns to the Hollywood community, where he mentions the upcoming sequel to Chariots of Fire. Check out the article to see what prizes Ken's film Amazing Grace was up for...

The Meetingplace

I performed Beyond the Chariots last Sunday at The Meetingplace Church in Blacksburg, SC. The beautiful building was miraculously transformed from a chicken shed. A truck carrying sheetrock spilled a bunch quite near the church when they were getting ready to renovate it. Most of the sheetrock was in perfect condition, but the driver had to throw it away. They threw it to the church and they put it to great use.
Since then they've been reaching out through a partnership with a group in Mexico: http://Dayspring.us.

Beyond the Chariots in White Plains

Beyond the Chariots will be performed at Westchester Chapel in White Plains, New York, on February 23 at 7pm.

The play tells the rest of the Chariots of Fire story: How, after breaking the world record in the 1924 Olympics, Eric Liddell spent the rest of his life as a missionary in China.

This is a kick off as we gear up to perform the play in China during the Beijing Olympics. We'll have subtitles in Spanish, and we're hoping for several more before the Olympics begin, 08/08/08.

I was recently interviewed by George Flores for his program "Profiles" on Star 99.1FM. Click here to listen.

This event is free. I'm donating the performance so that the entire free-will offering will go directly to Westchester Chapel. We're also using the event to kick off fund raising for performances in Asia during the Olympics. If you can't make it, and you'd like to make a donation, make checks payable to Westchester Chapel. If you want the money to go toward performances during the Olympics write "Emmaus Arts--Olympics" in the memo line. Send to:
Westchester Chapel
214 Central Ave.
White Plains, NY 10606
USA
Thanks!
Rich & Joyce

For driving directions visit http://WestchesterChapel.org.
For directions from New York City visit http://RichDrama.com/WCCC/NYC.


The following is an excerpt from the Off-Broadway performance.

New York Snow

Here's what's left of the snow I was missing in South Carolina.

Historic Milestone Reached - 1,000,000th Registered Child

I want to share the following note from my liaison at Compassion...

Hi Friends,

 

Incredible day at Compassion.  We now have 1,000,000 children currentlyregistered in our sponsorship program!  For clarity, we have about 970,000sponsored, and will expect to cross 1 million sponsored children next fiscal year.  I joined Compassion just 4 years ago and we were excited to cross 500,000 children at that time.  How incredible the way God has been growing this important ministry to children.  It's truly transforming.  Thanks for the important part you play in releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.

 

Ken

You can help us get closer to a million sponsorships: http://RichDrama.com/Compassion.

Moral Storytelling

I just came across a great article by John Truby.

Here's an excerpt:

I don’t know why these stories of grand moral accounting have all appeared in movie theaters at around the same time. It may be nothing more than a fluke of production. Or it may be a reaction to a time when America’s position as the prime moral compass in the world has been shaken, if not shattered, by war and torture. Or it may simply be a number of fine storytellers all deciding to make an aesthetic and moral decision of their own. That stories aren’t just about jolting and thrilling and then soothing an audience. Stories are the primary way we give meaning to our lives, but only when they show individuals making hard decisions with effects that can last a lifetime.

Click here for the whole article.

Beautiful bells

The bell tower is playing a very lovely tune. You'll have to imagine.

Gaffney

I'm doing an acting workshop this afternoon and performance of Beyond the Chariots tonight in Gaffney, SC, home of the Peachoid.

It's snowing

Joyce just told me the snow flakes in New York are beautiful. You'll have to imagine them. I'm in South Carolina, where it's almost 70 degrees. This is where Christians in Theatre Arts (http://CITA.org) is headquartered, and Dale Savidge, the executive director, said one day he got a call from a member in Alaska, who said it was 100 degrees colder there than in Greenville that day. What a varied world with which we've been gifted.

