The Swingles' Dramatic Developments

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2010-03-12T13:58:00.001-05:00

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A gorgeous day in Chicago!

2010-03-12T13:57:00.000-05:00

Vote for Gifted Hands!

2010-03-04T05:48:00.000-05:00

Our friend Dustee Hullinger, featured in this brief documentary, was instrumental in my getting started in NYC. We did some sociodrama with her clients and saw a lot of breakthroughs. I urge you to vote for her video to receive an award. At about 19 seconds a thumbs up button will appear.

All the best Dustee!

Vancouver 2010

2010-03-02T22:16:00.001-05:00

Our play, Beyond the Chariots, was translated into Chinese, Korean and Spanish for the Beijing Olympics, and for Vancouver 2010 we had audience members who benefited from the translations at all but one performance. We had a group of Spanish-speakers who we thought would be attending that day, so we scrambled to integrate the third translation. They didn't end up making it, but there was a family in Seattle that appreciated our efforts at a post-Olympic performance on our way back to New York City.

Our post-performance conversations were also enriching. We chatted with Leslie Lewis Sword, who performed Miracle in Rwanda in the same venue in which we performed Beyond the Chariots at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Ron Reed, the artistic director of Pacific Theatre, hosted a Christians in Theatre Arts Conference in 1993, which confirmed the calling I was sensing to move to New York City. He was able to attend our play, and we grabbed a meal afterward with Wanda Reinholdt, stage manager of Burnt Thicket, the group producing the other play running in Pacific Theatre through the Olympics, Hockey Dad, performed and co-created by James Popoff. Deb Sears was at Pacific Theatre during that 93 conference, and she was able to attend Beyond the Chariots as well. She's now involved with the independent film scene in Vancouver. Numerous More than Gold CaPA artists were able to attend both of our plays. After performing an excerpt from Beyond the Chariots at the senior center, which operates in the same building as Pacific Theatre, several were drawn to the play, including a 93-year old man who recalled a lunch with Harold Abrahams in 1943. Abrahams was the rival of Eric Liddell, featured in Chariots of Fire as well as our play which tells the rest of the story from Liddell's perspective.

We also had English speaking audience members from all over Canada, the US, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia.

Even our encounters with people on the streets of Vancouver were full of surprises: Korean speakers at a sushi restaurant, a professor of theatre in Korea we met in Stanley Park, and some folks near the steam clock that remembered my performance in Beijing! Someone pointed out that all of these Divine appointments should encourage us that we were on the right track.

To see photos from the trip, visit our photo album, "Vancouver 2010" at Facebook.com/RichDrama.

Miracle in Rwanda

2010-03-02T15:02:00.000-05:00

Before our performance on Friday, an actor was checking out Pacific Theatre for upcoming performances of her one-woman play. When I heard that she was a solo performer I invited her to see Beyond the Chariots. I try to see as many one-man plays as I can, so I figured she'd want to do the same thing. Indeed, she stayed. When the introductory slides came up and she saw the title of the play she remembered that we'd shared the same theatre for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007! Her show, Miracle in Rwanda, was sold out before her first performance, so Joyce and I were only able to see it because she added shows to her line-up. It was amazing! As you walk into the theatre space, there is a small square marked on the stage with white tape. As the play progresses, we discover that eight people hid in a bathroom the size of that square during the Rwandan genocide. Leslie's play has a strong message of forgiveness and reconciliation despite the worst of atrocities.

The Olympic Caldron at dusk

2010-03-02T12:36:00.000-05:00

Korean today, Spanish tomorrow

2010-02-26T00:45:00.000-05:00

There was a woman in the audience today who benefitted from the Korean translation slides. Tonight we're entering Spanish translations for some folks who are coming tomorrow.

Off and running!

2010-02-25T12:58:00.000-05:00

We had our first performance of Beyond the Chariots yesterday, and there was a Mandarin speaker that benefited from our translation slides!

On Friday we'll be adding Spanish translations, that were done through our church, for a group that's joining us.

What a classy cast

2010-02-23T01:30:00.002-05:00

I had such a great time working on A Christmas Snow!

I played the role of Claud, who was a side-kick to Martin played by Craig, pictured here. Catherine Mary Stewart, who is beautifully playing the lead, will be here until the very end of shooting, which will be after 2 all-nighters Tuesday and Wednesday.

I also had great conversations with Anthony Tyler Quinn, Muse Watson, and Cameron ten Napel, who's playing the 10-year old daughter of Anthony Tyler Quinn's character, Andrew.

I shared the make-up trailer with Danny Cahill, who was the biggest winner on The Biggest Loser. I was SHOCKED to hear that he'd lost 239lbs. He doesn't look like he's ever been overweight in his life. It was so great that he was cast as... the food critic! Brilliant!

The crew was also amazing. Everyone on set was on top of their craft and a joy to work for or with!

My last scene

2010-02-22T15:01:00.000-05:00

It's been such a blast to be a part of A Christmas Snow (www.Facebook.com/AChristmasSnow)! Can't wait to see the final product!

My trailer on the set of A Christmas Snow

2010-02-21T14:39:00.000-05:00

Crossed the Gulf

2010-02-19T14:04:00.000-05:00

I'd flown into Houston before, but always from the north. Coming in from the Gulf of Mexico was a completely different, breath-taking experience.

Crossing the Gulf

2010-02-19T14:03:00.000-05:00

I'm now crossing the Gulf of Mexico, en route to Tulsa, where I'll play Claud in the upcoming film, A Christmas Snow.

Here's the video that announced me playing Claud in the film:

Too cool for school

2010-02-19T14:01:00.000-05:00

The students here at Christian Clearwater College look out over Tampa Bay for their meals. How cool is that?

