Meet Max McLean. He's the award-winning founder and artistic director for the Fellowship of Performing Arts (FPA), a not-for-profit New York City-based production company that has produced theatre and film from a Christian worldview since 1992.
If McLean sounds familiar, it’s probably because his is the official voice of the Listener’s Bible, and his narration has earned him four award nominations from the Audio Publishers Association. McLean received the 2009 Jeff Award for Best Solo Performance — Chicago theatre’s highest honor — for his one-man show Mark’s Gospel.
McLean portrays a man who goes from hard-boiled atheist to one of the most beloved Christian writers of the 20th century in The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold C.S. Lewis Story. It is one of several works about Lewis that McLean has been involved with over his celebrated career. Just as Jesus used parables to illustrate the Kingdom of God, McLean believes integrating theatre and film with faith is one of the best ways to present God’s Word to all people.
“The power of the arts is to tell stories,” McLean says. “God is the Great Story Teller. Stories tend to expose our needs. It also exposes our pride.”
Born in Panama, McLean moved to the United States at age 4 and overcame a fear of public speaking during his study of theater at the University of Texas, where he graduated in 1975. He says we can find effective ways of spreading God’s word, even if it isn’t on stage in front of a theatre audience.
“Anytime we do anything that approaches what the Good Samaritan story is leading us to do — in any form, whether it be business, engineering, the arts, law, medicine — I think we’re doing Christ’s work,” McLean says.
