Ep 53: Echoes of Radio's Past (Part 1) - Celebrating Plays On Word Theater's Journey & Global Influence
Jan 26, 2024Season 2Episode 53
Pastor/ Artist Fred Kenney Jr.
"Today my husband and I unravel the tapestry of our mission and the resonating impact of our travels. This episode is a heartfelt homage to the vibrant souls and spirited events that have deeply moved us."
Today, our host Fred Kenney Jr. sits with his wife, Katie Kenney, VP: Creative Executive Director of Plays On Word Theater. Together, Fred and Katie unravel the tapestry of Plays On Word Radio and the resonating impact of Plays On Word travels. With each tale and tune, they unearth the emotions and stories embedded in their productions, like the powerful beat of John Mangogna's drumming that echoed his faith-filled affirmation of life and the sound of Linda Young's Christmas vocals that still linger in our hearts. This episode is a heartfelt homage to the vibrant souls and spirited events that have deeply moved us.
Strap in for a journey that transcends the airwaves as our message of faith and fellowship has rippled out to touch lives in 44 countries/ territories. It's not just a recount of the past; it's a living, breathing narrative that continues to unfold, with stories of unwavering faith, the magic of music, and the bonds forged through our collaborative endeavors. Katie and Fred reveal the beauty of these connections and the anticipation for what’s yet to come, including their participation in the Pastors and Ministry Leaders conference at America's Keswick. Join us as we marvel at the past and look forward to future blessings while extending an open invitation for you tojoin the Plays On Word growing family.
"Today my husband and I unravel the tapestry of our mission and the resonating impact of our travels. This episode is a heartfelt homage to the vibrant souls and spirited events that have deeply moved us."
Today, our host Fred Kenney Jr. sits with his wife, Katie Kenney, VP: Creative Executive Director of Plays On Word Theater. Together, Fred and Katie unravel the tapestry of Plays On Word Radio and the resonating impact of Plays On Word travels. With each tale and tune, they unearth the emotions and stories embedded in their productions, like the powerful beat of John Mangogna's drumming that echoed his faith-filled affirmation of life and the sound of Linda Young's Christmas vocals that still linger in our hearts. This episode is a heartfelt homage to the vibrant souls and spirited events that have deeply moved us.
Strap in for a journey that transcends the airwaves as our message of faith and fellowship has rippled out to touch lives in 44 countries/ territories. It's not just a recount of the past; it's a living, breathing narrative that continues to unfold, with stories of unwavering faith, the magic of music, and the bonds forged through our collaborative endeavors. Katie and Fred reveal the beauty of these connections and the anticipation for what’s yet to come, including their participation in the Pastors and Ministry Leaders conference at America's Keswick. Join us as we marvel at the past and look forward to future blessings while extending an open invitation for you tojoin the Plays On Word growing family.
You listen on the Place of Word. Radio is the best.
Speaker 3:
It wasn't the last time I communicated with him. It was the last time I saw him. When I communicated with him, he was in the hospital. I was sending him texts back and forth and he, uh, praised the Lord, I'm alive and well, you know.
Speaker 2:
He always said that. He always said that that was his no matter how he felt, I'm alive and well. How you doing, john?
Speaker 3:
I'm alive and well, and he said it with vigor Praise the Lord. I'm alive and well and he's so looking forward to being with the Lord and the presence of the Lord. He was the guy that just loved to worship.
Speaker 1:
Hello and welcome to Place on Word radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Place on Word Theatre, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
Speaker 3:
Okay, okay, okay, okay. Place on Word family. Welcome back to Place on Word radio. This is Fred David Kenny Jr and I'm the founder of Place on Word and Place on Word radio. And yeah, 2024, we're rocking through. We are continuing. Last week, we had some great interviews going on. This week, we wanted to speak to somebody who's really important to the ministry, somebody who is instrumental in Place on Word radio and you guys even hearing the broadcast and those of you that come out to the place that we do. We're going to speak with the one and only, katie Kenny. Ooh, a bunch of people just went. Oh, wow, yeah, we're going to speak to Katie Kenny. Good afternoon, katie Kenny.
Speaker 2:
Hey there how you doing I am wonderful.
Speaker 3:
We are down here in North Carolina right now at Southport Studio, southport Lab Place on Word South I guess our battle station down here and we are. We normally take January and February off from touring and doing plays. We continue working, though that's when we launched Place on Word radio last January but we don't normally tour during this time. Although we've did, we do a play yet or we have one coming up.
