The Escalator

When Joyce and I first moved to Midtown Manhattan in 2008 I was coming down this escalator the first time we saw a movie at the AMC Empire 25, and I said a prayer that one day I'd be coming down the same escalators having seen a film in which I'd performed.

Maybe I was prompted to pray that night because I had been at the grand opening of the theatre in 2000. The gala was a benefit for a few Times Square charities including The Lamb's Church of the Nazarene, where I had been an intern for four years. The new cineplex's 25 screens were attached to the Empire Theatre, a playhouse built in 1912 where Bud Abbott and Lou Costello first performed together in 1935. The theatre was moved 168 feet westward to make way for the screens, shops and restaurants! The 3,700 ton structure was pulled by two giant balloon images of Abbott and Costello. LOL! You can see a number of fascinating features from the original theatre, which now makes up the lobby of the megaplex here. The grand opening was really something and had a major impact on me. 

At any rate, that prayer I said on the escalator two years before I'd even been in a feature film was answered tonight -- on Joyce and my 226th monthaversary -- in a small way. We saw the trailer for Providence, in which I play one of the lead roles. It's playing in AMC Theatres that will host the film starting February 12, but if you're not near one of those you can watch it below. The 4K footage looked stunning on the big screen. So, the greater answer to that prayer will be fulfilled 21 days from now when Providence opens in this architectural wonder.

Another way this is answered prayer is that Joyce had prayed I'd be cast in a lead role in a film that honored the Lord literally days before I was cast as Mitchell. She's trying to place when it was and she said it was as we were anticipating the theatrical-on-demand release of Beyond the Mask, in which I play Dr. Bonneville. That opened a week after I was cast.


When we were in Israel in May 2011 Joyce put a prayer in the Wailing Wall that I would be cast as the lead in a film that honored the Lord and I was soon cast as the adult lead in Indescribable, my first lead role in a feature film at that time.

I play a lead in Providence, a modern silent film opening in theatres coast to coast starting February 12.

Registration is now open for the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.