Building A Church

Building A Church

Series
Work In Progress
Original Broadcast Date
1988
Cast
Tim Jerome, Tess Steincolk, Arthur Miller, Joe Frank
Format
Improv Actors, Real People, 55 minutes
Preceded by:	Stories For Nothing
Followed by:	The Street

May the almighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon, absolution, and remission of our sins.

Building A Church is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Work In Progress. It was originally broadcast in 1988.

Synopsis

0:30: Joe intones fragments of various Christian prayers and psalms, ending with the portentous declaration "Deus Ex Machina".

4:00: A fellow with an East European accent (Tim Jerome) recounts running a church in his home country. It had all sorts of social programs, but when it introduced real religion it was converted to a public bath and mining camp and he was made a janitor in a factory.

5:40: He ran away by jumping onto a truck. When it came near a river, he jumped out, swam to a freighter, ended up on a banana boat to Indonesia. The ship got lost, ended up in England. From there he got work on a dirigible, flew to Indiana. From there he skateboarded to Kentucky, spent 3 days riding around on an amusement park train. Then he rode a motorbike to Salinas, Oklahoma, got a job at a church, became pastor, but left. When Joe asked why, he said it was in litigation, his lawyers told him not to talk about it.

10:00: 'The spirit cannot fail' (Bill Nelson)

12:40: Joe tells a nonsense history of how churches were built, that stained glass was invented by spilling wine on glass.

17:00: Then he explains the invention of tools from stones and animal teeth.

18:40: Joe says that Notre Dame was built only after Victor Hugo's famous novel set there, then a bogus account of the building of the cathedral at Chartres. Then he launches into an extravagant account of Leopold I of Sardinia building a massive cathedral at Boganville (sp?) beginning in 1215. When it was finally complete, in 1815, it collapsed.

24:30: A woman (Tess Steincolk) tells about her mother getting mad at her and her younger sister, telling them she was going to sell them to the Gypsies. The mother kept this up long enough that they were in tears at the gas station, when she told them they were going to visit their Aunt Margaret, which they did every summer.

31:50: 'The spirit cannot fail' (Bill Nelson)

33:30: A guy (Eric Sears, uncredited?) recounts his bad behavior when he was young: mooching off his friends, stealing from them, driving over a bag lady, stabbing a guy in a restaurant so he could use the pay phone first, setting 3 or 4 nurses on fire. Then he wandered into a church, was uplifted, wanted to build one.

38:30: Hymn 'Let Heavenly Music Fill This Place'

40:30: Joe explains the use of candles as an outgrowth of earlier tribes worshipping fire.

41:30: Joe describes the use of bells on ships and in churches.

44:50: Joe explains that the burning of Giordano Bruno was a cooking accident. Then he goes on to say that the apostles fell into the water when they tried to follow Jesus, and gives a nonsense discourse on the Enlightenment, Moses and the 10 commandments, the conversion of churches into secular buildings and other things (sunglasses, Tupperware, Tiffany lamps...)

50:50: Hymn 'The Eyes Of All Wait Upon Thee'

53:40: Joe recapitulates the introduction in humbler tone.

Legacy Synopsis

A minister is imprisoned, escapes using every imaginable transportation. Sounds of construction. The history of church building, windows, clock bells and time-keeping on ships by counting slowly, the history of tools, screws v/s nails, Notre Dam was built based on Hugo's description in NDDP. The cathedral of Chartres was originally a tiny church. A cathedral was built by slaves collapsed 600 years later and plunges the land into chaos. A woman talks about her mother pretending to sell her to gypsies. "This spirit cannot fail you" preacher. Mutilating oneself in church. Becoming the leader of a sect, an orgy in a tent, instructions for making offerings. The nature of love. A man takes advantage of everyone, kills people, experiences a conversion. Sounds of church building. The recycling of churches as secular buildings and consumer goods.

Music

• "Body Of Light" - Bill Nelson (from Chance Encounters In The Garden Of Lights, 1987) | YouTube [Intro]

• "The Spirit Cannot Fail" - Bill Nelson (from Chance Encounters in the Garden of Lights, 1987) | YouTube [9:57]

• "West Deep" - Bill Nelson (from Chance Encounters in the Garden of Lights, 1987) | YouTube [11:50]
• "Let Heavenly Music Fill This Place" - hymn composed by Gordon Young [38:32]
• "The Eyes Of All Wait Upon Thee" - hymn composed by Jean Berger [50:49]

Shared material

• Material from this program was used in Bad (1989), with music changes.

Additional credits

The original broadcast credits state: "With Tim Jerome, Tess Steincolk, Arthur Miller, and Joe Frank. It was produced in the studios of KCRW Santa Monica, and mixed by Jeff Sykes."

Miscellanea

• This program is not available at joefrank.com.