New Musical TEMPLE to Receive Industry Presentation at The Pershing Square Signature Center

An invitation-only reading of the new musical Temple will take place on Friday, April 28th at 3pm at The Pershing Square Signature Center (rehearsal studio - 480 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036). Temple features a book and lyrics by Silvia Peto, music by Norman Durkee, additional music by Constantine Kitsopoulos, and will be directed by Gabriel Barre.

Temple is a new musical based on the life of Temple Grandin, world-renowned animal scientist, pioneer, visionary, inventor, and best-selling author. Diagnosed with autism at an early age, labeled as "brain damaged," and recommended for institutionalization, follow Temple on her inspirational journey, into her extraordinary mind, and experience a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.

Grandin, who was elected as a Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 2016, is also slated to be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in September 2017. April is National Autism Awareness Month.

The cast of the reading of Temple will feature Enid Graham (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Becca Ayers, Leslie Becker, Allison Blackwell, Paula Leggett Chase, Jeanna de Waal, Mitchell Jarvis, Kevin Kern, Akron Lanier Watson, Dorcas Leung, Justin Gregory Lopez, Karen Mason, Seth Rettberg, Gavriel Savit, Bart Matthew Shatto, and A.J. Shively.

The General Manager for Temple is Alchemy Production Group.

TEMPLE CREATIVE TEAM

SILVIA PETO (Book and Lyrics) wrote the book and lyrics for Temple, a musical with two workshop productions at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. She won one of the largest National Endowment for the Arts grants ever awarded for musical theatre. Temple also received the "Promise of Greatness" award given by The Stranger for best new theatre. Her plays include, Airstream, selected by the Pioneer Square Theatre New Works Project, Mona and the Night Nurse, produced by the Oregon Stage Company in Portland, a one-act play, Afternoon at the Harvard Exit, (won Best of Festival at Seattle's New City Theatre Director's Festival) and was selected by National Public Radio as part of its International Festival of Women Writers. Brume received a reading at the Berkeley Repertory and was a finalist for the Global Age Project at the Aurora Theatre Company. Silvia lives in Seattle and is currently working on a new musical.

Norman Durkee (Music) was active as a composer, arranger, producer, pianist, conductor and teacher. His work included 18 ballets (including Round Midnight and Zirkus Weill with Pacific Northwest Ballet), 32 chamber works, 4 operas, and numerous pieces for jazz ensembles. He was musical director for Hair and Tommy, and composed several scores for Daniel Sullivan at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Mr. Durkee pioneered the use of binaural technology for theatrical presentation. He was resident composer for the Seattle Opera Company and musical director and associate creative director for Teatro Zinzanni in Seattle and San Francisco. Mr. Durkee died on January 12th, 2014.

Constantine Kitsopoulos (Additional Music) Mr. Kitsopoulos' career as a conductor comfortably spans the worlds of opera and symphony (appearing in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Royal Albert Hall) and musical theater (leading orchestras on, and off Broadway). He is general director of Chatham Opera, and music director of the Festival of the Arts Boca and was recently named general director of The New York Grand Opera. He was music director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra from 2007 - 2015, and served as artistic director of Oklahoma's OK Mozart Festival from 2012 - 2015. During the 2016-17 season Maestro Kitsopoulos will return to guest conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony. He makes debuts with the Symphony Orchestras of San Diego, Forth Worth, as well as the Pacific Symphony, Boston Pops, Nashville Symphony and Brevard Festival. In past seasons Maestro Kitsopoulos has conducted the New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Russian national Orchestra, among others. A frequent guest conductor at Indiana University, he has conducted their productions of The Music Man, Oklahoma, South Pacific, Menotti's The Last Savage, Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, Verdi's Falstaff, Bolcom's A View from the Bridge, J. Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, and Loesser's The Most Happy Fella. As a theater conductor, both on Broadway and nationwide, he has been music director and conductor of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway; he held the same position for The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival featuring Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis), A Catered Affair, Coram Boy, and The American Conservatory Theatre's production of Weill's Happy End, for which he recorded the cast album at Skywalker Ranch. He also served as music director and principal conductor of Baz Luhrmann's production of Puccini's La Bohème. He studied conducting with Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Commissiona, Gustav Meier, and his principal teacher Vincent La Selva.

Gabriel Barre (Director) is the internationally-acclaimed director of Amazing Grace on Broadway, soon to be on tour this fall. His off-Broadway credits include the original productions of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (nominated for 13 Drama Desk Awards including Best Director); Summer of '42; Son of a Gun; Stars in Your Eyes; Honky-Tonk Highway; john & jen; and Almost, Maine. He also directed the national tours of Pippin and Cinderella and his regional credits include the world premiere production of Memphis at the North Shore Music Theatre as well as Sweeney Todd, Finian's Rainbow, and many new musicals at Goodspeed Musicals. His many international credits include the recent Mexican premiere of Billy Elliot in Mexico City, the Japanese production of The Scarlet Pimpernel in Tokyo soon to be revived, and the world premiere of the Frank Wildhorn musicals Carmen, in Prague, Czech Republic, and Tears of Heaven in Seoul, Korea. Also in Prague, he has directed productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, and Aida.

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