Have a Blessed Christmas!

Every year that I perform Views of the Manger I'm so blessed to start immersing myself in the Christmas story early. This year my first performance was on December 1, so I started reading through the script early in November. But rather than getting tired of the theme, the impact of what the Lord did for us in sending His Son touches me on deeper and deeper levels as the day we celebrate His birth approaches.

This year I was asked to preach on Elizabeth. Joyce preached on Zechariah the week before. You'll have to listen to the sermons on my blog (Dec 15) to see why she got the guy and I got the gal, but we were both blessed to dig into their story of preparing the Way. As an opening illustration for my sermon I wrote a sketch which portrays Zechariah at the moment his voice returns after nine months of silence. Scripture says the first words out of his mouth were praise. The sketch shows what I think his next words might have been: telling his story of Gabriel's visit for the first time verbally. I hope others are as moved by the piece as I am. I haven't gotten through it yet without sobbing. I've now added it to the Views of the Manger lineup.

December 18 marked 20 years in New York City for me. You can read the first two entries in the journal I kept at the time, Farm Boy on Times Square. It blows me away to think of how that move as a 24-year-old opened the way for about 3,000 performances or workshops in over 40 colleges or universities, hundreds of churches and theatres, 39 states, five continents, 26 nations and more than 20 video projects that have reached out to people in countless nations. Thank you so much for your part in helping us share Truth in creative ways out across the land!

This year I added to the list with about 225 performances and workshops in 15 states plus Puerto Rico and Vanuatu. A highlight of the year was performing my play on Jonah with translation into Nafe, a language that is spoken by only about 4,000 people. Then, I preached a short sermon on Jonah which had been translated into Nafe. I had performed it for our short film on John Paton, and it was a great honor to share it during their worship service. They then performed songs for us in English, Nafe, and Bislama, the language that ties the nation's 83 islands together. I'll never forget that trip.

I also performed in five other films in 2013: In His Steps, Polycarp: Destroyer of Gods, Confessions of a Prodigal Son, Creed of Gold, and Princess Cut.

This year was my last with a grandparent. I was honored to preach at Grandma Swingle's funeral. She lived to 97. For the last few years I was able to talk and pray with her once a week as my schedule allowed, and I know she's enjoying her first Christmas with Christ.

Joyce continues to serve as lead pastor of our church, Westchester Chapel. I've had some wonderful pastors over the years, but she surpasses them all... though I'll admit a great deal of bias. You can catch her sermons on our church's website, my blog and iTunes (search "Joyce Swingle"). Her ability to capture hearts and minds with the Truth of the Word continues to grow. She also continues to change lives through her counseling. We realized the year almost slipped away without a honeymoon, so we're going down to Philadelphia the week between Christmas and New Years for our 17th.

These are just a few of the highlights of a full and fulfilling year. For those of you on Facebook you can see our top 20 posts for the year.

For 2014 we're looking forward to leading a team of performing artists to Sochi, Russia, for the Winter Olympics. In April I've been invited to perform and teach at an educators' conference held at The Rift Valley Academy in Kenya. My grandparents had served there, and my mom and aunt attended school at that academy for about six years. We have invitations in South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria. We'll get to as many as possible. For more information, and to support this trip, visit www.RichDrama.com/Africa.

Have a very blessed Christmas, and a bright New Year!
Rich and Joyce

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!

Deadline approaching to join our Winter Olympics Team

The time is NOW to sign up for the trip to Sochi, Russia!

It may seem odd to be thinking about a February 2014 trip in the dog days of August, but because of the Olympics, we need our headcount by September 1 in order to guarantee housing.

We're putting together a team of performing artists to tell the Gospel through movement and music on the streets of Sochi, Russia, during the Winter Olympics in February 2014.

Between the two of us, we've been to Lillehammer, Barcelona, Beijing, Vancouver, Singapore and London, during the Olympics or Youth Olympics. In London we counted people from 30 nations from all inhabited continents that we reached with the message that the Lord loves them. We're expecting the worldwide influence of our efforts in Sochi to echo throughout the nations.

