Trevor the Treasure Seeker

The Treasure Seekers -- our new Children's Church for ages 5 through 10 -- starts this coming Sunday, Oct. 14. Bring your children to join in the search for the Treasure who lasts! A Moving Up Ceremony for those in our nursery program will take place during the main service. Following that, the children will be dismissed into their new class where they will meet Treasure Seekers and start their Great Adventure in the Word!

Service time is 11 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza, 66 Hale Ave., in White Plains, NY.

MasterWorks alum voted favorite character for In His Steps

Congratulations to Samuel Carr, a MasterWorks Festival alum, who was voted favorite character in the web series In His Steps...

And the winner of our favorite character poll is... Jasper Chase!

Like ·  · Promote · Share

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  Rich Swinglehttps://www.facebook.com/InHisStepsTheSeries
  

  
  

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Love Always Trusts

Though it's a shame that today's outdoor service and picnic was canceled, it is the last day of Sukkot, the Hebrew Feast of Tabernacles described in Nehemiah 8. During the days of feasting one of the prayers is for rain!

So Lord, we thank you for answered prayer! We praise You for a new way to meet with You.

Pastor Joyce went ahead and preached the sermon she prepared on I Corinthians 13:7 and I Peter 4:12-19. The worship line-up that Bill H. prepared is below. You can fulfill one of the lines: "May our homes be filled with dancing!" Gather as a family, worship and be encouraged.



Opening and closing comments and prayers are by Rich Swingle. You can order the book Rich mentioned in his closing comments, Tortured for Christ, for free by clicking the box below.

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.

One Nation One Day

Tracy Trost, who directed me in A Christmas Snow, is going to be a part of this amazing outreach to Honduras on July 20, 2013. They'll have 18 prayer rallies in 18 large venues in 18 states simultaneously. But there will be months of outreach leading up to that day. I have friends from Honduras who report that it has gotten much worse since I was there in 2005. You can read my journal from that trip here.

One Nation One Day

www.1nation1day.com

Love Always Protects

Every fifth Sunday our church, Westchester Chapel, invites the children to join us for the entire service, which is designed around them. Today, Pastor Randy Solomon preached on I Corinthians 13:7 with illustrations from II Kings, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah. Dramatic performances by Sir Michael Quimby, played by Rich Swingle. Announcements, closing comments and prayer by Pastor Joyce Swingle.



Pastor Randy referred to John Piper's talk on John G. Paton and his work among the Cannibals of what is now Vanuatu, which you can hear in it's entirety: You Will Be Eaten by Cannibals! Lessons from the Life of John G. Paton.

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.

Trade of Innocents

MasterWorks Festival MasterClass instructor Bev Holloway invited Joyce and me to join her and her husband, Doug, at the World Premiere of TRADE OF INNOCENTS, a film for which Bev was casting director and also served as a producer.

This phenomenal film stars Academy Award-winner Mira Sorvino and Durmot Mulroney (My Best Friend's Wedding, The Grey, About Schmidt). It's based on real stories the screenwriter heard and experienced in Cambodia.

Visit www.TradeOfInnocentsMovie.com to find out if it will be playing in your area, and then get everyone you can to go on opening weekend, starting October 5. Their tag line is "Justice Needs a Hero. Be One." If you want to do something to stop human trafficking get friends to see this film. That will start a buzz and raise awareness.

Despite the heavy topic, this film is very tactful in how it portrays this evil billion dollar industry.

An International Reach

I'm so encouraged to see how many nations are represented by folks that read my blog:

Pageviews by Countries

Entry	Pageviews
United States	14330
China	1459
Russia	1045
Germany	815
United Kingdom	745
Ukraine	578
South Korea	395
Netherlands	368
Taiwan	326
Slovenia	313

Unconditional

This film is spectacular!

I heard a teenager say, "I thought one Kleenex would be enough. I needed seven!" The ample crowd in our Times Square showing applauded as the credits rolled. 

Support this opening weekend! It's that kind of a show. 

We have a number of friends at Here's Life Inner City, which was thanked in the credits. 

It's rated PG-13 for some violence: not for young kids, but this would be powerful for older teens.

Unconditional (2012)

www.imdb.com

Directed by Brent McCorkle. With Lynn Collins, Michael Ealy, Bruce McGill, Kwesi Boakye. A woman's idyllic life is shattered when her husband is killed in a senseless act of violence. As she prepares to take matters into her own hands, two unexpected encounters begin to change everything.

