The Dragon and the Raven

with John Rhys-Davies
of The Lord of the Rings and
Beyond the Mask

I played Theodore the Monk, three other featured roles and numerous Danes and Saxons on Group Day in the "audio movie" The Dragon and the Raven, based on G.A. Henty's book of the same title. We recorded it in London, England!

You can order your copy now. Joyce and I were really pleased at how it all came together! 

Heirloom Audio produces world-class radio dramas, recording in London and LA. Their flagship program is The Extraordinary Adventures of G.A. Henty.

I got to work with John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings). I brought him a poster from Beyond the Mask, in which he plays the villain, Charles Kemp. I played Dr. Bonneville in the film, and I told JRD (as he was affectionately known in the studio) that I apologized for patching up that infamous scoundrel William Reynolds (the hero of the film). JRD scowled at me for a full beat before bellowing, "I should have had him poisoned!" It was great fun to play with him in that moment, and he brought great fun and creativity into the booth as well, playing the father of Helen George's character.

On Group Day there were five to ten of us portraying massive armies on both sides of the battle. At one point Helen came into the booth and we ceased our grunting and bellowing to welcome her. She was gracious and kind and told me behind the scenes stories from Call the Midwife in which she plays Trixie. She said the opening episode of season one--in which a baby comes back from the dead--is based on a true story.

with John Bell of The Hobbit

John Bell, who helped slay the dragon in The Hobbit, helped The Dragon set sail in this adventure. The dragon, in this story, is a ship and a symbol of a nation which has lost its faith, like a dragon with no fire. I wasn't the only foreigner performing an English accent amongst Englishmen. John came down from Scotland.

with Brian Deacon, who played
Jesus in The Jesus Film

Brian Deacon (Jesus of The Jesus Film) and I played brothers. I was able to tell him that our denomination, The Church of the Nazarene, has tripled in size since we started partnering with The Jesus Film in the mid-90s. I also mentioned that I went to seminary with people who were there because of The Jesus Film. He was curious about my seminary training, so I was able to tell him how the Lord clarified my calling while I was at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary: I was to minister through the performing arts, not as a pastor. "And now here I am playing a monk." 

We were directed by John Fornof, who recently taught at The Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp with me. He also wrote the script, and he's won two Emmy Awards for that skill.

Crowd Day

Synopsis for The Dragon and The Raven
It's the 9th century. The Danes have invaded--and are taking over England. One by one, each kingdom falls. The Danes destroy entire villages, level monasteries and churches, and massacre men, women and children. 

Only one kingdom is left—a small sliver of southwestern England known as Wessex. And only one king stands against them.  His name is King Alfred.  And he’s 22 years old.  

It's all about making the story come alive in the imagination with the best actors, movie-quality sound design, and a custom music score.  

The final product is a retail CD, with future plans to launch as a radio drama.

Past cast members include Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings, Mom's Night Out), Kirk Cameron (Fireproof), Skandar Keyens (Narnia), Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings), and Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey). 

My scenes begin at:
Disc 1, 13:00 - Theodore the Abbott with Brian Deacon as Eldred
Disc 1, 30:00 - Theodore the Abbott
Disc 2, 13:00 - The Saxon who yells, "Look out!" before being shot by an arrow
Disc 2, 28:40 - The Last Villager Alive
Disc 2, 40:00 - Olaf

I also got to perform in all of the crowd scenes as Saxons and Danes, including the songs.

Here's a video from their most recent production:

Here's their audio trailer:


And a sneak peak (er listen) to the soundtrack: 


Heirloom Audio was nominated for ten Voice Arts Awards and won four of them for In Freedom's Cause.

See more photos from London,
Ireland and Northern Ireland,
as well as extra Behind the Scenes
shots here.

This month (July) marks 20 years of working full-time in the performing arts and applied theatre. This recording adventure was an amazing way to celebrate!

While on a tour of the Pacific Northwest (Instagram and Facebook: #NWTour15) I recorded myself talking about the fantastic experience of working on The Dragon and the Raven and spending time in London:



Here's a recording of our church praying over me before the journey:




Hear about many of the Divine Appointments the Lord set up while I was in London here.

You can direct people to this page via www.RichDrama.com/TheDragonAndTheRaven.

