Costco Connection - October 2006

audio book _spotlight

MEDIA GROUP

Inside the greatest
story ever recorded
Audio Bible inspires the faithful

Actor Blair Underwood’s Bible experience

Actor Blair Underwood plays the part of Jesus in Inspired By … The Bible Experience.

OPPORTUNITIES THAT allow one’s religious faith and secular career to merge are rare. Even rarer is the opportunity to reprise the role of Jesus, which Blair Underwood first played in the 1992 movie The Second Coming. Casting director Robi Reed brought that very prospect to Underwood’s attention during a social gathering about a year ago.

Participating in the audio recording of The Bible Experience also offered Underwood the chance to work with director Chip Hurd, the mother of his close friend Kim Fields, acclaimed for her work on Living Single and The Facts of Life.

“He is the epitome of excellence and integrity in artistry,” says Hurd of Underwood’s performance.

When Underwood and Hurd got together they discussed a couple of characters for the recording. His preference remained Jesus. “That opportunity really speaks to wanting to show his [Jesus’] humanity,” Underwood explains to The Connection. “By that I wanted to express every emotion possible. Chiefly I wanted to show his humor.

“The trap was playing godly,” adds Underwod. He avoided that trap by showing Jesus’ humanity in Inspired By ... The Bible Experience.—GB

JIM FAGIOLO

By Gloria Blakely

PRODUCERS AT THE Inspired By … Media Group, a Beverly Hills–based company specializing in faith-based multimedia products, craved an audio recording that would bring the Bible alive for people of all ages. They envisioned joggers listening on iPods, grandparents absorbing the words without eyeglasses and families gathered in living rooms immersed in a presentation like no other.

The result is Inspired By … The Bible Experience ( www.inspiredby.com), which makes the words and the meaning of the New Testament come alive in a palpable sense.

It was a daunting concept to tackle, especially considering the cavalcade of more than 200 African-

American celebrities involved. Many directors might have run from the massiveness of it all, but Chip Hurd, known in acting circles as “the Coach,” embraced the challenge. Backed by her wealth of acting and directing experience, this minister in training came prepared for the job.

The opportunity materialized while Hurd was driving

home from shooting a children’s television program. She was weak from the flu and wondering how she would push through the final days of work. As she was singing along to gospel singer Donnie McClurkin on the radio and praying for strength, Kyle Browser, an executive producer, called to ask her about directing The Bible Experience. The project seemed tailor-made. It uplifted her. “It was an ‘Esther’ moment,” Hurd tells The Connection. “Everything in my life that has happened was for such a time as this.”

She commenced the epic recording in December 2005. First came actor Matt Gibson as the Old

Testament narrator. “He set the bar extremely high,” Hurd says. “He opened his mouth and everything in the whole room [lit up] like Technicolor.” Hurd says her next thought was “OK, this is just the narration; my Lord, we better bring it.”