Performances and workshops in almost 40 nations, about 30 films... Invite the Swingles to inspire your audience! Mobile users, our index is on the line below...
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In 2001-2002 I played five roles in the musical Judah Ben-Hur in Singapore. So I went into an advance screening of Ben-Hur with a lot of hope.
I saw the film with a friend, and I held back from whispering, "I played that guy," five times during the film, so I'll share my delight here, where it won't interrupt your viewing pleasure...
I'll start with the smallest role I had: There was a character who walked onto stage after blowing a trumpet. The actor couldn't play trumpet, so I played it for him and then handed it to him before he walked on.
That's me and my pipa far right.
I played a galley slave in the shadows behind Judah, and I was a musician in the tent of Sheik Ilderim (played in the current film by Morgan Freeman). I played a pipa like it was a guitar in a grand dance scene.
I played Pontius Pilate, who had a much smaller role in the musical than he does in the current film. I basically sat on a couch eating grapes as I presided over the chariot race from about 15' up in the air.
I'm front row center as Simonides
with our wonderful cast from at
least four continents.
My main role in the musical was Simonides, the slave of Judah Ben-Hur's family and the father of Esther, Judah's love interest. In the film Simonides' only speaking roles are mumbled in passing, but the musical made much more of him, and it was a joy to be some of the comical relief in an otherwise very serious story. Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur, is the basis of the 1959 film starring Charlton Heston, the musical, and the film opening in theaters nationwide this weekend. Simonides dies early in this film, but Wallace puts him at the crucifixion of Jesus, saying "Let us henceforth speak of him as the Christ," and Wallace says that Simonides "lived to be a very old man. The current film uses his early death in a strategic way, and I think it pays off.
One of my favorite elements of the musical was that it opened with a solo by Balthazar, one of the three wise men, singing about traveling to and worshiping Jesus as an infant. Balthazar's presence at the crucifixion is poignant. Joyce captured this 33-year perspective in her one-woman one-act play "The Shepherd's Daughter." You can see her perform it in The Shepherds Cave in Bethlehem at www.RichDrama.com/ShepherdsDaughter. I was sorry Balthazar was left out of this film, but the different opening of the film has a huge payoff, which I'll allude to more in a moment.
As with the 1959 version, no resurrection is shown in the current film. There are indications that the story ends before Easter, and there are miracles when Jesus says, "It is finished." The 1959 film ends on the empty crosses. The novel makes no mention of the resurrection either, but it makes it clear that Judah and his family are Christians, believing that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead without having been first-hand witnesses, as 2.2 billion people believe today. Wallace also shows Judah supporting the brand new Christian movement by giving toward an underground church (literally) meeting in the catacombs. Wallace says "Out of that vast tomb Christianity issued to supersede the Caesars."
I actually feel this current film has the greatest nod to the resurrection of the three versions of the tale I mention here. Judah's time bowing at the foot of the cross inspires an action neither the 1959 version, nor the novel dare to show. A GodTube article reported:
(Timur) Bekmambetov only took the job (of director) after he was certain he could implement his vision for spotlighting a different theme from the 1880 novel than the famous Charlton Heston version of the film did. “The 1959 movie was about revenge, not about forgiveness,” Bekmambetov told the entertainment web site COLLIDER. “For me that was the main problem; I think that the novel is mainly about forgiveness, about the fact that a human being learned how to forgive.”
This film takes forgiveness even further than the novel, which was written by a man who had been a general during our Civil War. He may have felt his readers weren't ready to read what you'll see on the big screen. Though we're a deeply divided nation, we're not as far apart as we were in the mid-1800s, and I was delighted by the resurrected relationship this film shows.
Christians should know: *Four possible misuses of God's name. It's possible they're genuine prayers, but it's unclear. *The PG-13 rating is for violence related to war, chariot racing, and crucifixion. If you're a parent of children and teens I urge you to read the article "Trained to Kill." *Premarital and marital smooching. *A woman's bare back is shown when her garment is ripped. *A married couple in bed with bare shoulders only talking.
For a more detailed description of what's involved read PluggedIn's review. If you do prayerfully decide to take a young teen the film will offer opportunities to talk about choices the characters make before and after the influence of Jesus Christ on their lives.
See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story by booking Beyond the Chariots.
I thought I might have posted this photo of me running steeplechase in college. I hadn't, but while searching I discovered a site that has posted my times in high school cross country and college track. At some point I'll have to pull out my track journal to update the high school track and college cross country times.
See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story by booking Beyond the Chariots.
Liddell's time in the 100 yards of 9.7 seconds in 1923 stood as a British record for 35 years. That race is only 91.44m. A 100m preliminary during the 1924 Paris Olympics fell on a Sunday, so Liddell decided to pull out of the race. So we'll never know if he could have held that pace another 8.56m. If he could have that would have given him a time of 10.6 seconds. That was the Olympic record that year, set by his nemesis, Harold Abraham. The current record in the 100m is 9.58 seconds.
When I was in high school we had a cinder track, but there were many rubberized tracks around. We were always thrilled when we got to run on the newer tracks because we always had faster times. It would be interesting to know what Liddell could have done on a rubberized track with solid blocks and the kind of training athletes get today.
See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story by booking Beyond the Chariots.
This service is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.
We arrived Saturday night with nothing but a parable. I partnered with dancer/choreographer Sarah George. We were assigned Matthew 13:44-46, which actually has two parables paired: The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price.
After some warm-ups designed to get us thinking and creating together we split into two groups and gave the students a 10-minute time limit to dramatize their respective parables. Monday night we shared our ideas with the entire conservatory. Tuesday morning we took feedback we'd received, along with new ideas on what the Kingdom of God is and re-envisioned the entire piece. We kept adding and fine-tuning, and were adding final touches right up until just a few hours before the finale.
On Sunday night the Creative Arts Service Team (CAST) performed Moses. I saw an eight minute version last summer in London at the Millennium Dome, and now they've fleshed it out to 28 minutes. So many of them have been my students and colleagues here at TAMC, and they all threw themselves into it! I was quite proud. You can see their performance at Hershey Park by clicking here.
After some warm-ups designed to get us thinking and creating together we split into two groups and gave the students a 10-minute time limit to dramatize their respective parables. Monday night we shared our ideas with the entire conservatory. Tuesday morning we took feedback we'd received, along with new ideas on what the Kingdom of God is and re-envisioned the entire piece. We kept adding and fine-tuning, and were adding final touches right up until just a few hours before the finale.
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