A Blessed Christmas Season to You and Yours!

One of the scenes we filmed this year in the sitcom What's a Girl to Do is my new favorite scene. I can't tell you much about it until after that episode is released, but it makes it clear that Christmas is not a generic holiday about giving gifts, putting trees in our living rooms and wearing red and green. It's a celebration of the moment God sent his only begotten Son to earth. One of the gifts the wise men brought was myrrh, an embalming spice. Right from the start of time it was clear that Jesus would come to die, that we might live forever. 

Merry Christmas! 

Click here for Joyce's two Christmas messages and my two excerpts from my one-man play Views of the Manger. My performances will be available through Christmas. 

I'm so grateful for all of your prayers that have gone up for us throughout 2021! This year I performed and/or taught in nine states, and Joyce and I both have become contributing writers for Intercessors for America's www.HeadlinePrayer.org. 

Here are a few highlights:

January: Rich performed in Washington's Armor and served as dialect coach. 

February: Rich performed in Three Days Later.

March: Rich co-led a Graceworks workshop for Princeton University.

April: Rich and Joyce started as contributing writers for www.HeadlinePrayer.org. 

May: Rich won Audience Choice Actor of the Year at the International Christian Film and Music Festival. Rich performed two roles in Jonathan Park, Season 18.

June: Rich taught, coached and performed at the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp. Rich performed in The Adventum, Volume 5.

July: Rich performed in The Diary of Perpetua and taught and directed at the Lamplighter Guild. 

August: Rich performed in Prison Letters. Rich performed in a teaser for the upcoming animated sitcom A Few Good Miles. 2nd Chances, in which Rich plays the mentor of the lead character, was released. Rich performed in a trailer for the upcoming cartoon A Few Good Miles.

September: Rich performed and helped on crew for What's a Girl to Do? where we prayed a three-year-old boy back from the dead! Rich led an Actors Boot Camp at the Content 21 Film Festival and Media Summit and was a keynote speaker at the Pensacola Christian Theatre Festival.

October: Rich performed and served as acting coach in "Bunker." Rich and Joyce participated in the Global Hymn Sing. Rich performed two roles in the audio drama Titanic Waif.

November: Rich performed and served as acting coach on What's a Girl to Do? in Ohio and Florida. Freedom: William Bradford and the American Pilgrims Part 1 was released, featuring Rich as two characters.

December: Joyce attended events hosted by Intercessors for America as the Supreme Court was considering the case that could overturn Roe v. Wade. Rich, who was on the set of What's a Girl to Do in Florida, prayed that Joyce would run into Dutch Sheets, a prayer you can see was answered in the photo to the right. Dutch and Greg Hood were on the steps of the Supreme Court when Joyce connected with them.

Have a very blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year! 

 

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I play a quirky clerk in Christmas Grace. It's a wonderful story of forgiveness and... well, grace.

Pray with Others Live: The Matter of Life

Joyce on the steps of the
Supreme Court with Greg Hood and 
Dutch Sheets. This connection with
Dutch was a specific answer to prayer.

Joyce and I typically are on Pray with Others Live on the second and fifth Tuesdays of the month, but last week, Joyce was traveling to Washington DC to be an onsite intercessor during the Supreme Court hearings on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health, which could overturn Roe v. Wade, and I was working on the sitcom by Janet Porter, architect of the Heartbeat Bill (www.RichDrama.com/WhatsAGirlToDo).

I reviewed Tracy Robinson's documentary, The Matter of Life, and Tracy was able to take my place on the program. 

Judy McDonough, who hosts the program, read from a prayer Joyce submitted by our pastors, Jim and Dr. Linda Warren. 

You can watch the program by clicking the image below:

Here's the interview I did with Tracy Robinson: 

Joyce also wrote an article based on interviews she did with the two men who drafted the amicus brief filed with the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health. It's on the second page of the December issue of The Connector. 

Dutch Sheets (in the photo above) read another article by Joyce (The Heart Behind Mississippi's Abortion Law) on his program Give Him 15.

While in DC, Joyce attended an event where intercessors prayerfully listened to the opening oral arguments in the Supreme Court. If you haven't heard them yet, you can listen here. The arguments begin at 32m 13s. 

I posted it earlier, but because it fits the theme for the battle for life, here again is the link to Joyce's article The Lord Is Calling the Supreme Court Back.

To get reminders of when we'll be on Pray with Others Live in the future, sign up at www.RichDrama.com/Prayer.
 

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I Dreamed I Was Free tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who spoke against slavery a century before our Civil War.

Joshua and the Stones of Remembrance

Trevor the Treasure Seeker reflects on Joshua leading the people of Israel across the Jordan River.

 

You can watch other episodes of Treasure Seekers at www.RichDrama.com/TreasureSeekers.

