Sean Gaffney launched my career

Happy 50th Birthday to Sean Gaffney!

Sean and I in Colorado, July 1995.

Sean launched a 20 year career in the performing arts for me. I’m sure that’s not what he had in mind when he invited me to drive out to Seattle from NYC to take the position of managing director at Taproot Theatre, but when I said yes to the trip I quit my day job forever. He and I pulled together some of our own sketches, including Sean’s “Lazarus," which I still perform all over the world in a one-man version. We drove together six days and performed together just about every night. Somewhere out there between jumping over a 15’ cyclone fence and running through a cemetery in a Nebraska downpour only to discover the folks we were supposed to perform for in a park on the other side of that cemetery decided to go camping instead, to long chats about good and bad plays, to the Lamb’s Theatre where we met, Sean encouraged me not to go back to my day job. Miraculously I never have, and Sean was a very big part of that.

We both happened to be in London early this July, 20 years to the month after we started that trek. I was tremendously disappointed that our schedules didn’t quite coincide, but the Lord connected us in a very cool way. I was in London to perform with John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings, Beyond the Mask) and Helen George (Call the Midwife) for an audio movie on Alfred the Great (www.RichDrama.com/TheDragonAndTheRaven). Toward the end of one day a colleague approached me: “Is your last name Swingle?” I confirmed it, and he said, “I’m about to have tea with your friends Sean and Cath Gaffney.” I was tremendously disappointed that I couldn’t join them, but I sensed the Lord celebrating two decades of artistic service in that Divine appointment.

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Focus Today interview

I was interviewed this morning on Focus Today on The Dove. You can see the interview here:



You can see my previous interview on The Dove here.

  

You're nearer to seeing Jesus than ever before

Some of those special moments of my career have been ones that I've looked forward to for months or years: Performing Beyond the Chariots for Eric Liddell's family, performing Off-Broadway with Roger Nelson--one of the fellows who inspired me to this career--the first time I walked into a theater for a film in which I performed. Others sneak up out of nowhere, like this morning:

Rich Swingle portraying Jesus in Journey to the Garden
in Aman, Jordan.

I portrayed Jesus for Treasure Seekers, complete with robe and prayer shawl from Jerusalem. After I was done I went back to the sanctuary where I'd stashed my street clothes. As I walked in the door, Pastor Jim Warren stopped his sermon and said, "Are you saying something that I need to know about?" I shook my head, "no," not having any idea that just before I opened the door he said, "You're nearer today to seeing Jesus than ever before." Hearing the sermon later, as you can below, I wish we could have planned something, but only the Lord knew what the timing would be. I hope you'll take the time to listen to the whole sermon, which is absolutely superb, especially if you're dealing with something that keeps you repeatedly going back to the Lord for forgiveness. If time is short, you can get a sense of how amazing the timing of my entrance was starting at 32min, 40sec.

Pastor Jim preaches on Romans 13: 11-14. In a culture where the concept of shame is becoming a thing of the past, Pastor Jim gives insight into walking in right relationship with the One who gave his all so that we can live eternal life now, reflecting his holiness through our lives.

The giving of shoe boxes to Operation Christmas Child was led by John and Adrienne C. Here's the profoundly moving video they shared...




Opening and closing call to pray for protection on our nation and reading from Joel 2:12-17 by Pastor Joyce Swingle.  The closing prayer is by Adrienne C.



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.

Soon taking applications for the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.

Interviews on The Dove

Last week I was interviewed for radio and television on The Dove, and it just posted:



I talked about our work in Russia during the Winter Olympics, the MasterWorks Festival and Alone Yet Not Alone, the film in theaters right now in which I play a land speculator.

I mentioned the resurrection theme in Shakespeare's plays, and according to Sean Benson it can be found in fourteen, as he explains in Shakespearian Resurrection: The Art of Almost Raising the Dead.

Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel were nominated for "Best Song" at the Oscars for "Alone Yet Not Alone," before it was rescinded. You can hear the song and find out more at www.RichDrama.com/AloneYetNotAlone.

Here's my previous interview on the show...


Here are links I've mentioned in other interviews:

MasterWorks Festival
MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program
Report from Last Year's MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program
Freud's Last Session (for performances in LA with Judd Hersch and Tom Cavanaugh)
Freud's Last Session (for performance rights through Samuel French)
Beverly Holloway (casting director that has spoken at MasterWorks)
Joyce Swingle
Nazarene position on ordination of women
Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Times Square Church
Hillsong NYC
Mastermedia (LA/NYC)
Nations Where I've Performed
Our Performing Arts Troupe for the Sochi Winter Olympics
Christians in Theatre Arts
Eric Metaxas' Testimony
Our Adventures During past Olympics
My Films
My Plays

An article on one of our Sochi teammates

We had an extraordinary time in Sochi during the Olympics. This article tells some of our most exciting stories: Ukrainian-American finds open doors to share at Sochi Games

Have a blessed Epiphany

We hope you're having a wonderful celebration of the arrival of the Wise Men. As we close out the Christmas Season, we wanted to send you a report of the Lord's goodness as we experienced it in 2012...

Four of our MasterWorks theatre
students on Times Square after opening
Off-Broadway.

For the first time we brought the MasterWorks theatre program to New York for performances Off-Broadway. You can find a full report at RichDrama.com/MWF.

This year I performed in two films (Christmas Grace and Beyond the Mask), performed, spoke and/or taught in 14 states, plus Toronto, Puerto Rico, Transylvania and London for a total of about 225 appearances. Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support through all of that!

Rich with Ian Sadler, organist for
Chariots of Fire.

