Science and God

Our friend Eric Metaxas shows that expanding technology reduces the plausibility that the universe could have existed without a Creator.




Eric allowed us to use his testimony when we were performing in Sochi during the 2014 Olympics: Eric Metaxas' Story of the Fish. We had it translated to several languages on www.WhoistheFish.com.

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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.

What could Eric Liddell have done on a rubberized track?

Eric Liddell's world record in the 400m was 47.6 on a cinder track with hand-dug starting blocks. The current world record is 43.03.

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.

The Blood

I've been interviewed twice on The Dove, which broadcasts from Southern Oregon, where I grew up. Here I've posted an interview I did after our trip to Puerto Rico, Romania and London during the 2012 Olympics. After that I posted a music video by a young woman we worked with at the Arts Camp in Romania. In the interview I mention how I told her Dracula took people's blood so that he could live forever, whereas Jesus Christ gave his blood so that we could live forever. She went on to attend a Christian college, where she created the video.

[Sadly their account was terminated by YouTube.]  

Here's the music video by the young woman I mentioned in the interview. She's the one singing:



Here are the English lyrics:

I would like to go back Home, but I'm afraid I will be outside forever
I haven't another home just the world's prison of darkness
By day they fool you and midnight they rock you with new hope
I'm thirsty for real but they give me lies.

The silence is not mute. It's just I was so deaf.
You spoke to me, but I lost your voice.
I was waiting for my body, but it was sleeping forever
Until my soul wakes up with You.
Where may I go? Where may I run?
In this world I have no place.
Where may I go? Where may I run?
Your arms are waiting for me,
And it's enough for me…

I wish the pain froze in the past that which is in their heart.
The love which has changed for power and money can't help.
All people wanna shine but without dark it is impossible.
If their shine makes them blind they will not laugh anymore.

The silence is not mute. It's just I was so deaf.
You spoke to me, but I lost your voice
I was waiting for my body, but it was sleeping forever
Until my soul wakes up with You.
Where may I go? Where may I run?
In this world I have no place.
Where may I go? Where may I run?
Your arms are waiting for me,
And it's enough for me… x3

You can see my more recent interview on The Dove here.

I play a lead in Providence, which could be heading to a city near you. Sign up at www.RichDrama.com/Updates to get the announcement.

Registration is now open for the 2016 Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.

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.

  

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

Report from Sochi

We just received this from the folks that organized our work in Russia during the Olympics...

Engage Sochi partners and friends -
We have just finished working through all of the contact sheets for the Engage Sochi project and have been crunching the numbers. As you know, it was our goal that Engage Sochi would be primarily about church planting, specifically in the host city of Sochi. And, the goal of this phase of the project was to generate new contacts so that IMB church planters in Sochi could follow-up and host events that will draw these new people into English Clubs, Bible studies, etc. While statistics do not always paint a complete picture, I think that you can see that the goal was achieved.
Through February and March we hosted approximately 230 volunteers,
14 IMB personnel, and 2 MKs. We estimate that the combined group distributed between 17,000-17,500 evangelism pins.
During the Olympic period, we saw 5 people make professions of faith!
The group recorded approximately 400 individual contacts, some of which did not contain enough information for church planters to be able to make follow-up contact, so 371 contacts.Of those contacts, 94 percent of the people came from Russia. Of that 94-percent, 47-percent (164 people) were from Sochi; 33-percent (115 people) were from European Russia. Siberia and the Far East each had 3-percent of the contacts. And 14-percent (50 people) gave contact information but did not include from which city the contact came.
Six-percent of the contacts came from countries outside of Russia and included: Kazakstan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Australia, Latvia, England, Spain, France, Turkey, Canada, and Japan.
Kellye reports "Every one of these folks was interested in being contacted, especially about English clubs. But reading the stories was a holy experience, as time and time again, people were interested in how God is at work in the lives of His people. I have cried some tears of real joy. To God be the glory--great things He has done!!"
Thanks to each of you for the role you played in making this project possible. It has been exciting to see God’s hand at work through this entire project and know that there is much more fruit that will come to bear as a result of the Engage Sochi project.