 

Touching the Soul

I attended the Swahili service here this morning with Alice Wamboi Maina, whose mother helped raise my mom and aunt in Kenya. It was such an incredible, exuberant expression of love, joy and faith! At one point the pastor prayed that a tsunami of the Lord's love would flood the hearts of terrorists. I thanked him after the service, and he said love is the strategy that will triumph over all that is wrong in the world.

Another pastor recognized me from my performance of Lazarus there in 2007. He gave me a couple of minutes to speak, and I was so deeply moved by the worship I told them that people go after all sorts of things so their souls will be touched, but many of those things damage their souls, but worshipping the Lord can touch our souls at the deepest levels and there are no bad side effects, only eternal blessings.

Then I asked them to pray for The Dragon and the Raven as we record it this coming week.

One of the pastors mentioned my tribute to Alice's mum, which can be found here: www.RichDrama.com/Njeri.

Now taking sign-ups for Rio Ready.

Njeri "Miller" Gitonga

With Njeri in 2007.

As soon as I could understand English I was hearing stories about my mom growing up in Kenya when my grandparents were missionaries there from 1948-1953. So I grew up grateful for Njeri Gitonga, who watched over Mom and my Aunt Jeri when Grandma and Grandpa Miller were away ministering in the bush.

Our families had lost touch, but sometime in the mid-90's my Aunt Jeri was visiting Kenya and asked someone how she might go about finding Njeri. The local asked her what her maiden name was, and when he heard, he exclaimed, "There's an Njeri Miller living up on that hill." Aunt Jeri knocked on the door, and Njeri invited her into her home, where Aunt Jeri saw photos of herself, Mom, and my grandparents. We've stayed in touch over the years, and though I haven't made it to Kenya yet, I have had two miraculous connections with Njeri!

Njeri in 1999.

In 1999 I did a 16 city tour of England with my play A Clear Leading. I happened to be there the first time Njeri visited England to visit her children who were staying there. Though Njeri wasn't there when I was performing the play, her daughter, Alice, made it to a performance in Muswell Hill, a suburb of London. When I performed the dream of my character Dolly swimming to Africa I had tears streaming down my face. I'll never forget that performance.

With Mom and Alice in 1999.

When Njeri did arrive we spent time at a mall, where Alice interpreted for Mom and me. One memory of that visit was when Njeri got on an escalator for the first time. What a frightening contraption that must have looked like in her eyes.

Then, in 2007 I was back in England, where I got to perform "Lazarus" with some Swahili translations for Alice's church. I learned the start of a Swahili praise song, and opened the piece with that. They all joined in and went way past what I had memorized! I can still sing some of it: "Sifu bwana, sifu bwana, dayama. Moyuwangu, sifu bwana, dayama."

Later I was at Eltham College, where Eric Liddell had attended school. I was interviewing the headmaster and had an idea for a shot of their choir singing a song which was written about Liddell for the documentary Olympic Hero in China: The Eric Liddell Story. In the midst of scouting for the documentary I got a text from Mom saying she couldn't get to Heathrow in time to greet Njeri. So I hopped on the next train... the wrong way! I turned around, got off at Piccadilly and transferred to the metro bound for Heathrow. As soon as the door opened I sprinted for Arrivals. Just as I came bounding up, someone was pushing Njeri out in a wheelchair. I calmed my breathing, walked up like I'd been there for a good long while, gave her a Kenyan handshake (flying down from up above), and said, "Jambo!" That's a Swahili greeting. I also know a few phrases of her tribal language, Kikuyu, so I was also able to say, "Wimwega." That was about it until Mom was able to arrive with Alice who was able to take over the translations.

In my post from December 14, 2007 I wrote:

What are the chances my trips corresponded with hers without either of us knowing of the others' schedule either time? Only the One who set up both visits knows.

Njeri "Miller" Gitonga went to be with the Lord earlier this month. My heart is filled to the brim with gratitude for how she cared for my mom and how the Lord allowed our schedules to connect in England twice!!

Our prayers are with her whole family!

With Njeri, her son, Kamau, and Mom.

Chariots of Fire in the West End

In the run-up to the Olympics we read that Chariots of Fire would be running in cinemas all over the UK. We never saw posters for the movie while we were there with performances of my one-man play on the rest of the story, Beyond the Chariots, but we LOVED the West End production of the newly staged theatrical adaptation. The staging and "choreography" was just brilliant! And the opening and closing sequences had the cast running about in Team Great Britain 2012 athletic uniforms. Great fun.

