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TechnoratiThe National Religious Broadcast (NRB) National Convention, now in its final day in Orlando, has brought together some of the key leaders in Christian broadcasting and entertainment. While at the conference, The Christian Post was able to meet up with one of Christianity’s more outspoken Christian directors, Dave Christiano.
(Photo: ChristianFilms.com)Dave Christiano, producer of the first ever Christian primetime drama, '7th Street Theater.'
Christiano is recently premiering his new TV program, the 7th Street Theatre, on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), which boasts to be the first ever Christian primetime drama series. Apart from his busy schedule, he was able to speak not only about the new project, but also about faith, media, Christianity, and the difficulties that come with it.
CP: First, can you just explain what 7th Street Theatre is about?
Christiano: 7th Street Theatre is a weekly dramatic Christian series about five Christian actors that put on a weekly stage show for the community. Most of the episodes take place during the week where the actors prepare for the weekend show. So it’s just different storylines and developments that we did with the characters. That’s basically what it’s about.
For the actors, it was exciting for them, because they got to play different characters. For example, Hugh McLean, who I’ve worked on in a few different projects plays the character Gates. But also in the show, Gates plays a Jamaican cab driver. He plays a sheriff. He plays a Southern coal miner. In other words, the actors play other parts, because they are preparing for a weekend show and they’re doing skits on the weekends.
It kept it interesting for them to be in a TV series. There were no complaints. I didn’t hear one actor say, ‘Man, I’m tired of this role.’ They’re not going to say that in 7th Street Theater.
Now we’re getting ready to shoot season two here in April, and they’re going to say, ‘Hey, what do you got for me this year?’ So that was good in that regard.
CP: I know you feel very strongly about 7th Street Theatre, so why is it important that you made this?
Christiano: I was actually getting ready to shoot another movie called The Gospel Minute. But I thought, ‘I could shoot another movie, or I could shoot this television series and 24 episodes.’ I thought that the 24 episodes would go a lot further.
The initial commitment that I began with when I started shooting, when I contacted my actors, I said, ‘I’m in it to do 65 shows.’ The reason why I picked 65 shows is that is the magic number to do reruns. If you do 65 shows Monday through Friday, you can run 13 weeks without any repeats. So I told all actors, ‘I’m in for 65 shows.’
After I started shooting the second day, I told all the actors, ‘I’m in for this! I’m in for more than 65.’ Because I just saw the immediate chemistry and camaraderie from when I first started doing it, and it just thrilled me inside. I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ I’d rather do that TV series than any movie. The TV series has been the most enjoyable thing that I’ve ever worked on.
And I don’t want to diminish any of the work done on the films, because I like working on the films. But the television series, I think it could reach further. The idea is that we want it to be a long-running series, and obviously we’ll just have to see where it goes. I’m not planning on stopping the show. I have every intention of shooting season two. Continue »
