We were so blessed to see The Horse and His Boy at the Museum of the Bible! I gave some of our impressions in this video I recorded outside the Lena Horne Theatre on Broadway...
The Horse and His Boy closes on March 4. They added a show because that matinee sold out.
I got permission to share the code SHASTA with you, which will get you 25% off: Click here for tickets.
Three of my students from Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines were in it: (left to right) Lael Lawless Goodrich, Caleb Smedra, Lael's husband Chandler (he wasn't my student, but we just had to get him in the photo) and Lydia Miller (I only taught her a couple of hours at Lamplighter before she spent the rest of the week with Patricia Mauceri).
We saw the play with our friend Cindy, who hosted my performances annually over the course of 20 years in the public schools where she taught.
We had such a profoundly impacting week at the Lamplighter Guild!
The students I was working with started with enacted prayers of actual prayer requests. Then we used sociodrama to weave those real prayers into a fictional drama. I was so proud of how we worked together to create a new work tracking a young lady from Salvation to discipleship to presenting the Gospel to a lost soul, paralleling the theme of the week, Foundations to Fulfillment: Fear-less + Faith-full.
There were many special guests, including Eric Ludy, who challenged us to parkour with joy over the obstacles of life. Dr. Lew Sterrett broke a wild horse and was riding her in just over an hour, during which he was connecting insights from working with wild horses to raising and discipling teens. Profound! We were also blessed by recording artist Ginny Owens.
This epiphany after Ginny's concert was the spiritual highlight of the week for me:
Posted by Rich Swingle on Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Here's the short film created by the Filmmaking Department, taught up by Aaron Burns (Washington's Armor, Overcomer, Beyond the Mask) and Paul Anderson (working full time for the Kendrick Brothers):
This is a recap video:
Here's an interview I did for Lamplighter's podcast, Fastened Like Nails:
I had the privilege of directing the Voice Acting track at this year's Lamplighter Guild. Students in the writing track, directed by Dan Schwabauer (left), wrote three audio dramas and seven commercials. Music was composed by John Campbell as he walked his students through the process. The Sound Design students created our sound effects, under the direction of Allen Hurley.
It was such an incredible blessing to take part in this year's Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines! It was all based on the theme "Facing Fear with Faith," and what an appropriate theme for this year marked by so many things we could be afraid of.
I taught voice acting and directed the audio dramas and ads written by the writing department.
The filmmaking department, headed by Aaron Burns (producer of Beyond the Mask, Overcomer, War Room), cast me as the father in their short film, inspired by The Screwtape Letters. The photo to the right captures how I taught the voice actors sociodrama over video conference, since there wasn't enough room on set to invite all the voice actors over.
We had incredible guest speakers including a couple of heros of mine: Eric Ludy and Joni Eareckson Tada. Another favorite for me was the family featured in the film Free Burma Rangers, which we also watched. Talk about facing fear with faith! That family of five "runs toward the gunshots" in some of the most dangerous places on earth, including Myanmar and Iraq.
I've been praying for years that I could teach there, and recently that prayer was answered, and it was much more fulfilling than I'd imagined! Isn't that always the way with the Lord?
I guided almost forty students as they created four separate sketches through sociodrama.
After our final rehearsal I suggested that two or three of them should close us in prayer. Over an hour later they reluctantly went to bed. One of our students realized her headache was gone. We prayed and laughed and wept in the joy of the Lord. Revival! Sweet revival! Friday morning they announced that lunch would be delayed 15 minutes, so Mark Hamby, the director of the Guild invited students up to testify. Within seconds a student behind me said, "Your prayer was answered!" The night before I'd prayed that our students would get the chance to share! On the shuttle to the bus station Peter Fecteau, his son and I counted up 24 distinct miracles we'd observed this week. Moments later He made it an even 25! I was able to get the earlier bus, and the gentleman waived the change fee!
I just got a note from one of the students saying he and some others are going to collaborate on an audio drama! Praise the Lord!
Here's the film our students created:
I helped with casting and wrangling extras.
It was so great to work alongside longtime friends David Sanborn and John Fornof, and to get to know the rest of the wonderful faculty!
