"The Greatest Story Ever Retold"

The gospel according to Clarence Jordan

Wellspring of Living Water is sponsoring a special benefit event at Starr’s Mill Auditorium this Friday featuring, “Cotton Patch Gospel: When Jesus was Born in Georgia,” the highly popular stage production featuring Tom Key in his rousing one-man event. The show is based on the book “The Cotton Patch Version of Matthew” by Clarence Jordan. Jordan started a Christian community known as Koinonia Farm in 1942 with his wife Florence and another couple, in Sumter County, Georgia. His Cotton Patch Gospels were published posthumously in the early seventies after his death in October of 1969.

Tom Key conceived the one-man play “Cotton Patch Gospel of Matthew,” based on the paraphrases of Clarence Jordan, and in 1981 developed it into a musical co-authored with Russell Treyz and with a score and lyrics by Harry Chapin. It premiered at the Lamb’s Theater, New York, and was awarded two Dramalogue Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Theater. A 1977 Honors Master of Theater Arts Graduate from The University of Tennessee, Key has received the 1983 and 1985 DramaLo

gue Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Theater , and a Best Actor Nomination from the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle. He has also been in Alliance Theater productions of “Scrooge,” “A Christmas Carol,” Voltaire’s “Candide,” and played Jim Casey in “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Key's one-man play, “C.S. Lewis On Stage,” has been presented across the United States and Canada, including a production at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Film and television appearances include “In the Heat of the Night,” “I'll Fly Away,” and “Following Her Heart” with Ann Margaret.

Showtime is at 7 p.m. Seats are $20 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets are available at many local churches, The Wellspring Store in Peachtree City, and on the Web at wellspringoflivingwater.org.