Speaker 2:
Yes, we, we did one. We actually did one in the beginning of January, kind of as a favor that asked around the epiphany, and so we did our last Christmas, joe, that's right. That's right Of the season, but the first play for 2024.
Speaker 3:
Right, and we have one coming up soon. At the end of January we're going to be at America's Kessok. It's going to be for a pastors conference. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of the people that we met. We met a lot of people last year at the pastors conference.
Speaker 2:
We really did and really have formed some close friendships with our brothers and sisters in Christ from that particular conference.
Speaker 3:
Right, I think about, I think about Don Meckley. Yes, we met our dear brother Don Meckley, emmanuel Community Church. Yeah, beville, down there. We've, we've done all our plays there, all three, yes we have this year.
Speaker 3:
And we have some dear family, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, out of that fellowship down there. And I know, I know Don's wife, she, she was, uh, she was so blessed when we did Genesis Joe there and then when we did Christmas Joe, she was, she was, they were clapping their hands and rhythm and it was, they were really into it. So that was, that was fantastic. We also met our dear brother Scott and Lynn Jackson and they run a ministry where they minister to the ministers.
Speaker 2:
Yes, they. They are co-founders of Thrive Leadership Foundation, a really an a really incredible organization that they work with and, as you said, they they minister to other ministers and we have been blessed to have gone through that. We've got a chance to get a scholarship to go that was fantastic. And I think we're going to be hearing from from Scott Very soon and Lynn very soon.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, they're going to God willing, they will be on either the next or one of the next plays on word radio broadcast right.
Speaker 2:
Yes they're coming up little do they know we gave my heads up.
Speaker 3:
We like to do surprise interviews, you know gotcha interviews like uh, like the old 60 minutes.
Speaker 3:
So yeah we did that retreat last year met a lot of um, the great people people I'm still in contact with that haven't been on the pro program or we haven't even been out to their church yet. So after we left the retreat in january, we had february. Uh, we did in february we did something unorthodox. We went, we made our way to sandy cove to do the peat play. It's a little bit, we're a little bit out of sequence because we're still kind of in genesis joe season up until about march and then we start peat right, and so why did we end up doing peat there?
Speaker 2:
andrea hampton, uh, yeah, I mean, we just formed such a great alliance with her and you know our downtime in january and february we we can take on some opportunities if they, you know, as they arise. We have to be careful, though, because we do think seasonally for a reason because so you can be prepped for one particular play. There's also, you know, you grow a beard in one another, you don't, and so it'd be kind of hard to bounce back and forth and the seasonal works really well. But we got a chance to do one of her conferences, um, at sandy cove and it.
Speaker 2:
What a blessing, you know, that partnership has been. Not only has, you know, it has been a great partnership with sandy cove, but andrea hampton has become a dear friend and she was already a sister in christ and, uh, that has opened up other opportunities for us as well. You know, one of the things I always say after a play is that we feel so blessed because god keeps introducing us to more family, right and um, you know, many truly have become family yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:
So we, uh, we, that was a blessed time when we were down there, sandy cove, and that's always a always a blessing and we did our peat. A lot of people were really blessed. And then after that we made our way to a church in lacy and we did our last genesis joe and then that I believe a week later, my father passed away. Freddy fred passed, but it was the 18th. We did that play in lacy and I remember it was the weirdest thing.
Speaker 3:
Well, I remember there's a scene when joseph, uh, when jacob dies, he calls all his sons to him and he's, he's prophesying over his sons and telling them what's going to happen. That's where the great prophecy in isaac 49 I say in jenesis 49, 10, uh, where jacob says you know this, the scepter will not depart from juda until shiloh comes, until it comes to whom it belongs, and it's a, it's a straight messianic prophecy about the messiah coming. And you know, he he tells his sons what's going to happen in the future and then he draws his feet up on in the bed and he breathes his last. And I remember doing that scene and I remember in the genesis joe play we use a staff, we have a staff. That staff actually represents jacob the old man. I remember holding on to the staff and it was just the strangest sensation. It was as if the lord was preparing me for my own father passing, because I remember doing the scene. Thinking to myself, I felt like I was hugging freddy fred, my dad, that was.
Speaker 3:
That was the name for freddy fred yeah but his name is fred, but I'm junior, of course you guys put that together. You guys are really smart.