It follows the four-time Academy Award-winning film from 1981 quite closely, but they give themselves an extra hour to work in subplots for which the film didn't allow.

At the Eric Liddell Awards breakfast, I told Eric's daughters that I only had two quibbles. Patricia, his eldest said she had two also. I told her to go first. She didn't like how her Aunt Jenny was portrayed. When I performed Beyond the Chariots in Milwaukee I was given a note from Jenny by someone who had been in correspondence with her before her death. In the note Jenny wrote about how much she encouraged Eric in his running. Patricia said Jenny was much more fun-loving than she's portrayed in the film, and now in the West End. Her second quibble was that her father was also portrayed as being more dour than she remembers him to have been. He used to sing silly songs with their mother to keep the Sunday school kids interested in God's Word. Then I shared my quibbles: Their mother is portrayed as a blonde, when she had very dark hair (Patricia also said her accent was far too American, and not enough Canadian). My biggest complaint is that they close the play with--and work into the ancillary literature--the phrase "Harold was faster, but Eric was better." They point out that Harold got faster and faster when training with Mussabini, but the fact of the matter is that Eric's 100yd British record of 9.7 held for 35 years. I did the math, and Harold's Olympic record of 10.6 in the 100m, which he equalled in two qualifying heats, is a virtual tie with Liddell. But to say he was faster than Eric is just not true.

Having said all of this, it's a marvelous play, and I highly recommend it to anyone in or heading to London. I'm praying it will be done on Broadway some day. Maybe I'll be young enough to audition for Eric's older brother.

Mostly I was pleased because they stayed true to the bold stance that Eric took not to run on a Sunday. They didn't pull back anything from his conviction.

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See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story in Beyond the Chariots. Watch it online and book a live performance.

Grace to the Nations

I just posted a number of photos from our travels to Puerto Rico, Transylvania and London during the Olympics: GraceToTheNations.Shutterfly.com.

We reached people from 30 nations during those two weeks!

We have more stories on this blog as well as Facebook.com/RichDrama and TheLizThatWas.Tumblr.com.

The photo shows how close as we could get to the Olympic Park. We waited on tickets to allow for as many bookings as possible. We're praying for openings in Sochi, Russia, and Rio de Janero, Brazil, for the next Olympics. We've decided to order tickets early for morning events!

The Rich Young Ringmaster

This is my report to Westchester Chapel of our performances and workshops in Puerto Rico, Transylvania and London during the Olympics.

This will be part of a brief documentary of our trip. Find out more about that by signing up at RichDrama.com/Updates.

"The Rich Young Ringmaster" © Copyright 2012 by Rich Swingle
Translations by Tarjányi Krisztina Irma @ Copyright 2012 by Tarjányi Krisztina Irma

The rest of the service can be found at WestchesterChapel.Blogspot.com (8/19/12).

30 Nations During the Olympics!

During the Olympics we reached people from at least 30 nations:

Puerto Rico
Romania
Hungary
England
USA
Australia
Canada
Holland
Switzerland
India
Zimbabwe
Liberia
Kenya
Congo Brazzaville
Japan
Philippines
Sri Lanka
South Africa
Malawi
Nigeria
Russia
Poland
Italy
Belgium
Ghana
Guyana
Jamaica
Barbados
Trinidad
Bangladesh 

The Paralympics begin on August 29, so this Sunday's performance of Beyond the Chariots with translations for Chinese in Richmond, VA, will fall within the larger Olympics window, making it 31 nations.

Amazing connections

We've been having a ball in Europe!
We've been posting as often as we can to http://Facebook.com/RichSwingle and our friend and colleague Liz has been posting to http://thelizthatwas.tumblr.com .
Here's a video we just posted telling some of the amazing connections the Lord has been setting up: http://vimeo.com/47153213
It's for our Hungarian friends, so I didn't put in subtitles. The Hungarian is:
Istan hozott: welcome (literally "God sent you."
I don't know how to spell the phrases I said at the end, but they're from a monologue I performed for them and they mean, "It will change your life. You'll be refreshed and renewed."
Also, we were on the Tube, waiting for our train, bummed because the other line had come past a number of times. Had ours been as regular we wouldn't have discovered that the couple sitting next to us were good friends of the creative team that cast me in Judah Ben Hur in Singapore!

A mid-journey report

We've come to London to share my play about Eric Liddell (RichDrama.com/BeyondTheChariots) during the Olympics.