Africa

We have invitations to perform and teach in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Rwanda and Nigeria. But none of them can get us to Africa. We need your help to impact them with the love of God through drama.

My grandparents taught at the Rift Valley Academy outside of Nairobi in the '40s, and my mom and aunt attended school there. It would be the fulfilment of a prayer of my heart from when I was old enough to understand their stories.

Donate now at RichDrama.com/Donate. We are not a non-profit organization, so you cannot claim it as a tax deduction.

Thank you so much!

Rich and Joyce

P.S. Make sure you're subscribed to our emailings to find out when the trip is happening: RichDrama.com/Updates.

Missions Through Arts

On September 29 I'm performing and teaching at the English East Coast Joint Mission Day 2012.

View and download the handout from the conference by clicking here.

If you know of other groups that are using the arts in missions, please post their websites as a comment.

Vulnerable

Click here for an outstanding sermon by my former professor from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Some gems: "Charisma without character is catastrophe." "'You're credible with us because you became vulnerable with us.' ...Christ is most credible because He made himself most vulnerable."

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.

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!

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.

Love Does Not Boast

Pastor Joyce Swingle preaches on James 4:13-17. Communion by Pastor Linda Warren.



Rich Swingle closed the service telling about the documentary Captivated, which was screened at the MasterWorks Festival this year.




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.

Former prisoner in N. Korea shares story Wednesday night

Arts and media ministry leaders of New York City and friends,

I have a last-minute invitation for you to join MasterWorks and Mastermedia this Wednesday night.

Though I've lived in Manhattan since 1993, one month each year I direct the theatre program for The MasterWorks Festival (http://RichDrama.com/MasterWorks) in Winona Lake, Indiana, where Billy Graham kept an office and Billy Sunday lived and held revivals. We're taking our students, who come from ten different states and Melbourne, Australia, to New York to perform for agents and casting directors (details follow), and I wanted our students to meet people from as many different arts groups as possible. So I've invited Euna Lee to tell the story of her arrest in North Korea on March 17th, 2009. She and her colleague Laura Ling were filming a documentary along the China / North Korea border.  They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in one of North Korea's prison camps, but former President Bill Clinton went to North Korea to arrange for their release.

After that I'd like to invite each of you who run ministries to share a bit about your work with our students. In turn, we'd like to offer an enacted prayer for you and your organization. Enacted prayer was developed about seven years ago, and it was the idea of a student at a small Christian college. I've facilitated enacted prayer in many of the 23 nations in which I've performed, and it's always moved people in profound ways. We offered them here at The MasterWorks Festival a couple of weeks ago, and--as they do every year--people stayed until campus security shut us down almost three hours later. Don't worry! We won't keep you until midnight! 

I do believe something profound will happen as various arts and media groups come together to inspire the next generation over a dramatic story and this dramatic form of prayer.

You can find out more about enacted prayer at http://RichDrama.com/Workshops .

Euna will be sharing her story with us on July 11th at 7:30 PM.

Location:  Theater 315, 315 West 47th Street, NYC

I'm sure I'm missing some NYC arts groups, so feel free to forward this to leaders and invite your members.

Information on our performances follows. Though the showcases on Thursday are geared toward agents and casting directors we'd love to have as many people as possible in all of our performances.

Hope to see you very soon!

Rich

Invitation: 

MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program formally invites you and your office friends to attend our Off-Broadway industry showcase for casting directors, agents and filmmakers. 

Press Release (link):

INDIANA BASED TALENT PROGRAM BRINGS ACTORS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE TO PERFORM OFF-BROADWAY AT 'THEATRE 315' IN NEW YORK CITY

RSVP:

Kindly, RSVP so we can reserve your seats as our special guests, thank you. 

"A Midsummer Afternoon's Love"
The Ellington Room of Manhattan Plaza
400 West 43rd St. NY, NY

- Click here to RSVP for Thurs., July 12 @ 4:30pm

- Click here to RSVP for Thurs., July 12 @ 6:00pm

Pope John Paul II's "The Jeweler's Shop"
Theatre 315

315 W. 47th St., NY, NY

- Click here to RSVP for Fri., July 13 @ 7:30pm

- Click here to RSVP for Sat., July 14 @ 7:30pm


************************************************

PRESS RELEASE:

INDIANA BASED TALENT PROGRAM BRINGS ACTORS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE TO PERFORM OFF-BROADWAY AT 'THEATRE 315' IN NEW YORK CITY

MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program Presents Pope John Paul II's "The Jeweler's Shop" on July 13 & 14 at 7:30pm and special industry talent showcase of "A Midsummer Afternoon's Love"on July 12. 