Speaker 3:
Audience, the smartest we told them we would explain this one day so stay tuned, we might get to that so I remember the scene hugging uh, where joseph was hugging jacob, and it was just a strange sensation, almost like a forecast, and I it was as if the lord was really prepping me, just mentally. It wasn't. He didn't tell me you're going to be doing this soon, but a week later that's what I was doing, you know, I I hugged my dad and I, when I hugged my dad, I thought back to the play I was. It flashed me right back to being on stage hugging when joseph was hugging jacob.
Speaker 2:
It was just, it was absolutely strange, but that no, I was just going to say that was a, you know, a rough period of time. Um, you know, for the obvious, because he was a force of nature and he was such a strong dude, you just always thought he was going to be there, you know. And so that's, and that continues to be a great loss. But for us, we know we will see him again. But that happened, and then we were going into a very aggressive, not only season, but I think from the second to the to the 12th we had like six plays, so he passed on the 24th of March and of April.
Speaker 1:
March March March April. March March.
Speaker 3:
March, march, march, march, march, march, March, march, and the previous Genesis Joe play was on March 18th, so it was on the 18th and then that was the scene. I did the scene and then on the 24th, I'm doing the for real, as for David, kennedy, judah and not as Joseph, and then. So then it went right into April.
Speaker 2:
April 2nd was our first play, the next one, and then that was in PA.
Speaker 3:
Oh, oh, we meant to get these and our good friend Beaumont.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:
Joe and Lily, and they both came up to me and they gave me a hug and they said you know, we're so sorry to hear about your pop, and they comforted me. Did I say it right? They comforted me, yes, okay, so I put through an extra consummate in there, but they were great comfort to me in that period of time. And it was strange because Freddie Frey passed on. It was that Friday going into Saturday, okay, so it was that Friday night going into Saturday and I was. I literally the reason I went over to the house before he passed was to borrow the keys to his pickup so I could go build the peat boat, because we were building version 3.0. And so I went and got his keys, got the truck, and then that Sunday, the next day, I was scheduled to lead worship. I didn't have a worship team around me scheduled and I just felt like you know what? I need to just go do this. I need to not sit this out, I gotta go do this. So I just went and led worship and we had a blessed time of lead worship. God's still God. But I didn't take really any time to mourn, to really like, okay, let this set in. It was like, okay, next job, next job, next job, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Speaker 3:
And so then, when we did the plays the following weekend that was our new boat debut we met the Gandias. We had a great interview. Most of you have heard that interview. I believe it's episode 26 and 27. I believe that's what it is somewhere around there. And it was just a period of time where we were boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and we had play after play after play and I remember even, I think, don Mechley's church. I think we had scheduled early on I don't remember the schedule, I don't have it in front of me, but I do. There were a lot of plays back to back and it was at the start of the Pete season and it was at the start of the Pete season and we were extremely busy. Last year we did more plays than we've ever done last year and it was just a blessing. So, yeah, we don't have to go through every play we've done, but that period of time was pretty growing. Kicked off the Pete play.
Speaker 2:
No, I just was. I just to reflect on that a little bit. We had some tough conversations about right after Freddie Fred passed away and we knew that he would want us to keep going and, as it turned out, when we were gonna do the memorial service it wasn't gonna be for a couple months and but what was amazing is that God truly gave us peace that surpasses all understanding. It was a tough time, it was sad time, but we kept going with God's purpose in mind and he gave us the strength and he did comfort us through that.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah, he did. Yeah, it was. I never, I never really got ambushed with grief and it was, I don't know, it was just heavy. Prior to Freddie Fred passing, the year before 2022, I believe it was 22, I was I was just strickened with grief from the passing of my dear brother, john Mangona, and my cousin Linda. She's Freddie Fred's first cousin, you know. Just they died too soon, I believe. Well, I guess you know they're at the time, it's the time, but they just seemed like they died too young.
Speaker 2:
And we were literally on the way to the funeral for John Mangona when we heard about Linda Linda's passing yeah. Literally, we were literally driving.
Speaker 3:
Turning the corner into the parking lot of the funeral home for mangonas funeral and I, I remember, I, I just, I, poor cliff cliff whitehead was the pastor doing the service, but and I was, I was leading worship, singing some songs at John's Memorial and I'm just, I remember, sitting there in the office and I just started, started falling apart. Man, I just was like man, I, I, I Just death. The whole death thing just was beating me up so bad I just started crying. Man, I couldn't even, I couldn't even get it together. I look it up at Roy and Cliff and they're like is he gonna be able to do? And they had this look on their face like Is he gonna be able to do this? We got, we got ourselves composed and we went out and Did what John would. What are this wanted us to do, which is make a joyful noise?