We're planning to bring another team of performing artists to Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympics, so make sure you're signed up for our updates so you won't miss the announcement.

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

Sochi Report

We put together photos, stories and footage from our time in Sochi for the Olympics: www.RichDrama.com/Sochi.

Heading for Sochi / Actor Deadlines

As the Opening Ceremonies sweep across the time zones we’re making final plans to be in Sochi during the last week of the Olympics. We appreciate your prayers for us while we're there!

We’re in the process of having translations done for the people we meet from around the world. So far we’ve only completed Spanish, though Portuguese, German, Korean and Simplified Chinese are in the works. If you can contribute to any of those translations or if you’re interested in having an impact on people who speak your language shoot us a note.

We won't be posting from Russia, but watch your inboxes for a report when we return. 

February 15, the eve of our departure, happens to be the deadline for two events at which I’ll be directing and teaching later in the year:

The Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp is adding an acting component. I'm thrilled to inaugurate this program as the sole instructor! Many of you know me from my stage work, but I've been in 15 films since 2010: www.RichDrama.com/Films. I’ll be teaching classes and directing the students in a film we’ll shoot in the glorious Colorado Rockies.

I learned much of what I know about screen acting from the fabulous faculty that we've had at the MasterWorks Festival over the years. We're bringing in some more performing arts veterans this year as well. 

I wrote about Torry Martin in a recent blog post that went out to those who receive our more frequent posts. Now I’m pleased to announce that we’ll have a second Adventures in Odyssey cast member, Katie Leigh. Katie will coach our students reading sides from… a show for which she’s been a cast member. Sign up for her MasterClass will be based on date of application, so act now. She got her start in Improv, so on July 2, she will join Torry Martin and our students to perform Improv! That night has the potential of being the funniest in the history of MasterWorks!

Our tickled funny bones will propel us into performances of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in Winona Lake, Bethel Park, PA, and in an Off-Broadway theatre!

Again, the early bird deadline for MasterWorks and the The Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Acting Camp is February 15. So get the application process rolling now, or send this to young actors who might be interested. 

I play a quirky clerk in Christmas Grace.

Another place I’ll be teaching and performing is the inaugural Christian Worldview Film Festival and Guild. Five of the films in which I’ve performed will be featured there in full or represented by a short piece. The Guild will be March 11 and 12, and the Festival will be March 13-15 in beautiful San Antonio, TX. Though there’s no early bird special, you can get 25% off all tickets to the Festival or Guild using the code RICHSWINGLE.

Check out my touring schedule at www.RichDrama.com/Schedule and see if I’ll be in your area. I always love to add performances and workshops whenever I’m outside the NYC area.

I'm really hoping to set up performances in San Antonio, TX, Colorado, Tuscon, AZ, and Oregon. Hope to see you somewhere in the world this year!

Joyce preaches on Simeon

Joyce preached on Luke 2:25-35 this morning at our church, Westchester Chapel. Opening prayer and announcements by Pastor Linda Warren. Closing prayer by Liz J.



"Go Tell It on the Mountain" sung by the congregation. Words: John W. Work, Jr., Folk Songs of the Amer­i­can Ne­gro (Nash­ville, Tenn­es­see: 1907).
Music: Af­ri­can-Amer­i­can spir­it­u­al

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.

Photo courtesy of NicolettiPhoto.com.

Now taking applications for the MasterWorks Festival theatre program: www.RichDrama.com/MWFTheatre. Training and performances in IN, PA and NYC, including an Off-Broadway theatre!

Broadway Blessing

I'll be performing an excerpt from Beyond the Chariots, about Olympic champion Eric Liddell at this year's Broadway Blessing, in anticipation of performances during the Winter Olympics.

Sochi

We took a team of performing artists to Sochi, Russia, during the Winter Olympics!

Watch our performance and read about why we chose the piece at www.WhoistheFish.com.

You can see more photos here.

Here's a report the organizers sent out...

Engage Sochi partners and friends -
We have just finished working through all of the contact sheets for the Engage Sochi project and have been crunching the numbers. As you know, it was our goal that Engage Sochi would be primarily about church planting, specifically in the host city of Sochi. And, the goal of this phase of the project was to generate new contacts so that IMB church planters in Sochi could follow-up and host events that will draw these new people into English Clubs, Bible studies, etc. While statistics do not always paint a complete picture, I think that you can see that the goal was achieved.

