Christian musical “The Thorn” coming to film screens | Arts & Leisure

“The Thorn,” a musical drama about Jesus that was created 25 years in the past at New Life Church and has since been seen by 250,000 individuals domestically and one other million individuals nationwide, will debut as a movie in March on 740 screens.

The movie’s trailer will debut nationwide Friday earlier than theater screenings of two new episodes of “The Chosen,” a wildly fashionable TV drama about Jesus. “Thorn” tickets will go on sale that day at www.fathomevents.com.

For John Bolin, who created a easy model of “The Thorn” as an illustrated sermon in 1997 for his youth group, the movie affords a technique to attain a lot bigger audiences with the story of Christ’s loving sacrifice after fearing that COVID closures would possibly deliver down the curtain on his drama for good.

Youth drama is a success

Bolin was main Friday night youth conferences in 1996 when he joined the employees at New Life. The following 12 months, whereas struggling to convey the importance of Christ’s sacrificial demise to a gaggle of teenagers, he spoke with a 16-year-old woman who had scars on her arm from chopping and self-harm.

A graduate of Oral Roberts College, which emphasizes drama in evangelism, Bolin sought to assist the woman viscerally perceive the abuse, whipping and scourging Christ suffered on his technique to the cross.

Early variations of the drama had been easy. A handful of actors sporting dangerous make-up and lit by frequent family lamps acted out a couple of brief scenes that had been interspersed with minisermons and music from U2 and Sting recordings. Jesus rose from beneath a grand piano, not from a tomb.

However New Life leaders favored what they noticed and requested Bolin to stage a extra full model of “The Thorn” for the church’s 1998 Easter outreach.

The drama was a right away hit, with attendance of greater than 10,000 individuals in its first 12 months and repeat performances over the subsequent decade. In coming years, the manufacturing would develop extra complicated, that includes skilled actors and dancers, pyrotechnics, a rotating 30-foot stage, camels and tigers, and with the assistance of church volunteers, a forged of 600.

The present additionally appeared at The Broadmoor World Enviornment and Pikes Peak Heart in an effort to succeed in unchurched audiences. Touring teams managed by Bolin’s spouse, Sarah, took the present to church buildings and venues throughout the nation. Compassion Worldwide signed on as a tour sponsor, and attendees sponsored some 15,000 needy youngsters by means of the Colorado Springs-based ministry.

From stage to display

Bolin was born in South Africa to ex-hippie mother and father — his father, Rod, recorded people music albums within the Nineteen Sixties — who got here to religion by means of the Catholic charismatic renewal motion.

He says God gave him his calling: “to inform tales on the web page, stage and display.” His books embody novels (“The Eden Undertaking”) and Christian development guides (“So Beloved,” “The Two Doorways of Heaven” and “Life Limitless”). His earlier display credit score was as a producer on the 2017 film “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone.”

Earlier than writing “The Thorn” screenplay, Bolin attended a seminar with acclaimed storyteller Robert McKee. He has since added scenes and revised the musical rating.

The movie model of “The Thorn” was shot final March in Denver and is in post-production in Los Angeles. The movie will attain screens in March by means of a take care of Fathom Occasions, the Centennial-based distribution firm based 20 years in the past by the nation’s three largest movie show chains.

The movie’s scheduled launch has reinvigorated the Bolins’ imaginative and prescient for the drama they’ve supported for 1 / 4 century.

“Sarah and I’ve invested a lot on this manufacturing over final couple many years, but it surely bought to the purpose that we had been weary, and didn’t know that we had extra to present to it,” mentioned Bolin, who credit Sarah with maintaining the mission going.

“God requested us to belief him, give it up, and open our fingers, and promised to make one thing lovely occur.” Thorn tickets will go on sale Friday at www.fathomevents.com.