Last night was the debut of the Tamil translation, which was well received. They translated it for seven people who had come from Sri Lanka and India to attend the International College of Officers for the Salvation Army.

This morning a woman told us how integral Eric Liddell's story was in her coming to faith, and there she sat in the William Booth Officers Training School, where she'll start attending in the fall, watching a play about the man who had inspired her to go into ministry! The things that our Father orchestrates are so far beyond what we could ever plan!

Before we came here we performed the play in Romania with Hungarian translation slides. It was in Transylvania, a region that used to belong to Hungary, and the people we visited were Hungarian speakers. One of the men there asked us to tell him more about Jesus. We stayed up until 1am. In the end he prayed that Jesus would cover his sins, so that he could be in a relationship with the Father. The next morning he walked into our room radiating joy, but he still wants to see miraculous signs to confirm this. The next day, when we flew to London there were seven specific Appointments that we knew were all about confirming our friend's new relationship with the Lord. The highlight was when we discoverd that our waitress was from Tirgu-Mures, Romania, the city from which we'd flown only a few hours before. We'll also tell our friend about the woman who will start training school and her story. We're praying that these Love letters will encourage him to grow in his new relationship with the Lord.

On Friday we'll have breakfast with 120 Olympic athletes (some of which will be sitting at our table) as the Eric Liddell Award is given to two gold medalists who exhibit not only outstanding athleticism but also a strong committment to the Father.

filled with Hope,

Rich

Total triumph in Transylvania

We had an indescribably great time in Transylvania. My shirt says, "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God that brings Salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." (Romans 1:16 NIV) Though we're in Romania, it's written in Hungarian, the language of the wonderful people with whom we partnered in ministry.

They are an ecumenical group, though the hosts are Charismatic Catholics, and none of the leaders were ashamed of the Gospel! We sensed the presence of the Lord so powerfully in their prayers and worship songs, though we only understood the ones that were translated from Hillsong, Vineyard and other English sources.

It's always overwhelming to me when I worship with fellow believers in other parts of the world. A connection to the Lord is so powerful it doesn't need words to experience.

We did an awful lot of laughing. It seemed to us a supernatural joy. It occurred to me that it was the Lord's gift to the land scarred by communism. We were in the same county where Richard Wurmbrand was tortured and beaten daily year after year because he wouldn't renounce Christianity. He explained in his book Tortured for Christ that he was actually allowed to serve as a pastor so long as he cooperated with the Communists. They were to teach that Moses brought the first revelation, Jesus brought the second and Joseph Stalin brought the third. But when Wurmbrand's underground activities came to light they imprisoned him and his wife.

With the fall of Ceausescu and the Iron Curtain there is joy in the land. We sensed it and praise the Lord that we could add to it.

My performance of Beyond the Chariots was translated to Hungarian just in time for the performance. They clearly appreciated it, and I was thrilled to receive a special applause in which they unified their clapping into an ever-faster beat.

I wrote a two-minute piece that was translated by a former student of mine in the States who set up our visit. When I got to speak to her on the phone when she called the camp I wept for joy and deep gratitude. She had recorded her translation for me, but the Hungarian language is quite different from any other. I recorded myself speaking it, and all who heard it thought I was better off using translation slides, which I did. I memorized a few Hungarian phrases, and those were received well. Phew! I posted that performance here.

I got to teach two acting workshops and closed by introducing enacted prayer to Romania. Some of the enactments were quite powerful.

One of the camp organizers said they always pray for just under half of the students to be pre-believers, since, at their age, they are influenced toward the majority of their peers. We rejoiced to see 17 of them go forward to indicate a desire to know the Lord more. Last night the call was to come forward if they want to give their lives to the Lord. We missed it because we had to get to London, but we know of at least one of them that is quite close to making that commitment, and we were privileged to pray with one to that end. [We later heard a report that our friend did go forward, along with all but two. Pray for them to continue to consider the Lord.]

During the weeks of the Olympics we've been blessed with bookings in Puerto Rico, Transylvania and London. We're working on a documentary we've decided to title Grace to the Nations. One of the leaders told us, "The Love of God is an ocean, and Grace is an invitation to swim."

The student pictured above asked me to film her telling her father how beautiful the worship and fellowship is at the camp and how much she longs for her father to experience this kind of joy through a relationship with Jézus. Pray he dives into the Love of God.