I’ve found it! Have been searching for the video of the 2015 Risen! The Musical production at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth featuring the London Touring Cast and the Portsmouth Gospel Choir.
This show features a song not included in the 2016 film – there is a rap and starts at 1 hour 48 mins 29 secs. Not sure now why it was omitted from the 2016 production but when we do Risen! again it will defo be back in!
It being Easter I am going to leave the chronical release of Mustard Seed Song’s videos to feature one that is particularly appropriate for Easter, especially tomorrow, i.e. Good Friday.
So this is an extract from Risen! The Musical filmed at the New Theatre Royal in 2016.
Sorry, but at present I still cannot locate the film of the 2015 Risen! The Musical at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth which featured the London Touring Cast together with the Portsmouth Gospel Choir. So in the meantime the next video chronological is the one featured today – a clip from the 2018 Risen! The Musical Theatre in Education tour of Hampshire and West Sussex.
Caroline Wetherelt, who played Mary mother of Jesus in Risen! had, at one time, performed with a travelling theatrical company delivering Pantomimes and workshops in Primary Schools. She remembered hearing words coming from a classroom similar to those from Risen! ( perhaps an RE focused class) and suggested we could perform a Risen ! production with a script especially written for children. And that’s what we did – my son James, who is a Primary School teacher, advised the content, Darren Bovis- Coulter of 2FishProductions designed a set based on Minecraft, Joffy Girling produced backing tracks and 6 actors from the Risen! The Musical cast used an Airbnb in Chichester as their base for a 3 week tour of Primary Schools in Hampshire and West Sussex. They performed Risen! in the mornings and then ran musical theatre workshops in the afternoons.
We reached 4000 children in 17 schools. Everything was brilliant apart from a lack of funds- the schools were not in a position to make much of a contribution towards costs – that’s why, although a huge success, we have not been able to repeat a similar tour again.
The amazing cast featured:
Jesus – Max Panks
Mary Magdalene – Caroline Wetherelt and Rebecca Davis
We continue with the backlog of Mustard Seed Song’s videos, however there is one that, at present, I can’t locate. It was 2015 Risen! The Musical at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth and featured the London Touring Cast together with Portsmouth Gospel Choir. It was filmed but only for prosperity using just one wide angle camera. What followed was the video we are featuring today which was professionally filmed by Global Fire Studios and which has subtitles in English (todays) Romanian, Spanish, Mandarin and Vietnamese.
The credits are at the end of the video.
Taken from “Give Us Your Heart Lord” from Risen! The Musical
And so we continue with the backlog of Mustard Seed Song’s video with two videos this week!
The first is a flash mob in a Coventry shopping precinct that took place before the first ever full production of Risen! The Musical. Risen! was part of the Coventry Pentecost Festival, May 2015 organised by Darren- Bovis Coulter, now Pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church, Falmouth.
The second video is the finale of that production.
The fabulous cast all came from the London School of Music in Ealing – more of them next week!
So we are back this week with the continuation of Mustard Seed Song’s videos.
This concert was performed at Holy Rood church, Stubbington in 2014 and was a prelude to the full Risen! The Musical. It featured all sorts of famous Holy Rood and other lovely people.
If I Say I Love You Jesus featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Precious recorded and produced by Ross Gill
I would like to take another break from sharing Mustard Seed videos as Sunday, February 22nd was the 29th year anniversary of me becoming a Christian. I first told the story back in 2014 and I share it again here:
After taking part in an Alpha Course , I began to think that I wanted to become a Christian – I felt reassured by the words in John’s Gospel, Chapter 3 verse 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” Eternal Life – that is what I needed to take away my fear of death. Not something to be earned but something to be accepted as a gift. Perfect – apart from two problems 1) did I have enough faith to accept Jesus” gift” with any degree of sincerity? 2) If I did ask Jesus into my life what would my mates say- how much ridicule would I have to endure? Let me have a look at problem no 2 first.
Three of my very special friends are Barry Stares, Dave Conchie and Ian Beacham . Barry I have known since Junior School and Dave and Ian since PE College. We regularly meet for a drink and something to eat (yes curry) At one curry Ian said “You will never guess what’s happened to Mick” He was referring to another ex-PE College friend, Mick Mellows who played football for Pompey and who is now a Director of the charity Faith and Football www.faithandfootball.org.ukk . I thought Ian meant that Mick had been struck down with some horrible illness but no that is not what he meant at all. He continued “He’s only gone and become a Christian!” To which Dave replied “No – and he was such a good bloke!”
Could I face that sort of comment if I “admitted” to becoming a Christian? I really doubted it.
As for problem no 1 re did I have enough faith? – Well thankfully someone told me I only had to have faith as small as a mustard seed (the smallest of all seeds in Biblical times.) I simply had to focus on what I believed not on what I did not – simply had to trust – simply had to take a “leap of faith”
During the Alpha course I had been given a little red book entitled “Why Jesus?” (as featured in pic) At the end of the book there is a prayer so I knew an opportunity was coming up for me to take that leap of faith and to say this prayer asking Jesus to come into my life. I felt it really difficult to sleep with my two “problems” constantly churning around inside my head. The weekend came when I knew I had to make a decision – as part of the Alpha Course I was at the Holy Rood Vicarage with the Vicar, Michael Christian- Edwards and his lovely wife Merlyn. When the others in my group were having a coffee break I escaped into the village to go through in my head what I was going to do. On my return sure enough Michael gave everyone the opportunity to say a prayer asking Jesus to forgive us for all the things we had done wrong – to ask Him to come into our lives- and for us to be filled with His Holy Spirit. I remember asking Michael if I could say the prayer twice. He seemed surprised but said that was fine and so that lunchtime on Saturday, February 22nd 1997 I asked Jesus into my life and became a Christian.