Through February and March we hosted approximately 230 volunteers, 14 IMB personnel, and 2 MKs. We estimate that the combined group distributed between 17,000-17,500 evangelism pins.

During the Olympic period, we saw 5 people make professions of faith!

The group recorded approximately 400 individual contacts, some of which did not contain enough information for church planters to be able to make follow-up contact, so 371 contacts.Of those contacts, 94 percent of the people came from Russia. Of that 94-percent, 47-percent (164 people) were from Sochi; 33-percent (115 people) were from European Russia. Siberia and the Far East each had 3-percent of the contacts. And 14-percent (50 people) gave contact information but did not include from which city the contact came.

Six-percent of the contacts came from countries outside of Russia and included: Kazakstan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Australia, Latvia, England, Spain, France, Turkey, Canada, and Japan.

Kellye reports "Every one of these folks was interested in being contacted, especially about English clubs. But reading the stories was a holy experience, as time and time again, people were interested in how God is at work in the lives of His people. I have cried some tears of real joy. To God be the glory--great things He has done!!"

Thanks to each of you for the role you played in making this project possible. It has been exciting to see God’s hand at work through this entire project and know that there is much more fruit that will come to bear as a result of the Engage Sochi project.

Two of those five professions of faith came through our team, one of dozens! One profession of faith happened while a Ukrainian-American on our team was shopping for Olympic gear and a Ukrainian agreed to pray with her. The second was when we stopped for dinner. I bought some glow-in-the-dark helicopters for my nephews...and me, and I told the Ukrainian-American in our group that the fellow who sold me the helicopters is Ukrainian. She wanted to grab food before I introduced her to the young man, but as we walked to the restaurant a glow-in-the-dark helicopter landed on her purse! That same young man came running up to apologize, so I introduced him to our Ukrainian-American friend! She said, in Ukrainian, "We're praying for the Ukraine." Kiev was under attack by Russia at the time, so when he heard those words in his native tongue he burst into tears. He said that his grandmother taught him about God, but she died. I told him the Lord sent us to him to teach him more about God. While we were leading him in a prayer to give his life to the Lord one of his friends came running up to us, but the young man waved him away. He was doing serious business. 

Between the two of us, Joyce and I have been to Lillehammer, Barcelona, Beijing, Vancouver, Singapore, London, and now Sochi during the Olympics or Youth Olympics. In London we counted people from 30 nations from all inhabited continents that we spoke to after my performances in those cities. 

Interview with George Flores on Star 99.1

I was interviewed by George Flores on Star 99.1FM about next Saturday's performance of The Revelation, among a number of other things.



Here are links to more information on some of the things I mentioned during the interview:

www.RichDrama.com (click Feature-Length Plays for information on all of my plays that I mentioned)
www.WestchesterChapel.org
www.WestchesterChapel.org/Revelation
www.SamhillRoad.com (the band playing at The Revelation)
www.itinerary.richdrama.com (for information on the performances of Twelve Angry Jurors in July)
www.RichDrama.com/MWF (my report of last year's MasterWorksFestival theatre program)
www.RichDrama.com/Indescribable (The film in which Joyce and I play husband and wife)
www.RichDrama.com/Updates (to sign up for information on the troupe of performers we're organizing to bring to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
www.RichDrama.com/Africa
www.RichDrama.com/BeyondTheChariots (my play about Olympic runner, Eric Liddell)
http://blog.richdrama.com/2008_08_01_archive.html (Our adventures in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and the Philippines during the 2008 Olympics.

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.

Interview on Focus Today

Here's a recent interview on Focus Today on The Dove, in which I talk about our upcoming documentary, Grace to the Nations: 2012. We showed a preview there in Southern Oregon a few weeks ago, and hope to release the final version soon. Sign up at RichDrama.com/Updates to find out details.

Reposting a report on Toronto and the Olympics from 2012

Rich with Ian Sadler, organist for
Chariots of Fire.

My Toronto performance of Beyond the Chariots in April 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.

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.

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!