Six weeks to album release!

It's possible that the Audience of One musical wouldn't exist today without the stubborn faith of the Rev. Tim Bistline. His character in the show, Darren, defies horrendous weather the night of the concert for God and marches deep into the foggy, rain-drenched meadow on the mountaintop to raise his arms to the sky to cry out to God at a decibel level rivaling the thunder rumbling through the mountains.

I'm occasionally asked,"Did that really happen on the original trip?" The answer is an emphatic YES. It really happened. And it also really happened that the thunder and rain stopped, and the sky began to clear within 30 seconds of that prayer, so that our concert for God could go off at the appointed time of 7:30 PM.

We teach children that Jesus was asleep in the boat when a fierce storm tossed and swamped their sailing vessel, causing his panicked followers to rouse him awake. He got up, calmed the storm, and chided his followers to exercise their own faith in like manner. (I even bought my grandson a small sailboat with a plastic Jesus and 12 plastic disciples, which included a tiny cloth pillow for the Savior to rest his head on, so that Hudson could reenact this story in the bathtub.)

But practicing its message when you're seasick from emotional or environmental turbulence, with a lot at stake, is another thing. Rising in faith to ask God to quell the storm was not what I did in that moment back then. My carefully laid plans (given by God, I was certain) and what little ego I had in that moment were getting punched in the face. I fretted and despaired. Tim chose otherwise.

In 2000, when all this went down in real life, Tim was Youth Pastor of the church where I served as Director of Music and Worship. While music activities were under my jurisdiction and separate from his responsibilities, his support was vitally important to me—especially with the unusual holy concert invitation that was unfolding in our midst, among the youth we both served.

Fast forward to several weeks ago, when the actor who played Tim's character in the April staged reading couldn't continue with the cast recording project. I asked Tim if he'd like to fill in and play himself, reading some dialogue and singing a short musical phrase on the album. "It would be personally meaningful to me," I pleaded. But I didn't need to cajole. He was honored to be included.

After his stint in the recording booth, we sat outside the studio and reflected back to our days working together. "When you first came to me with this concert idea," he said, "I had the same reaction you portrayed some of the parents and kids as having in the show. I thought it was crazy."

I was incredulous. "You did? You never told me that."

"No, and that's precisely why I supported it 100%. It had to be God, because it was crazy."

"I'm grateful you didn't tell me at the time. I may have backed away from the idea."

"Faith is taking action," he continued. "I trusted you'd heard from God, and I wanted to support that. And I'm glad I did. The trip completely transformed my view of worship."

It always energizes me to connect with Tim. And it's always exhilarating to do artistic projects with talented people who are equally willing to support a crazy idea. On July 29th, we wrapped up nine days of recording sessions. All that remains is mixing, mastering, and manufacturing the CDs.

We had a great time working with a wonderful engineer at TriForceProAudio in Lancaster to bring you a limited edition cast album, which we anticipate will be available by mid-September. And since it's fruitless to pitch a musical to anyone if they can't hear what the music sounds like, the recording will also serve as a calling card as we approach venues to ask them to consider a production and/or a 2025 summer tour.

Donations so far have been entrusted to us to advance the development of this show, and while this recording project will take a huge bite out of our budget, we trust that the coffer will refill as we need it to. We continue to be grateful for outright gifts as well as every album and T-shirt purchased from our store, proceeds of which go 100% into moving this show forward.

You can pre-order a copy of the album now, which features 15 songs from the show, complete with full lyric insert. And as for the tees, could we possibly have thought of a better way to model this one in "Desert Rose"—advertising a concert on a mountaintop—than for our bass player, C. Eric Muench, to wear his with the Grand Teeetons in the background? (He will appreciate the pun. ;)  

—ab

Audience of One is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.

We gratefully welcome individual donations and corporate sponsorships.

• For donations (Individual or Corporate) needing a tax-deductible receipt: click here

• For donations NOT needing a tax-deductible receipt: click here

• To order T-SHIRTS, and/or to pre-order the CAST ALBUM: click here

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