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.