Why did I want to say the prayer twice? Well there was Mr Mill and his dad that I also wanted to be there on such a momentous occasion. So that evening in Mr Mil’s apartment in Titchfield I sat between the two of them confessing out loud all the things I had done wrong and again asking Jesus into my life. Some of the things I had done wrong were pretty big – one had been a real burden for many years but after I had confessed it the burden lifted- I know that sounds amazing and too good to be true but amazing is what it was and too good not to be true!
So I thought “micky taking” here you come, but I decided to be pro-active and tell people before they found out through the grapevine. First off was Barry who I had known the longest -he was surprisingly supportive – so too was Ian – but I could not tell Dave, it was Dave who had made the comment about Mick Mellows – he was sure to let me have it with both barrels. A couple of months later Barry and Ian told me that Dave was really upset with me for not telling him. So I took Dave out for a curry (of course) and felt pretty emotional when Dave told me that he loved me (in a bloke way!!) and that he would always support me in anything I did and that he was upset because it seemed that I did not believe I could trust him. So big apology from me and really all the worries about people “taking the mick” turned out to be groundless- mind you I think my two sons James and Chris took a bit of stick at school.
So did my fears of dying die (sorry) If I am honest not entirely – but I did have God’s promise to hold on to and you can’t have much more than that. In fact later I wrote a song called “It’s From the Lord” which is on our CD “Heart and Soul” – the last verse of which is “When your time on earth is ending and you look up to Him on high and your see His promises sparkling spelt out in stars across the sky and open arms reach to embrace you to welcome you home then you know, yes you know it is the Lord.”
I also wrote a song which was a sort of autobiography of me becoming a Christian and being worried about what people would think – this one is on the CD “Precious” and is called “If I Say I Love You Jesus.” I did actually once sing it live myself at a Mustard Seed Concert but here it is sung by the fantastic Lucy Stimpson-Maynard.
So, we are back this week with the continuation of Mustard Seed Song’s videos.
This concert was performed at Holy Rood church, Stubbington in 2006 and featured the Mustard Seed Soul Band, together with the Mustard Seed Girls Choir.
You Are My Rock featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band from the album HisStory recorded and produced by Ross Gill
No Mustard Seed video next week – that’s on hold as I wanted to share the Austin Applebee story. Yes I know its been all over the news but I am still sharing because not all the accounts have told the full story.
This account comes from an online post I read from “FirstFactCheck.”
Austin Appelbee is a 13 year old boy whose Mum and siblings became stranded four kilometres out to sea.
They began their swim after a lunchtime picnic at Quindalup beach, near Geographe Bay, and were paddling in the shallows1. Two of the children, Grace and Austin, were on paddleboards and Beau was in the kayak and his mother Joanne was on another paddleboard — unfortunately, after the wind picked up, one of the kids lost one of the kayak’s oars, and then Joanne, trying to help, lost the other oar, and they found themselves floating out to sea on a rip.
There had been shark reports a few kilometres away the day before, and indeed, there was another shark report at Quindalup the day after Austin’s achievement.Bottom of Form Not having many options, Joanne sent the oldest, 13-year old Austin, to get help.
Before this, amazingly, Austin had been unable to progress to the next level of his swimming lessons because he had failed to swim for 350 metres without stopping. I think the swimming tutors should probably recognise that he is able to swim for 350 metres without stopping now.
Austin took the kayak towards shore, but it was leaky and filled with water quickly. Ultimately, after limping along for a couple of kilometres, he abandoned the kayak and the life jacket and swam for help.
Austin said, “The waves are massive, and I have no life jacket on… I just kept thinking ‘just keep swimming, just keep swimming’, and then finally I just made it to shore. I hit the bottom of the beach, and I just collapsed.”
It had taken him four hours to reach the shore.
Austin said, “And then I had to sprint two kilometres to get to the phone. There was a lot of foreign people on the beach and I couldn’t get much help, so I had to sprint to the phone. I rang triple zero and rang the police, and said I need helicopters I need planes I need boats, my family’s stuck out to sea.” he said.
The police sent out helicopters, and the rescuers reached his mother and siblings just in time — a huge wave had flipped the paddleboard they were clinging to, and his mother lost hold of the childrens’ hands. They were floating away, when the helicopter arrived and saved their lives — all because Austin had managed to reach the shore and then ran to find a phone and ring for help.
Austin ascribes his heroic deed to God: “I don’t think it was actually me [swimming]… It was God the whole time. I kept on praying, kept on praying. I said to God, ‘I’ll get baptized, I’ll get baptized’… I went to church on Sunday.”
In a Channel 7’s interview, Austin mentions that he only achieved this amazing feat because of God.
However ABC’s headline for the story was: Austin Appelbee’s incredible tale of survival has made international headlines. How did the 13 yr old do it? They mention briefly that Austin prayed, but fail completely to mention that Austin said the only way he was able to do this amazing feat was because of God.
The Guardian newspaper spent most of its article going on about heroic feats in the past that have been due to fight-or-flight situations enabling people – “to go beyond what their perceived limits are”.
Well I know what I, Austin and his family believe!