Speaker 2:
You know, john and Linda were both integral. Yeah, hearts of plays on word. John was one of our guests, musicians, mm-hmm, quite frequently playing the drums, and Linda could sing, mary, did you know, like no other.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, for Christmas, just she was that angelic voice? And she was one of the first, the first monthly supporters. Yeah, she was, yeah, like she was on board as a as a monthly supporter for plays on a word or early on.
Speaker 2:
So they both were behind the cause? Yeah, they were behind it.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I mean, and I think I, I think about John, he, just he was so happy when we were at Christ, it's a Christy evangelical in Whiting, yeah, it's over on Slice, it's cool, I was rode one. He came in and did Pastor Paul Barber yeah, man, that's it. And we did. When John came with us and he looked, he did not look well, he, yeah, he looked. I was. I actually had a couple thought like man, I hope this isn't the last time I see him type of thoughts, and I actually did think, yes, you did right.
Speaker 3:
I shared. It was the last time that we it wasn't the last time I communicated with him was last time I saw him. When I communicated with him, he was in the hospital. I send him text back and forth and he Praise the Lord I'm alive, I'm well, you know he always said that.
Speaker 2:
I said that that was no matter how he felt. I'm alive and well how you doing.
Speaker 3:
John, I'm alive and well, and he said it with vigor praise the Lord, I'm alive and well and he's so looking forward to being With the Lord and the presence of the Lord. And he was. He was the guy that just loved to worship and I remember looking at Roy at one point when we were all three of us were playing. And he's right, roy, I think Roy even had his shoes off. Where he plays bass with his shoes off, and just every once in a while, roy, when we're, when we're doing a play particularly in the Christmas Joe play, because we do a lot of worship hymns, but In the other place as well every once in a while, roy will Just be playing and it just let out a yeah, and I look over and he's in it just praising God, like he's like this is it we're praising. You know, it's not about playing a song or it's not about performing with him. It's really is. Can we get to worship, can we get to praise?
Speaker 2:
and that's the type of, that's the type of dude I need to play with and you know he's always on point, but when he would break out like that, it almost looked like he was about to forget where he was.
Speaker 3:
Yes, roy F sharp, f sharp because he's so in it you guys just love. I love him for that.
Speaker 3:
No, it's awesome and Randy's like that too. Our dear brother Randy Yelton, all the different people that that Participate in the plays on word, randy Yelton I was talking about. He's a. He's the funky drummer, greg love Andrew Phil, brother Phil St Clair, those guys were holding the mangona.
Speaker 3:
Actually, when I go back to John mangona, john mangona loaned Andrew the Cajon the box when he didn't know how to play the box and I called up John. I said John, it was before I had mine. I said John, can we borrow your box? Just for saying that's right, I forgot I got this young kid Wow, he's learning how to play drums. But I wanted, I wanted to learn how to play the box and I want it. Can, can, can we borrow your box?
Speaker 3:
And that was when I introduced brother Phil St Clair to John mangona right there at Living Faith in the parking lot, living Faith in brick and and yeah, so, andrew, learn how to play the box. And and I tell you what we did recently we did a Genesis Joe at no, no, we did Christmas Joe at Fork and River Baptist Church and Andrew was throwing. Oh, he was down, he was thrown down on the box. I mean, at one point I looked over and I was like, oh my goodness, he's that guy. Now he's there and that's what I saw for him when I asked Mancona, can you, can you let this kid borrow the box, and we're going to the jail, we're going to the, you know, over to the Monmouth County jail and he, you know he needs a box to play and he never played it before, so yeah, anyway.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that was that was really cool. That was just, you know, just to see all the different people that have have played him before and who could forget our newest addition, the dude that was swallowed by the fish, jonah Jonah man, jonah Taylor, man, jonah Taylor. I did the same, basically, with him. Jonah Taylor is over at Calvary Chapel, living Water in Silverton, and young dude learning how to play. He's a phenom in the sense that he plays multiple, he's a multiple instrumentalist, he is a musical person and I, I'm very, I'm very much can relate to that. It's like you give him almost any instrument and he's going to look at it and be like, hmm, okay, I'm going to find a way to make something. Give me a pot in a pan, I'll find a way to make a rhythm with it.
