Resource Publications, Inc. 160 E. Virginia St. Suite #290 San Jose, CA 95112-5876 ph: 408-286-8505 fx: 408-287-8748

For Immediate Release Contact: Janet Bondi 408-286-8505

When Kevin Yell prepares a community to celebrate Christmas and Easter, he uses unconventional methods.

First, he likes to use drama. Second, he likes to set the familiar Bible stories into a  modern context. Third, he loves to use music – but not church music. Instead, he fills his skits with Broadway tunes, movie themes, and contemporary standards.

There is method in the madness. “The Christmas and Easter stories are so familiar to people – as Bible stories – that they sometimes lose their impact,” he says. “I want people to take a fresh look at these stories. And I want them to relate them to contemporary life.”

Eight of his plays – four for Advent and four for Passiontide – are included in a new collection, Acts of Salvation, to be published this fall by Resource Publications, Inc. The Advent plays are set in heaven, the cast usually angels. The scripts encourage audience participation – one play even commissions the congregation as extra angels for the Good News season to come. The Passion plays use both traditional and contemporary settings, but all include music suggestions from Broadway and other popular sources.  The new collection includes an appendix of opening and closing prayers for each play and permission to photocopy each script for rehearsal purposes.

Kevin Yell, a native of England, holds an advanced degree in theater and theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.  His current work includes forming art and environment ministers through MINISTRY AND LITURGY magazine’s annual Liturgical Arts Adventure.

ACTS OF SALVATION
Eight Plays for Advent and Passiontide
Kevin Yell
64 pages 8 ½"× 11",
ISBN: 0-89390-532-1, $29.95
September 2001

June 2000