"I, Daniel"

Voice of the Prophet

The preaching team at Westchester Chapel has been going through Ezekial 8 together, approaching it as if we're preparing to preach on that passage. Ezekiel's vision reminded me of a vision Evan Roberts had. Our "singing play" Songs of Revivalshows how the Lord was calling Roberts through a vision to preach to the young people in the church of his youth. His obedience sparked a broader movement of the Welsh Revival, which was already simmering. 

Later in Ezekiel 8 the prophet paints a sad picture of what people representing God to the world were doing. They thought they were doing good things, but the Lord showed Ezekiel their actions were an abomination. I wrote down, "Prophecy is declaring reality to a people who can't see clearly because of sin."

Tomorrow I was asked to do a dramatic reading from another prophet, Daniel. 

It reminded me that I did the voice of Daniel in a promotion for a preaching series on the Book of Daniel for Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, TN. 

Click here to play.

I got permission from the filmmakers at Evergreen Media Productions to share this, and at the end it advertises a sermon series that already happened at Trinity. At Westchester Chapel the Bible study will be online July 23 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Click here to us know if you'd like a link to join us. It will not be recorded.

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I portray John the Baptist, a New Testament prophet, in a short piece called "The Lamb of God.” Before I wrote it for a performance at Africa Nazarene University I did a dramatization of that passage in the Jordan River near where it is believed that John the Baptist baptized Jesus.

Beyond the Imagination

I submitted a short film to The Quarantine Film Festival with two minutes to spare! It's an adaptation from my one-man play The Acts.



I ended up reshooting it and it's now available to watch at home and for your church through www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.



If your church is interested in showing it, please contact us through the contact form at the very bottom of this page.



I didn't have time to put credits in the film, so here they are:

Written, performed, filmed and edited by Rich Swingle

Concept: Through Fran Warren

Producers: Jim & Linda Warren

Dramaturgy: Jim and Linda Warren, James Masters,
Joyce Swingle

Language Coaches: Adam Rudinsky (Hebrew), Tim
Tsohantaridis (Greek), Wojtek Typrowicz (Latin) Warren
Costume: Fran Warren

Acting coaches: Selah Cohen and Judy Dodd

Consultants: Micah Derksen, Ethan Hill, Jenny and Niklas Holmgren, Paula Kasica

Desert City by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100564 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

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See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story in Beyond the Chariots. Watch it online and book a live performance.

Return on Investment

Students of the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp study training videos before arriving, so once they're there we can jump straight into making a short film. This year's project was just posted, and you can see it below, or if you're reading this in an email, visit www.RichDrama.com/ReturnOnInvestment.

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The dates have been set for the 2019 Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp. Mark your calendars for June 23-29, and sign up to get the announcement that registration is open.

RoboDad

I'm very excited to be working with Light Symphony Productions again on this very creative project! I play a scientist who has developed a robotic father, and I'll also play the voice of RoboDad! We had great fun!



It won the top prize for the Fatherhood CoMission film contest at the Christian Worldview Film Festival, 2018.







Here's a behind the scenes video:







The last time I worked with this amazing team I was blessed to win "Best Actor in a Short Film" at the International Christian Film Festival.

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I play a lead in Providence, which you can bring to your area.

There

Joyce and I joined my former students William and Morgan Willer who directed and produced the short film, "There."



Joyce served on crew, and I played a father in search of his daughter during a storm who finds that he has to decide between getting her to safety and bringing a woman in labor to the hospital in his two-seat car.





You Should Be THERE: A Short Film from William Willer on Vimeo.

Joyce played my character's wife while the cameras weren't rolling. It was a sociodrama to help get our 22nd screen daughter ready for an emotional phone call. We were all deeply moved by the experience, and hopefully you'll hear that in her performance.

It was an official selection at the Christian Worldview Film Festival and the International Christian Film and Music Festival, where I was nominated for Best Lead Actor in a Short Film.



They created this brilliant fundraising video for the project:

William and Morgan attended the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp in 2016. William was on the filmmaking side, and Morgan was one of my actors. Our film for that year, "Felicia's Pledge": www.RichDrama.com/FeliciasPledge. The next summer the siblings switched places and I got to work with William. Our short film that year was "Milk and Oranges": www.RichDrama.com/MilkAndOranges.

We also got to work with other Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp alumni: Rebekah Stought, who plays the expectant mother, did both camps in the summer of 2015, when we offered two week-long camps back-to-back. Click here to see the film Rebekah directed and the two in which she performed.

Gwendelynn Martindale was a filmmaking student, and she wrote, produced and directed her own short film, "One Day."



Though RMCFC alumna Gabby Campana needed to be out of town during filming, she helped with pre and post-production. While we were there we got to see her in a really fun short she starred in with the Willers.

McKenzie set up a performance and

workshop for me in her church in

Albuquerque. Her brother, Matt,

also worked on "There."

While we were on set, RMCFC alumna McKenzie Harris got a call-back to play the lead in a Lamplighter Theatre production, of The Treasure of the Secret Cove. The production team listened to over 250 auditions without considering who the actors were. They were shocked to discover McKenzie was also an alumna of the Lamplighter Guild, where I got to teach this summer.

Of course, my own bride attended the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp as well. The short she directed (...for one scene, and she did cinematography, lighting and sound for other scenes) is now online: www.RichDrama.com/MilkAndOranges.



Here's a great review of "There":

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Sign up for the announcement that registration is open for the next Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.