NEW YORK (July 12, 2012) – The MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program, an annual summer program in Winona Lake, Indiana -- for elite students of classical music, theatre, dance, and opera instructed by world-class faculty from around the globe -- will hold a special acting showcase of "A Midsummer Afternoon's Love" for agents & casting directors in New York City, July 12th at 4:30 and 6PM at The Ellington Room of Manhattan Plaza located at 400 West 43rd Street; followed by two performances of Pope John Paul II's "The Jeweler's Shop" at Off-Broadway's Theatre 315 located at 315 W. 47th St., July 13th and 14th at 7:30PM. Admission is Free.

"The Jeweler's Shop" portrays three couples facing episodes of joy, pain, love and marriage, while asking the question: "What does it mean to fall in love?" MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program director Rich Swingle (www.RichDrama.com) directs 14 aspiring and professional actors from around the world, ages 17 to 32 including Brandon Langeland, (masters from Regent University), playing the lead role of Adam; Irene Kao, as Teresa, studied at Melbourne's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where Cate Blanchett and Mel Gibson trained. Elizabeth Lobach, sharing the role of Teresa, is en route to USC School of Theatre after studying filmmaking in Cape Town, S.A. Danny Cornett, playing Stefan, can be seen in upcoming Olympic soccer film "For the Glory" opposite Jason Burkey ("October Baby"). Swingle also directed "The Miracle Worker," "Cyrano de Bergerac," co-directing "Tartuffe" and "Our Town" with renown acting coach John Kirby ("Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe," "Déjà Vu"). An accomplished theater actor who has performed his one-man plays in 23 nations, Swingle is scheduled to perform in Puerto Rico, Transylvania & London during the Olympics this summer. He also appeared in 8 feature films including upcoming French and Indian War movie "Alone Yet Not Alone" & "The Screenwriters."

Patricia Mauceri (www.PatriciaMauceri.com) who directed the industry showcase "A Midsummer Afternoon's Love" directed "The Crucible" at MasterWorks in 2007 and currently teaches On-Camera Acting at TVI Studios. A graduate of The Juilliard School Drama Division in early years (alongside actors Patti LuPone, Kevin Kline & Kelsey Grammer), Mauceri's 40-year career includes performances on Broadway, film & television alongside Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, Johnny Depp, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, and other luminaries.

MasterWorks Theatre Program students receive Master Class instruction from Broadway actors, filmmakers, casting directors, improv masters and Hollywood producers. Some past and present instructors include Bev Holloway, Ken Wales, Edwina Findley, Carol Doscher, MWF alumna Kaelen Carrier and Phillip Telfer.

For more info, faculty and actor bios/photos, visit www.RichDrama.com/MWFFaculty. MasterWorks is sponsored by Christian Performing Artists' Fellowship, under the direction of Dr. Patrick Kavanaugh. Industry, teens & adults welcome. RSVP to Rich Swingle at Phone@RichDrama.com or Shelly Woods, SDI Entertainment at s.d.i.entertainment.pr@gmail.com.

###

CONTACT: Shelly Woods, S.D.I. Entertainment PR s.d.i.entertainment.pr@gmail.com Director, Rich Swingle, MasterWorks Theatre 646-932-4890, Phone@RichDrama.com

S.D.I. Entertainment Public Relations Los Angeles, CA www.facebook.com/s.d.i.entertainment 

INDIANA BASED TALENT PROGRAM BRINGS ACTORS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE TO PERFORM OFF-BROADWAY AT ‘THEATRE 315’ IN NEW YORK CITY

CONTACT

Shelly Woods, S.D.I. Entertainment PR

S.D.I.Entertainment.PR@Gmail.com

Director, Rich Swingle, MasterWorks Theatre

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program Presents Pope John Paul II’s “The Jeweler’s Shop” on July 13 and 14 at 7:30pm and special industry talent showcase of “A Midsummer Afternoon’s Love”on July 12.

     NEW YORK (July 12, 2012) – The MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program, based in Winona Lake, Indiana, is an annual summer program -- for elite students of classical music, theatre, dance, and opera instructed by world-class faculty from around the globe -- will hold a special acting showcase of “A Midsummer Afternoon’s Love” for agents and casting directors in New York City on July 12 at 4:30 and 6 p.m. at The Ellington Room of Manhattan Plaza located at 400 West 43rd Street; followed by two performances of Pope John Paul II’s “The Jeweler’s Shop“ at Off-Broadway’s Theatre 315 located at 315 W. 47^th St. on July 13 and 14 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. Industry, teens and adults welcome.

