Mark's Gospel
Lance brings the Gospel story to life in the Bible’s own words. This is a dramatic and powerful way of hearing the Gospel story. Lance doesn't stand still or read from a lectern but with simple movement and action, he acts the story out, bringing it close to you.
He launched his one-man performance of Mark’s Gospel in 2002 with the aim of bringing the 'good news' within the reach of everyone and of giving people an overview of the whole story at one sitting.
About the Play:
Lance’s performance of Mark’s Gospel is accessible, enjoyable and moving for Christians and yet-to-become-Christians alike.
Lance uses a modern translation (Alan T Dale’s New World) to give the story a contemporary, relevant feel. It takes no background knowledge or technical language for granted. It is not a recital, but a one-man play performed with simple movement and characterisation.
As the performance is based solely on the words of the Bible, without any further commentary, Lance has been invited to perform the play at a wide variety of denominations.
The performance can be used in various contexts: as an aid to a teaching/study series on the Gospel, an evening service with a difference, as a ticketed theatre event, as part of a mission or festival or to celebrate a particular season of the year.
Lance has performed the show with success in churches, church halls and other multi-purpose buildings. For maximum effect he has an accompanying PowerPoint presentation with pictures of modern day Israel which acts as a backdrop and helps set each scene.
Running Time:
Lance feels that to hear every word of the Gospel would be too long for most audiences today. So he has selected two halves of about 40 minutes each. The first takes the chief highlights of chapters 1-10; the second tells the story of Holy Week, which is most of chapters 11-16. The second half can stand alone as a complete performance of the story of Holy Week.
Press Release
"I've never been to Jerusalem but Lance took me there. Then he brought the characters to life. Then he told the story, quite simply but with immense power." This is just one of the many glowing reviews for a new one-man performance of Mark’s Gospel by Christian actor Lance Pierson. Lance has learnt 80 minutes of the Gospel story and with simple movement and action; he acts the story out, bringing it close to the audience. "Lance was electrifying. He grabbed our attention from the start and maintained it throughout."
Lance is an experienced actor and has taken his Christian and secular one-man shows everywhere from Spring Harvest and St Paul’s Cathedral to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Oval Cricket Ground. In January 2006 he entertained hundreds of church members at the Rochester Diocesan Conference with his show "The 60-Minute Bible" and also performed the Bible passages on the main stage.
Performing Bible passages like this is Lance’s real passion. He feels that all too often we ignore the power that the Scriptures can have when read aloud. He sees his performance of Mark as an important way of taking the Gospel story off the page and bringing it to life. For the show he uses Alan T Dale’s abridged translation New World, as it is vivid and accessible and takes no background knowledge or technical language for granted. Although he acts the story out alone he does ask the audience for their participation at crucial moments to provide sound effects and the noise of crowds. He also uses a power point presentation to show pictures of the landscape of modern day Israel to enhance the audience’s visualisation of the story.
Many churches have used the show as an alternative to a service or as a joint event. During Holy Week 2006 itself Lance visited six churches including St James’, New Bradwell, Milton Keynes. There they invited people both from the parish and from nearby churches to come and enjoy the show. The Reverend Chris Collinge said afterwards "I have had such a lot of positive feedback from people who had for the first time seen the Gospel as a whole instead of fragments."
Other churches used the show as an opportunity for outreach. On Maundy Thursday Lance performed for St Peter’s, Harold Wood in Essex who combined the show with a Bring and Share supper, where members of the church could bring friends. And on Good Friday he went to Handcross Parish Church in Surrey, who held the event in the Village Hall and invited non-church people from the village. One person who saw it said told the vicar, "Easter came alive for me after the Mark evening."
The final word on the show goes to Andrew Graystone of Fords Lane Church in Bramhall, Stockport who said "There were eight year-olds and eighty year-olds in the audience, but it felt as if we were all hearing the Gospel story for the first time. Cancel your church service and let God speak to you in his own words."
Eric Petrossian
Eric Petrossian who performed the play Kingdom Come: The Life Of Christ from 2003-08 has now ended his run of performances. Eric recommends those looking for a similar play try Lance Pierson’s performance of Mark’s Gospel which he describes as "absolutely brilliant!"