from the editor: While our most faithful contributor, Joyce Voysey, awaits her copy of this month's book 14 Lives, she has not been sitting idle! Oh no. She writes:
Readers
of this blog will recall that last month we spoke about the Gospel of Mark. I
was thrilled to see David Suchet read the book on YouTube and our
editor added this postscript to my blog:
Suchet mentions his fellow actor Alex McCowen who
performed this gospel by heart in venues around the world, including the White
House. Mr McCowen is mentioned by Bible teacher Madelon Maupin in her most
recent teaching on Mark.
Well. I
ordered the CD of McCowen's performance from Amazon. I have now watched it. It
is amazing. One reaction I have had to it is that I would like to watch it with
our church membership. It is so powerful!
I also found
an article from The New York Times (NYT) of March 18, 1990, which reviews a
performance by Mr McCowen, and speaks of the genesis of his remarkable achievement. It reports
that the actor learned three verses early each morning for 16 months.
He chose
Mark for his purpose because, as the NYT correspondent (Benedict Nightingale) wrote:
John struck Mr. McCowen as too mysterious for the theater, Matthew as too didactic and Luke as too poetic for an actor with his feisty style. It was in some despair that he turned to Mark, whom he remembered as the weakest of the four. “I started learning little passages to see if it would come alive, and instantly realized it was absolutely right. The style had a blunt, astringent quality which suited me. And it was a Gospel of action not teaching, one which had plenty of episodes and dwelt on none for too long.”
John struck Mr. McCowen as too mysterious for the theater, Matthew as too didactic and Luke as too poetic for an actor with his feisty style. It was in some despair that he turned to Mark, whom he remembered as the weakest of the four. “I started learning little passages to see if it would come alive, and instantly realized it was absolutely right. The style had a blunt, astringent quality which suited me. And it was a Gospel of action not teaching, one which had plenty of episodes and dwelt on none for too long.”
I hope
readers will find and read the whole article. It can be found on:
There is
also an article from The Christian Science Monitor on:
I would
mention that my thought on Mark had been somewhat similar to McCowen's in that
it seemed to be weaker than the other Gospels. I have changed my mind! In a big
way!
Joyce Voysey
PS. My 14 Lives
hasn't arrived in the post yet. I don't know where my original copy is...
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