Frank Runyeon, will present “Afraid” Sunday, Feb. 19, 10 a.m. during worship service, First Church of Christ in Saybrook

OLD SAYBROOK – Professional actor, Frank Runyeon, will present “Afraid” Sunday, Feb. 19, 10 a.m. during  worship service, First Church of Christ in Saybrook, 366 Main Street. Start your Lenten journey with Runyeon’s spell-binding performance of the Gospel of Mark. A free-will offering will be collected. For more information visit firstchurchsaybrook.org, or call the church, 860-388-3008.

Frank Runyeon has won national acclaim for his work as a translator and performer of Biblical texts over the past 20 years. He has performed the gospel for hundreds of thousands of people in almost every state in America, earning rave reviews from critics, scholars, and church leaders of every denomination. He is regularly reviewed as “the best speaker we have ever heard” by students and faculty at private and public schools across the nation.

He is perhaps still best known, however, for his many roles on television. He starred for seven years as Steve Andropoulos on As the World Turns opposite Meg Ryan, a storyline that garnered the second highest ratings in the history of daytime television.

He next appeared for four years as Father Michael Donnelly on the Emmy award winning Santa Barbara, and as tycoon Simon Romero on General Hospital, opposite Emma Samms. Frank has also guest-starred in recurring roles on L.A. LAW as talkshow host Brooks Tapman, on Falcon Crest as chess genius Jovan Dmytryk, on Melrose Place as Father Tom, and on All My Children as Forrest Williams. Frank starred as Detective Marty Lowery in the feature film Sudden Death and as Pierre Lyon in Bolero. He appeared to rave reviews on the New York stage as Hercules in Aristophanes’ The Birds, and in regional theater as Clifford in Deathtrap and Oliver Costello in The Spider’s Web.

On the radio, he has hosted his own comedy talk show on the top-rated L.A. station, KFI, and on WCNN in Atlanta, and co-hosted Charles McPhee’s nationally syndicated show, The Dream Doctor.

Frank is a graduate of Princeton University with a degree in Religion. After studying acting in New York and Los Angeles for 15 years, he attended Fuller Seminary in preparation for the writing and performance of his first one-man play, AFRAID!: The Gospel of Mark. He continued his studies at Yale Divinity School and General Theological Seminary, from which he received his Masters, with honors, in l994. He work shopped his first productions in cooperation with the faculty of Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA, and the University of Dayton. Frank has now translated and adapted six Biblical texts for performance as one-man dramas.

He and his wife Annie, live in Los Angeles with their three children.

Bushnell Farm, 1445 Boston Post Rd invites the public to a Robert Frost poetry reading and program, Frost at the Farm with Walt Woodward on Sunday, October 2 , 2011 at 4 p.m. Rain or shine, bring a chair, on-site parking. Free, public invited. Photo by Jody Dole.

Bushnell Farm, a privately owned, historic farm site at 1445 Boston Post Road in Old Saybrook, will host the public for a program on the poetry of Robert Frost on Sunday October 2 at 4 p.m.

Frost at the Farm with Walt Woodward  is an opportunity to enjoy the works of American poet Robert Frost ( 1874-1963 ) among the stone walls, apple trees and fields of an authentic New England Farm about which Frost often wrote.

Walter Woodward, the State Historian and a Frost scholar, will read the poems, offer an appreciation and some music. Bring a chair or blanket for this free, rain-or- shine program that begins at 4 p.m.  In case of unpleasant weather, the program will be inside. Follow the signs inside the gate for parking.

Robert Frost was a four time Pulitzer Prize winner for volumes of his poetry. Although somewhat under-appreciated today, Frost made “good fences make good neighbors” and “Home is the place where when you go there they have to take you in” part of the language.  Time magazine called “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” one of the loveliest poems ever written. His poems are said to begin with delight and end with wisdom.

Dr. Walter Woodward is an author of scholarly works and is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. As State Historian he works with the CT Humanities, with the Museum of CT History, with teachers through the CT Council for Social Studies, and many other organizations. A long-time admirer of Robert Frost, Woodward admits to being an English major in his younger years.

Bushnell Farm is a 17^th century farm site owned and preserved by Herb and Sherry Clark of Essex as an example of pre-industrial agriculture and enterprise. The site is open for school and scouting programs, for seasonal festivals and historical societies, and is one site of summer camp programs for the Connecticut River Museum.