A Canadian actor well-known for his portrayals of villain-type characters is coming to Winnipeg for a different kind of show.

Kenneth Welsh, who's acted in several hundred roles over the course of his career, got his start in a high school drama class.

This weekend, you can catch the actor in a role unique from those he usually is cast in.

This Sunday, Sturgeon Creek United Church will feature Welsh performing a dramatic reading of The Gospel of Mark, a performance that has been featured on both Broadway and Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto.

"I'm very familiar with the gospel of Mark," Welsh said, explaining that he will not be leaving the Bible behind, but instead will physically read from its pages Sunday afternoon.

"It's a marvellous piece of narrative, dramatic theatre," Welsh said.

He hopes to bring the gospel to life for those in attendance for his reading Sunday. "I go over it and over it, and study it ... and try to keep it spontaneous in the way I deliver it."

The actor says that his process of going about this includes approaching the text as if it is a current happening, not something that occurred in the past, a method that requires him to study scriptures to really grasp the entirety of what he will be reading.

"It's fascinating to try and get some inkling of what it does mean," Welsh shares. "How deep it is rooted in Judaism and way back into the Old Testament. The whole Bible is cross-referenced."

In his studies, Welsh says the compassion, understanding, and sensitivity Jesus displays throughout the scriptures towards those around him have been some of his favourite discoveries in the Bible so far.

"He invited [people] to think," Welsh says. "He says 'he who has ears, let him hear'... when he speaks to them, it's fascinating.

"Some of the stories are pretty profound."

Welsh will be reading from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible during his Sunday performance in Winnipeg.

"I like the fact that the King James is... very much a classic kind of text. It's Shakespearean," Welsh says.

In fact, Shakespeare, among other great writers of the day, did have a hand in the original translation the KJV Bible.

"I wouldn't read any other," Welsh laughs, "I'm so used to reading Shakespeare and this is so much like it.... to an audience you've got to try to give them a higher sense of not only the story, but the way it's written."

The actor plans on ending the reading at Mark 16:8 where many presume the author originally concluded the book, as some early manuscripts do not contain verses 9-20.

"The original gospel ends with the women running from the tomb, saying 'and they were afraid!'" Welsh exclaimed. "They've come to the tomb and the stone is rolled away, they don't know how, they go in and they see this angel sitting there and they're frightened. Who wouldn't be? But he's so gentle and so clear with them... he tells them what's going to be... and yet they go away afraid.

"They're told!... but they leave, and they're amazed, and they're afraid."

Welsh's reading will start at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 6, 2018 at Sturgeon Creek United Church.