His Story plays at the Kings Theatre, Southsea

His Story at Central Hall, London

“The One Whose Name Begins With J” from “His Story”  performed live by the Mustard Seed Soul Band featuring Fiona Poustie on lead vocals

At a concert we produced at St Mary’s Church in the grounds of Porchester Castle I remember announcing that it would be a dream to produce a musical focused on the life of Christ; one that featured Mustard Seed songs.  Well the dream came true! I got the title “His Story” after reading a Selwyn Hughes devotional in “Every Day With Jesus.”  I can actually name the day as I still have the rather well -worn copy -Sunday 2^nd May 1999.

Ross Gill (vocals and lead guitar in Mustard Seed Soul Band) suggested that I use the expertise of an old friend of his, Ron Long, together with his brother in law, Bobby Tait as they had experience in writing scripts.

The storyline of “His Story” is as follows:

Mary the Mother of Jesus, and John the disciple whom Jesus loved are told by Jesus on the cross to become mother and son to each other (John 19 25-27) They then go to live in John’s home. Shortly after Pentecost the two are in conversation at Johns home. As the mother of our Lord and the disciple whom Jesus loved, Mary and John would have known more about Jesus life than any two other people in the world. As they reflect on the life of Jesus their dialogue cues up songs.

We took the script straight from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. The person who played John was an ex- Crofton student, Jez Field who Mustard Seeds had supported when he had volunteered to work for Tearfund in Kenya.  Jez was not an actor and by then he was a church youth worker, however he had been MC at a Mustard Seed Concert in Elim Church, Arundel Street Portsmouth and it was there that I felt that he would be great playing the part of John. He most certainly was – simply a natural. The dialogue of the actors cued up songs from the Mustard Seed Soul Band together with Lucy Stimpson- Maynard and the Crofton Hammond School Choir.   The first production played to a packed audience at the Fernham Hall Fareham. Later productions were held at the Kings Theatre Southsea, The Theatre Royal Portsmouth, Central Hall, Westminster as part of the London Pentecost Festival, and then we returned again to Fernham Hall where the show was filmed.  You can view clips from the shows by visiting www.history.org.uk

As you can imagine there are many stories surrounding the “His Story” productions- the cast was always fantastic. Ron Long switched from assistant script writer to stage manager. He also introduced to me his cousin Wendy Adams, a professional actress, who played Mary the Mother of Jesus so brilliantly in all the other “His Story” productions.  A great friend,  PJ Radcliffe, who is the Risen blog webmaster,  assisted with lighting and just about everything else (thanks v much PJ) Darren Bovis- Coulter produced amazing visuals including a “Talking Head” to help tell the story (with Holy Rood’s very own John Guest starring)

One particular story however is relevant to our forthcoming musical Risen!  Jez Field’s church commitments meant he was unavailable for the show at the Kings Theatre so I was looking for a substitute to play the part of John. Nicola Poustie and Fiona  her sister,  together with Kat Hands and Katy Summer made up the  fabulous  Mustard Seed Soul Band vocalists. Nicola  went to Mountview Academy Of Theatre Arts and I asked her if she knew of anyone who would play the role of John for us. Nicola suggested an ex- Mountview friend of hers, Ben Morris who went on to do a great acting job for us, however I did not realise until later that Ben had won a scholarship to Mountview for  his singing.  Later in 2010, Ben won RTE One’s talent search ‘FAME The Musical’ and starred as Nick on the Irish Tour of FAME. He now performs in the West End production of “Phantom of the Opera.” I had stayed in touch with Ben and was absolutely delighted when he found time in between his musical commitments and “Phantom” shows to record the part of Jesus for us in the Risen! double CD.  The audience at Holy Rood had a preview of his recording when we used it for the Easter Sunday 2014 Risen! concert.