 

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

Eric Metaxas interview with Jenn Gozton and Jim Chandler

A blessed Thanksgiving to all! 

Eric Metaxas, who shared his testimony for our outreach in Russia during the 2014 Olympics, interviewed our friends Jenn Gotzon and Jim Chandler, about their film The Farmer and the Belle, in which I was a NYC producer and played Belle's manager. 

The film is in select theaters Thanksgiving week.

Click here to watch the interview.

Be sure to watch to the end. Eric also interviews singer/songwriter Melanie Penn, and the show closes with the music video of her Christmas song, "Immanuel," which is really charming. 

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

Freedom: William Bradford and the American Pilgrims

A blessed Thanksgiving, everyone! 

Brinkman Adventures has made both volumes of their audio drama, Freedom: William Bradford and the American Pilgrims available. 

We love that they show how clearly the Pilgrims were motivated by the desire to worship the Lord according to Scripture and not the dictates of men, how they dedicated America to the spreading of the Gospel, and how they address the concerns of those trying to tear down our history, showing how flawed people did the best they could under extraordinary circumstances. 

I asked the director, Ian Bultman, to explain how he got the idea for the project, and he wrote:

We started this after meeting some Christians who run the Jenny Interpretive Center while visiting Plymouth. They planted the idea to do an episode as 2020 was the 400th anniversary. Because Jenny was a ministry, I saw them as missionaries to American and felt they fit our format perfectly.  Soon I realized this wasn't about the Jenny, it was about Bradford and the Pilgrims. The story hits on so many things we are dealing with today in America. Freedom of conscience and freedom to practice our faith unhindered by government; race relations; how to deal with a society that treats us unjustly; suffering for/with Christ; loving our enemies; a pandemic. In hindsight I really see God's hand leading us to this project three years ago before everything that's happened in the US.  I see this as a reminder to America of it's roots and heritage. A warning to those who wish to go back to tyranny. And a reminder to the church how to live in troubling times.  Freedom was going to be two or three episodes. As I studied and wrote, it kept growing. At one point I was stressing over the length and sensed the Lord say 'tell the story and don't worry about how many episodes it will take. So at that point I did just that. There was only one 3 minute portion I wasn't able to tell due to space (we'll be including it on CD as an easter egg bonus track).  

Here's his prayer:

Lord, as the intercessors across this country listen, encourage their hearts and faith through the faith and actions of these Pilgrim Fathers who now stand among the cloud of witnesses.   May each listening be reminded that they too are pilgrims, strangers in a foreign land, serving as ambassadors for You with the Good News that each may be reconciled to you through the blood of Jesus.  Help us find ways to get this story circulated across the country this year and may it ultimately be pleasing to you and bring glory to Your name. In your Son's name, amen

In Part 1 I play the roles of Charles Deane (introduced at 8:27 in Disc 1, track 1) and Richard Clyfton (introduced at 2:01 in Disc 1, track 2).

In Part 2 I play Samoset and an unnamed Native American.

Click here to download the audio drama or order the CDs.

I wrote about this and two other Pilgrim projects I've worked on for www.HeadlinePrayer.org: "Pilgrims Past, Future… and Present."

  

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In Mayflower II we play a couple in the not-so-distant future who host an illegal Bible study that uses Scripture that's been deleted from the government-approved version. Rich's character is an engineer working on the Mayflower II, a spacecraft built to take believers to Mars, the only place left for religious freedom... or is it?

Claim of "Found Ballots" Disappeared

On Tuesday www.HeadlinePrayer.org ran my article on Edward Durr, the truck driver, unseating the second most powerful politician in New Jersey, who refused to concede because they "found" 12,000 ballots. I talked about the story and led prayer that the election not be stolen on Pray with Others Live, which you can see below. 

Yesterday Stephen Sweeney conceded! 

We also talked about my article, "When Bystanders Do Nothing About Lawlessness," and Joyce covered a couple of articles as well. 

Click the image below to play the show...

To get updates when Joyce and/or I are on Pray with Others Live, sign up at www.RichDrama.com/Prayer.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

The Lord Is Calling the Supreme Court Back

Joyce’s article, The Lord Is Calling the Supreme Court Back, posted to www.HeadlinePrayer.org on November 6 and focuses on one element of an interview Joyce did with Philip Jauregui, one of the authors of the amicus brief being submitted to the Supreme Court along with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case they’ll hear on December 1. 

The article has sparked much prayer for our Supreme Court justices as they consider two cases, along with Biden Administration v. The Texas Heartbeat Law, either of which could overturn Roe v. Wade. Pray the Lord moves many hearts to pray for the end of this slaughter of the innocents. 

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I Dreamed I Was Free tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who spoke against slavery a century before it was outlawed in America.