My performance of Beyond the Chariots in Toronto was bookended by Ian Sadler playing the same pieces on the organ as he did in the Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire. To hear "Jerusalem" played as it had in the film, just before I walked out to perform my play about Eric Liddell, one of the main subjects of the film, was a very special moment indeed.  Two of the daughters of Eric Liddell also spoke that evening, marking the fourth such performance, starting with Heather Ingham, Eric's middle daughter, speaking after an Off-Broadway performance in 2006. Heather found out I was performing the play at Trafalgar Castle School for girls the following Monday, and she was kind enough to speak there, as well.

Rich with Eric Liddell's daughters
and their husbands.

The highlight of my time in Toronto was when Heather told me upon my arrival about the story told about her in Our Daily Bread, about how her faith had been "rekindled" through a prayer for her aunt which was instantly answered while they were in China preceding the 2008 Olympics, visiting the key places Eric and Flo Liddell had lived.

Puerto Rico, Transylvania and London were all during the two weeks of the Summer Olympics.

In Puerto Rico I taught with fellow board members of Christians in Theatre Arts at a conference for applied theatre practitioners. In London we had four performances in various parts of the city, and three were within five miles of the Olympic Pavillion. We were surprised that Transylvania was the highlight of the trip. We found ourselves laughing at everything, and it occurred to us that, in a land scarred by persecution, we were bringing healing through our laughter.

By the end of the second week of the Olympics we had reached people from 30 nations and every inhabited continent.

We're finalizing a documentary on how drama ministered to people across cultures and languages during the Olympics. Once that's finished, we'll post the announcement through our emailing: RichDrama.com/Updates.

Catch a sneak preview at CITA.org/PR12.

Have a blessed 2013. Wherever you are in the world, I'd love to bring one of my one-man plays and/or workshops to your community: RichDrama.com.

At the Eric Liddell Legacy Breakfast with world-record breaking Olympic gold
medalist Madeleine Manning Mimms, with whom I performed during the
Beijing Olympics, and Ashley Null, who served as a chaplain during
previous Olympics.

Oscar nominated!

As we walked into the theater I stopped Joyce and said, "We've been praying for this moment for a very long time!" So we stopped and praised the Lord for my first nationwide theatrical release!

Now it's being released to DVD on April 21, 2015.

We noticed improvements since we saw it screened at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival last year, and we recommend it for everyone mature enough for PG-13 war violence.

Here's an endorsement by Dr. James Dobson, who's organization, Focus on the Family reviewed the film:



And here are things folks said after the show, as interviewed by co-director George Escobar:



I performed the role of a land speculator in this amazing true story of two young girls who were abducted by separate tribes during the French and Indian War.

It opened in select theatres, last October, and had the highest box office take per theatre of any film in America that weekend.

They made a number of cuts, including my scene, but they've retained one of my lines in a flashback. Hurrah! Hopefully they'll put the whole scene in the extended scenes of the DVD.



The title song from Alone Yet Not Alone was nominated for an Academy Award! Then the nomination was taken away because the composer, Bruce Broughton, emailed his friends asking them to listen to the song. It's common practice, and Bruce received many such emails over the thirty years he was serving the Academy. Our prayer is that the heightened publicity will make more people aware of the film, so that it's message of hope will bless even more.

Joni sang the song at the Movieguide® Awards on the Reelz Channel:





Here's what I wrote before the nomination was rescinded:

It's sung by one of my childhood heroes, Joni Eareckson Tada, and written by Dennis Spiegel and Bruce Broughton. Executive director of the film and MasterWorks frequent MasterClass instructor Ken Wales talked his friend Bruce into writing the song that got him his second Oscar nod, the first being in 1985 for the Best Music, Best Original Score for Silverado. The nomination put the song over a number of A-listers such as Taylor Swift's "Sweeter than Fiction" ("One Chance"), Coldplay's "Atlas" ("The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"), Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" ("The Great Gatsby"), Beyonce's "Rise Up" ("Epic"), Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" ("The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"), Jay Z's "100$ Bill" ("The Great Gatsby") and Fantasia Barrino's "In The Middle of the Night" ("Lee Daniels' The Butler").

Studio System News includes an interview with Bruce in which he mentions Ken Wales:

AWARDS SPOTLIGHT: COMPOSER BRUCE BROUGHTON ON HOW ORIGINAL SONG “ALONE YET NOT ALONE” LANDED AN OSCAR NOMINATION

Post by Rich Swingle.

Post by Rich Swingle.

Post by Rich Swingle.

Rated PG-13 for violence.

Christians might also want to know:
* Native American spirituality expressed briefly and is compared to Christianity

Go!

Only four shows left in our Off-Broadway run, Fire Off-Broadway.

On Saturday Mary Previte will be speaking after Beyond the Chariots. A former assembly woman for the State of New Jersey, she's the great-granddaughter of Hudson Taylor, and she was with Eric Liddell in the concentration camp featured in the play.

Be sure to tell people in your church this Sunday that Eric Liddell's middle daughter Heather will be speaking after the performance that evening. If you get seven people to come with you your ticket is free: FireOffBroadway.com/Group

Thanks for all your prayers. The run is going very well.

In Christ alone,
Rich

Barcelona to San Tropez

You can
 see more photos here.

After performing Big Fish Little Worm and The Revelation on the Costa Brava for a Church of the Brethren missionaries' retreat we spent a day in Barcelona, where we spent most of our time at La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's Cathedral, which is still in the midst of a 150 year construction. Then we drove up the coast, into France as far as San Tropez.

We celebrated the New Year in Cassis, a quaint fishing village not far from where we stayed in Marseille.