![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/images\/23-0517-s2p-soulelvis-800x600.jpg\")
Image Caption: Some members of \u201cThe Gospel Soul of Elvis\u201d cast from left to right: Mark Rios (director, Elvis Presley) Mary Lee Gonzalez (Priscilla Presley) and Ben Tinsley. (assistant director, Col. Parker).<\/em><\/p>\n
After debuting in Dallas, Rios and crew performed the play at the oldest continuously operating theatre in Texas \u2014 the historic Lake Country Playhouse, 114 N. Johnson St in Mineola.<\/p>\n
The cast included Rios, Mary Lee Gonzalez, Malik Johnson, Randy Burk, Dasiana Preston, Olivia Simms, Ben Tinsley, and J. Douglas Barker.<\/p>\n
The show ran in Mineola for three days April 28-30 to much acclaim.<\/p>\n
Neita Fran Ward, ART CONNECTION OF EAST TEXAS, said she really appreciated what the cast did with the performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery Elvis fan has heard the gospel songs Elvis loved and performed,\u2019 she said. \u201cMark Rios and his backup music group thoughtfully transported the audience back into the music and stories of The King of Rock and Roll with their performance in a relaxed and casual setting. Great voices and entertaining stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
A friend and colleague of Rios, Victor Rjesnjansky (\u201cSlick Vic\u201d from the hit A&E TV series \u201cStorage Wars Texas\u201d) was also impressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot being a huge fan of Elvis, this was a look into his life from a different venue \u2014 hanging out in his penthouse after the show with all his friends,\u201d Rjesnjansky said.<\/p>\n
Rjesnjansky said it was educational to find out these things about Elvis. \u201cI found myself riveted with interest during the whole show after speaking with creator Mark Rios,\u201d he said. \u201cMark informed me that every show is a little different with little tweaks here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely worth the trip to see the show. I give it five stars,\u201d Rjesnjansky said.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Rios has carried the idea for the show around for some time. But it was only in recent months that he transformed his idea into \u201cfull-on musical reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot of Mark\u2019s colleagues know him as a great local actor whose mobster show \u201cA Family Thing,\u201d is really starting to catch fire on several venues.<\/p>\n
But up until recently, not many heard Rios say a word about an Elvis show.<\/p>\n
Ben Tinsley, Rios\u2019 assistant director and the actor who plays Col. Parker in the show, was initially quite surprised. \u201cMark called me one day, talking about a stage show with him playing Elvis, and I was like, \u2018Do WHAT?\u2019\u201d Tinsley said.<\/p>\n
Tinsley, like Rjesnjansky, had never before experienced an Elvis-related show. But Tinsley knew a winner when he saw it. He said it was an honor to be asked to join the cast as Col. Parker.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first saw Mark do Elvis during the show, I thought to myself, \u2018Whoa. He\u2019s NOT doing some silly Elvis charactature or impersonation. He\u2019s really digging deep.\u2019 I was astounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Texas Theater presents The Gospel Soul of Elvis on Friday, August 18 2023 at 8 p.m., Texas Theater – Waxahachie, TX.<\/p>\n
Learn more: https:\/\/www.thegospelsoulofelvisshow.com\/cast.html<\/a><\/p>\n
![https:\/\/www.Send2Press.com\/300dpi\/23-0517-s2p-soulelvis-300dpi.jpg<\/a><\/p>\nCaption: Some members of \u201cThe Gospel Soul of Elvis\u201d cast from left to right: Mark Rios (director, Elvis Presley) Mary Lee Gonzalez (Priscilla Presley) and Ben Tinsley. (assistant director, Col. Parker).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINEOLA, Texas, May 17, 2023 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Elvis Presley is a state of mind. Mark Rios would be the first person to tell you this. Rios is a lifelong fan of The King. But it wasn’t until relatively recently that this North Texas actor and director was able to converge his acting and directing careers and dedicate them to exploring his long-standing dream of exploring Elvis Presley’s spiritual side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9586,"featured_media":90676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[406,12804,37,191,389,55],"tags":[19211,13437],"class_list":["post-90709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts-news","category-ap","category-entertainment-news","category-music-recording-news","category-pop-culture-news","category-texas-news","tag-elvis-presley","tag-gospel-music","has-post-title","has-post-date","no-post-category","no-post-tag","no-post-comment","has-post-author"],"acf":[],"views":5266,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9586"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/www.Send2Press.com\/300dpi\/23-0517-s2p-soulelvis-300dpi.jpg\"){kind=link}