Whether you're an actor, dancer or musician (with a portable instrument), we'd love to have you on our team! We'd also love to have people on the support team that don't need to be skilled in the performing arts.

Click here for more information and to register.

Once you hit the Register button be sure to select our project. When you click on "Select Project" a number of projects will come up. We're 8th from the bottom: "HI179 - RUSSIA - ENGAGE SOCHI/Rich Swingle".

The deadline for registration is September 1, though you'll have until the end of the year to raise the full support.

Hope to work with you there!
Rich and Joyce Swingle

Deadline approaching to join our Olympic Team

The time is NOW to sign up for the trip to Sochi, Russia!

It may seem odd to be thinking about a February 2014 trip in the dog days of August, but because of the Olympics, we need our headcount by September 1 in order to guarantee housing.

We're putting together a team of performing artists to tell the Gospel through movement and music on the streets of Sochi, Russia, during the Winter Olympics in February 2014.

Between the two of us, we've been to Lillehammer, Barcelona, Beijing, Vancouver, Singapore and London, during the Olympics or Youth Olympics. In London we counted people from 30 nations from all inhabited continents that we reached with the message that the Lord loves them. We're expecting the worldwide influence of our efforts in Sochi to echo throughout the nations.

Whether you're an actor, dancer or musician (with a portable instrument), we'd love to have you on our team! We'd also love to have people on the support team that don't need to be skilled in the performing arts.

Click here for more information and to register.

Once you hit the Register button be sure to select our project. When you click on "Select Project" a number of projects will come up. We're 8th from the bottom: "HI179 - RUSSIA - ENGAGE SOCHI/Rich Swingle".

The deadline for registration is September 1, though you'll have until the end of the year to raise the full support.

Hope to work with you there!
Rich and Joyce Swingle

Films released

We're heading to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival tomorrow, and you can help improve my chances of being cast in new films just by visiting IMDb.me/RichSwingle. I've posted a number of new photos there to reward your visit. While you're there, please click the Facebook "Like" button if you happen to be on Facebook. The last time I asked folks to visit and "Like" I shot up several thousand points on IMDb's STARmeter, which increases the likelihood of casting directors to take notice of my work. I'd appreciate it tremendously if you could help me out again: IMDb.me/RichSwingle.

This festival has the largest single grand prize in America for Christian film. Joyce and I play husband and wife in Indescribable, which is up for that $101,000 prize. Also, Alone Yet Not Alone, in which I play a land speculator, will be screened there. You can watch the awards ceremony streamed live this Saturday starting at 7:30pm Central. Click here for details.

Three other films in which I perform were just released:

In the short film Settled I play Tom, one of the leaders in a post-apocalyptic community, who reluctantly takes in an enemy. It was created in 168 hours as a part of a competition. Each team was given the verse Psalm 68:6, one week to write a script, and one week to film it. You can watch it in seventeen minutes by clicking here.

I play Coach Sean Ryan in For the Glory, which tells the true story of Kirk Kuykendall: His dreams of playing basketball in the Olympics were shattered, but when he gave his life to the Lord there was a transformation that opened the possibility of playing soccer in the Olympics. You can order the DVD by clicking here.

Pawn's Move, a film in which I play Sheriff Hansen, one of several characters that help a young couple understand life in the grace of the Lord, was actually released some time ago, but it is now available to watch instantly on Netflix and Amazon. Click here for details.

If you haven't already done so, please click IMDb.me/RichSwingle to help my chances of being cast in more faith-affirming films like these.

In other news, we're three weeks away from casting Twelve Angry Jurors for the MasterWorks Festival theatre program, which will take the play on the road, performing in Bethel Park, PA, and in an Off-Broadway theatre in NYC. If you or someone you know would like to join us, urge them to audition soon. You can see my report from last year's program at RichDrama.com/MWF, where there's a link to information on this year's program or you can go there directly by clicking here.

We'll also have a Long-Form Improv track, which will also take advantage of our faculty's 125 years of combined experience in the professional performing arts world. Click here for more info. As always, my one-man plays are available for live performance anywhere in the world: RichDrama.com.

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.

Visit our main blog for past updates

For updates that went out before this date, visit our blog, which contains our frequent and less frequent updates.