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| Goofing around on the Oregon Coast after performing at The Newmark Theatre. |
Last October I performed at
The Newmark Theatre in downtown Portland, Oregon. While there I reconnected with a family I'd met in a restaurant a year or more before, the Olstads. As they wheeled their son past our table I noticed a sticker on his wheelchair: "
Joni & Friends." I have a number of connections to Joni Eareckson Tada, so we struck up a conversation. When we were kids our mom read from her
autobiography, telling how she became a quadriplegic in a diving accident, and how she's gone on to be a painter, international speaker, writer (3M copies of her autobiography in print), and singer. In fact Joni sang the Oscar-nominated song for
Alone Yet Not Alone in which I play a land speculator. Her husband pressed her diaphragm so she could hit the high notes. She personally called our friend, Art Sanborn, who became a quadriplegic in a boogie boarding accident. His story and how he now jogs and does 150 pushups every day is told in his amazing autobiography,
Walking Miracle. And one of our friends, a physical therapist, has traveled with Joni & Friends to Peru, Cuba and Poland to help fit the disabled with wheelchairs that have been donated. Turns out the Olstads worked with our friend on at least one of those trips! I'm sure we had many eavesdroppers in that restaurant as we talked excitedly about how the Creator of limbs could work so mightily through those who couldn't use them.
At The Newmark I reconnected with the Olstads, and they invited me to perform at a
Joni & Friends event on the Oregon Coast. In fact that event will take place at
Twin Rocks Friends Camp, where I served on summer staff when I was in
college. The evening at The Newmark was a fundraiser for Twin Rocks.
I was pleased to hear that Joni & Friends keeps a lean budget, making sure that most donations go straight to the disabled who benefit from their assistance. The downside is that they can only cover my airfare. I've agreed to do the booking, especially in light of a friend who broke his neck just a couple of months ago while play wrestling. This twenty-something is now facing life as a quadriplegic, but we're trusting the Lord can either bring glory through his healing, as He did through Art Sanborn, or through the disability, as He's done through Joni.
If you're in the Pacific Northwest I'd love to add to my itinerary! I'll be performing for Joni & Friends on August 11 & 18. I have free dates between those performances and after the 18th.
If you're in the Cincinati area, the director of
Polycarp has invited me to attend the premiere on February 20, so I would love to set up a booking in that area for the 21st and/or 22nd.
Send decision makers in your church or school (wherever you may be) to
www.RichDrama.com.
Here's the newly released trailer for Polycarp, which leads with me in the role of a slave trader:
I could use your help on one more front: I submitted for the role of a lifetime in a major motion picture, and they're basing their casting on each actor's standing on IMDb. If you visited
www.IMDb.me/RichSwingle after our Christmas eCard was posted I thank you! There was a great surge in my standing, but now it's dropped considerably, and the submissions deadline has just arrived. Now is the time they'll be sorting through the candidates. If you have a second, click
here. If you have a minute, while you're on the page find the Facebook Like button. If you have five minutes, click on each of the films in which I've performed and Like them.
Watch for
Princess Cut in theaters Valentine's Day. I play a suave realtor. And in April you can have a hand in bringing
Beyond the Mask to a theater in your community. I play Dr. Bonneville in that one.
I pray the New Year is off to a great start for each of you. Hope to see you out there
somewhere... especially if you're in the Northwest or near Cincinnati.
in Christ alone,
Rich
Twenty-four days left for the early bird special at the
Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp. And sign-up for
Engage Rio.
Beverly Holloway has agreed to meet with students of the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp via video conference. She'll talk about her work as a casting director and then field questions from our students. Beverly is known for her work on The Ultimate Gift (starring Abigail Breslin and James Garner), Like Dandelion Dust (starring Barry Pepper and Academy Award-winner Mira Sorvino), and the upcoming Beyond the Mask (starring John Rhys-Davies). 
John Forbes' performance of William Booth for a reading in an upcoming Broadway musical about how Booth began The Salvation Army was literally put on ice for the recent blizzard, but he was willing to take some time to talk with our students in the context of one of our teaching videos, addressing the critical importance of staying in the present moment when performing. John is an international and Off-Broadway producer, and he's performed on and Off-Broadway and around the world. He even helped the king of the Zulu nation produce a musical in South Africa! 