Not as cool as what happened last night: At the beginning of my Big Fish Little Worm performance I told the campus how I walked forward after a chapel speaker at my alma mater, George Fox University, invited us to show the Lord that we'd go anywhere He called us. I told the audience that on my walk to the alter I told God I'd be glad to go anywhere, but put in a request that it not be a big city. For 16 years I have LOVED living in New York City, the largest in the US.

Quite a night

2010-02-18T08:47:00.000-05:00

During last night's performance I was joined by Coertze Peters, a mime from South Africa that did a piece on Haiti that had everyone in tears. Also, on one of his only days in Florida between an extensive trip to Asia and moving to TN to play Jesus in a long-running musical was David M Sanborn and his mother, Ellen Sanborn. They wrote a song commemorating YWAM's 50th anniversary which they performed at the top of the show. Ellen's husband, Art, who was paralyzed at the same level as Christopher Reeve, stood to his feet and raised a ram's horn for my Gideon piece. His story is told in his book, Walking Miracle.

This is the amazing family that produced Judah Ben Hur in Singapore, where I got to play Simonides, Pilate, and a few other minor roles.

Also at last night's performance was Randi, who introduced me to Sanborns and Barb, who introduced her to the Sanborns. It was a mini Judah Ben Hur reunion!

The Foreigner

2010-02-16T12:05:00.003-05:00

John Kirby and I have decided to produce The Foreigner, by Larry Shue, for this summer's MasterWorks Festival.

There are some parts of me that are still jiggling with mirth from the production my alma mater, George Fox University, did in the late '80s. Besides being a hilarious play, it deals with the heavy subject of racism by creatively showing the value of every culture.

It seems a very appropriate choice as delegates from 200 nations are being gathered this year in Cape Town, South Africa, for the Third Lausanne Congress on Worldwide Evangelization: CapeTown2010.com. I was selected for the Media and Arts committee, so I'm excited to share some of Lausanne's vision at MasterWorks. We'll be exploring some of the themes of Lausanne's occasional paper, Redeeming the Arts, and even developing some sketches to be submitted for performance at the Congress this October.

The Foreigner has the smallest cast of any full-length play we've ever produced at MasterWorks, but because of the opportunity to prepare pieces for submission to Lausanne, and through some creative ideas John and I are considering, all students will be kept busy.

We've got another great line up of faculty and master class instructors taking shape. We'll be announcing them soon.

Apply online now: MasterWorksFestival.org.

Good morning Clearwater

2010-02-16T07:44:00.000-05:00

Sunrise over Tampa Bay.

RichDrama.com/Itinerary

Balmy

2010-02-15T23:29:00.000-05:00

Everyone's complaining about it being so cold here, and it's true that I probably won't swim in the Gulf of Mexico on this trip... but I'm not wearing a coat tonight. After dodging snow banks this morning it's not bad at all.

RichDrama.com/Itinerary

The Gulf of Mexico

2010-02-15T21:16:00.000-05:00

This is as much of the Gulf as I'll see on this trip... Unless we're hit with a heat wave!

Loved the Love Feast

2010-02-14T20:42:00.000-05:00

At our church's Love Feast this morning our pastoral team and board served the rest of the congregation. I sensed the Lord's love flowing through us in such a palpable way! We had a visiting band so our weekly musicians could be served, and one of the first songs the visiting band sang was He Loves Us. As we sang, I sensed the Lord's great Love for us all, and I was on the verge of tears the whole rest of the morning.

Later, I helped serve communion in the role of Jesus. While I was handing out the homemade matzo I sensed very clearly that the Lord wanted me to hug a recent widow, to show her He was thinking of her on this first Valentine's Day without her husband. I followed the impulse, and later I told her about it. She said, "I prayed for that," and we both burst into tears.

Prepping for a Love Feast

2010-02-14T17:16:00.000-05:00

This morning our church's pastoral team and board is serving a Valentine's breakfast to our congregation: www.WestchesterChapel.org.

Korean translations

2010-02-13T00:15:00.001-05:00

A couple of years ago I was flying from Chicago to NYC and struck up a conversation with the people sitting next to me. I told them I'd be performing Beyond the Chariots in China during the Beijing Olympics, and I mentioned that it was my dream to have the play translated into many languages since people come from all over the world for the Olympics. The gentleman on the aisle said, "I think our church would translate it into Korean." They did! And there were Koreans who were able to undertand the play during those performances during the '08 Olympics.

I told the gentleman, Moon, that I couldn't possibly pay them for their time, but I would be glad to offer a performance of the play at their church. I was able to share the fruit of their labors on Sunday in Chicago!

After the play we went out for some amazing Korean BBQ. Yum! After dinner I was given the shirt I'm displaying in the photo with Mrs. Cho, one of the three translators. The other two were her husband, Rev. Cho, and Moon.

Director Talks About A Christmas Snow

2010-02-11T15:35:00.001-05:00

A Tulsa news channel interviewed Tracy Trost, the director of A Christmas Snow, in which I've been cast in the role of Claud.

Music from Beijing

2010-02-09T08:26:00.002-05:00

A woman attended my acting workshops in Goshen, IN, who works in China. She told me about this album, which was produced by the Beijing International Christian Fellowship, where I performed during the '08 Olympics. It was their lead elder I bumped into in Phoenix, OR, population 4,060: What are the chances?

The CD includes western and Chinese instruments for a truly unique experience.

Heading out of IN

2010-02-07T07:57:00.000-05:00

We're driving north to Chicago this morning to perform Beyond the Chariots (www.RichDrama.com/BeyondtheChariots) for the church that translated it for performances during the Beijing Olympics, where we had audience members that benefitted from it!

We're investing now in performances of the play during the Vancouver Winter Olympics later this month, and we'd love for you to partner with us: www.RichDrama.com/Olympics.