Speaker 2:
He was on the drums during one service and I just that's when I started calling him the natural for the natural Cause he, you know, just an uncanny talent for such a young dude. You know, he just it was very, it was very natural. Oh, he's got it, he's got that.
Speaker 3:
He's got that, that factor, and that's why I push, you know, really push him. I'm like he's like I don't think I can play guitars Like here. You can do this, let's go, let's go. Poor Bert's like you put him up on Sunday morning. I'm like, yep, I'm dragging him with me, Don't worry. Yeah, that's Pastor Bert Salisbury.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, bert, yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys know him, he was on episode 11, I think we interviewed him the the consummate servant.
Speaker 3:
He served in the military and he served in the police force and he's just a servant.
Speaker 2:
And he's got a podcast too. That's right. The underflow, the underflow, that's right.
Speaker 3:
Let's check that out too. So, yeah, we've done a lot of fun things, a lot of met so many great people. You can't squeeze even last year into this one broadcast, but we recently had our plays on word board meeting and you were talking about the some of the accomplishments just in this past year. You want to just share a little bit about that because, just so you people you people I sound like Russ Barrow Just so you guys out in in Radio Land have an idea of what's going on with the ministry, we want to everyone wants to know why. I want to keep you updated on what's happening with the ministry itself, and that's basically what we're trying to do with this broadcast today. So can you tell us a little bit about, share a little bit about, like, what you shared at the board meeting?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I know I mean 2023 was another banner year for plays on word theater and we ended up performing four different plays. We did, of course, our Genesis Joe, our Pete, we got a chance to debut Adam in Albania and we also did our Christmas Joe. So collectively we did 60 performances last year and that was to over. We performed in front of over 4,800 people and that was a huge increase from the year before. We did 13 more plays and probably performed in front of another 2,000 attendees over 2022.
Speaker 2:
And included in that, we did 10 performances during our second global mission trip to Albania, which was pretty awesome and you know plays on word performed and brought the gospel to a nation that, at the time, was 71% Muslim. So you know it's really cool to just kind of see how the ministry has progressed. We also know that it's just important to perform in front of one person than it is thousands, because you know we just show up and do what God will have us do and you never know who's gonna be touched. So we don't you know we don't get too jazzed, or really the majority of the performances have not been, you know, mega churches or anything like that.
Speaker 3:
They've been smaller, more intimate churches, smaller congregations, and the Lord has handpicked certain places for us to go to because he wanted them to be ministered too, you know.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. And there, you know, there are some churches that have said to us because you know, as most of you guys know, we don't charge for performances, and there have been churches that have said, you know, we never would have been able to, you know, to have or to pay for someone to come out, and especially, they're amazed after the level of of of excellence and after acting, et cetera, that they see after the play.
Speaker 2:
So we're blessed because, as you said, god does handpick that and we're not doing huge auditoriums and and coliseums, but we're going where or God would have us to go.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, hey, you know, we were out in a town square in Albania.
Speaker 2:
That's right, a lot of people here. This time, from the year prior I think, we did six plays in Albania and this time we did 10, and we were out in the square and there was like hundreds of people there. I think there were almost 300 people out in the square. So God has brought us to some pretty cool places.
Speaker 2:
But you know, also on top of that, last year in January, around this time, or actually the beginning of January, we launched plays on word radio and that was you know, you guys know that's an in-depth look, that you listen into us, an in-depth look, in-depth look at the word of God and and and our plays on word community and the plays that we performed. And what was really kind of cool with that too is so we pretty consistently have offered a new episode every Friday morning and we were in the top 50% podcasts of Buzzsprout. And then, according to Listen Notes, which is a pretty highly reputable organization, they kind of keep track of all the podcasts out there, except the Nielsen ratings of fucking social yeah kinda yeah, so it's called Listen Notes and so, according to them, plays on word radio is in one of the top 10% popular shows globally, and that's out of 3.2 million podcasts.
Speaker 2:
So that's pretty cool you guys you guys are part of that man. Thank you very much. Yes, yes, yes, and I don't. I don't know if we've mentioned, but we've also been streamed in 43 countries and territories 43 countries, yeah, wow, so look what God can do 43 countries.
Speaker 3:
somebody's going this man, what is this man man talking about? Amen, so check it out. We're going to finish this next week on plays on word radio. Until then, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you. The Lord be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Speaker 1:
This program was made possible by the plays on word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at playsonwordorg.