     “The Jeweler’s Shop” portrays three couples facing episodes of joy, pain, love and marriage, while asking the question, “What does it mean to fall in love?” Directed by MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program director Rich Swingle (www.RichDrama.com) features 14 aspiring and professional actors from around the world, ages 17 to 32 including Actor Brandon Langeland, playing the lead role of Adam, who received a masters degree from Regent University. Irene Kao, playing Teresa, studied at Melbourne’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where Cate Blanchett and Mel Gibson trained. Elizabeth Lobach, sharing the role of Teresa, is en route to the USC School of Theatre after having studied filmmaking at Media Village in Cape Town, South Africa. Danny Cornett, playing Stefan, will appear in upcoming Olympic soccer player film “For the Glory” opposite Jason Burkey (“October Baby”).

     Swingle also directed “The Miracle Worker,” “Cyrano de Bergerac” and co-directed “Tartuffe” and “Our Town” with renown acting coach John Kirby (“Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “Déjà Vu,” “Scream 4”). Swingle is an accomplished theater actor who has performed his one-man plays in 23 nations and is scheduled to perform in Puerto Rico, Transylvania and London during the Olympics this summer. He also appeared in eight feature films including upcoming French and Indian War movie “Alone Yet Not Alone” and “The Screenwriters.”

     Patricia Mauceri (www.PatriciaMauceri.com), director of 2007’s MasterWorks “The Crucible,” is the director for the industry showcase of “A Midsummer Afternoon’s Love.” Mauceri trained at The Juilliard School in the Drama Division's early years alongside actors Patti LuPone, Kevin Kline and Kelsey Grammer. For about 40 years, she worked as a performer on Broadway, film and television alongside Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, Johnny Depp, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, and other luminaries.

     Master class instructors for the 2012’s MasterWorks Theatre Program students include actress Carol Doscher (Broadway’s “Sweeney Todd” with Angela Lansbury), filmmaker Phillip Telfer (Captivated), MasterWorks alumna Kaelen Carrier (founder of St. Louis improv troupe “Living Improv” ). Previous master class instructors include casting director Bev Holloway (“Like Dandelion Dust” with Academy Award-winner Mira Sorvino and Barry Pepper), producer Ken Wales (“Amazing Grace,” original “Pink Panther” films, Emmy-winning television series “Christy”), and actress Edwina Findley (HBO’s “Treme” “Brothers and Sisters,” Brett Ratner’s movie-of-the-week “Blue Bloods”).

     For more info, photos and faculty and actor bios, visit www.RichDrama.com/MWFFaculty. MasterWorks is sponsored by Christian Performing Artists’ Fellowship, under the direction of Dr. Patrick Kavanaugh.
     To RSVP, please click here. 

Help send Beyond the Chariots to London for the Olympics

We'll be going to London and Birmingham to perform Beyond the Chariots during the Summer Olympics. Our friend Liz Jennings will be  joining us to advance translation slides as I perform my play about Olympic champion Eric Liddell. Some of Liddell's story is told in the film Chariots of Fire, which will be showing in UK theatres in the run-up to the Games. There is also a stage version of the film that is being produced in the West End. We're hoping many will want to know what came after Olympic gold.

Pastor Linda Warren invited support for the trip.



To give to the trip visit RichDrama.com/Donate, or if you'd like it to be tax deductible mark "Olympics" on your check and deposit it in the offering on Sunday or send it to Westchester Chapel.

This announcement is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.

I shared this excerpt from my one-man play The Acts during the Friday night banquet at our denomination's District Assembly. The theme of the weekend was "Mission Possible", based on Acts 1:8.



This monologue is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.



© Copyright 1999 and 2012 by Rich Swingle. All rights reserved. Performance of the monologue is forbidden without express written consent from the playwright. To arrange a performance of The Acts visit RichDrama.com.

The Sandals of Peace

Here's my sermon on Ephesians 6:15. It contains excerpts from my one-man play The Revelation.



Rich mentions his sermon on Peter walking on water, Freedom from Fear of Circumstances.

Go deeper. Dr. Timothy J. Keller's series on The Armor of God includes four sermons on The Sandals of Peace:
The Armor of God
Sandals of Peace--1
Sandals of Peace--2
Sandals of Peace--3
Making Peace

The sermon is followed by prayer over Pastor Rachel Taylor and her three roommates, Rachel, Laura and Sarah, as they celebrate graduation from Nyack College/Alliance Theological Seminary.

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.