The MasterWorks Theatre Program

Many have pointed out that the quality of our performances is getting better each year, so I realized that it was time to invite a casting director from New York or Hollywood. John Kirby (more on John in a moment) said that he had worked with Beverly Holloway and thought she'd be ideal, and now she's excited to join us.

She cast The Ultimate Gift (Starring James Garner, Abigail Breslin, Drew Fuller, Brian Dennehy), Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (Starring Jim Caviezel, Claire Forlani, Malcolm McDowell, Jeremy Northam), and the soon to be released films The Least of These (Starring Isaiah Washington, Jordan Garrett, Robert Loggia, Andrew Lawrence), Like Dandelion Dust (Starring Mira Sorvino, Barry Pepper, Cole Hauser) and a new comedy from Director David Zucker (Starring Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight). She's going to come for our final performances, talk to students about their work, her work, her faith and how God has opened doors for her in Hollywood.

John Kirby will be returning for his third year, this time to direct us in Moliere's Tartuffe. Since reading it in grad school I've wanted to produce this farcical look at hypocrisy. So many are kept away from entering into a relationship with the Lord because they see some of his followers as hypocrites. I hope that in producing Tartuffe laughter will help people consider logs that might be imbedded in their own eyes (Luke 6:42) and approach those who don't yet know the Lord with a bit more grace.

John is not only coaching the Old Testament version of The Word of Promise, as he did on the New Testament version, but this time around he's actually lending his voice to some of the characters! He's also directing the children's version of The Word of Promise. Congratulations, John. He coached another film with Jim Caviezel in Australia, and three other films he worked on are in post-production. For those new to John's work, he's considered one of the best acting coaches in Hollywood. He's worked on Narnia, The Count of Monte Cristo and Deja Vu to name a few.

Another returning faculty member will be Harvey Johnson, who directed the first two full-length plays for The MasterWorks Festival. This season he's going to head up the auditions for the honors recital and then coach the winners. Harvey continues to work professionally in the Pittsburgh area as a director and actor.

Another goal of mine is to bring in professional performers who can share a full-length play with the entire community in addition to their workshops. This year we'll be joined by Acts of Renewal, a husband and wife team: Carol Anderson and Jim Shores. I first saw Jim and Carol perform at a Christians in Theatre Arts conference in the late '90's, and they blew me away. Since then their work has been featured on TV and radio and they've performed alongside nationally recognized speakers such as Tony Campolo, Joni Erickson Tada, Brennan Manning, Gary Chapman and Sister Helen Prejean (author of Dead Man Walking). I'm not only excited about their gifts as actors and instructors, but they also have a very powerful story to tell.

Once again we'll be blessed with instructors Susan Somerville Brown and Patricia Mauceri. Susie, of CATS on Broadway, will be playing Josephine in HMS Pinafore, musical directing Little Women and directing/teaching Princess Ida (a lesser know Gilbert & Sullivan) before joining us in Winona Lake. Patricia, in addition to her contract role on One Life to Live, has been seen recently on Law & Order and went to Costa Rica recently to minister to the people there.

I'm overwhelmed by how the Lord is putting the right people together for what should be an amazing theatre program this summer. Be sure to let people know! This article can be found at RichDrama.com/MWF.

East Liddell Road

I just went for a run on East Liddell Road. No, I'm not back in Scotland, I'm just north of Atlanta, GA, here to perform Beyond the Chariots about Eric Liddell. No idea of whether or not the road is named after him, but I'm grateful for the nearby inspiration, as well as the pickup truck bed of the kind passerby, who allowed me to climb aboard and get the shot. The light made it kind of tricky.

Interview with George Flores

I just did an interview with George Flores on Star 99.1 FM. It will air at 6:30am EST on Sunday, February 17 on "Profiles with George Flores".

David Nevue

Retta Blaney posted a review of my friend, David Nevue's book: How to Promote Your Music Successfully on the Internet. If you've ever wanted to go full time into the arts as a musician, David's book has a lot of tools to help make that happen.