DEAN LANDON (Orchestrations, Music & Lyrics)
ANIKA PARIS (Music & Lyrics, Book)
LANDON/PARIS have over fifteen years of collaborative work. This double platinum and gold award-winning team have songs climbing the charts to Number 1 in Canada, France, and Sweden. Their songs are also featured in major motion pictures with Miramax, Century Fox 21, Lionsgate, and Universal Pictures, starring John Turturro, Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mariah Carey, Miro Sorvino, Katherine Heigl, to name a few. They have written songs for artists on BMG, Arista Records, Universal, Warner Brothers, and Sony, and have songs and music on television’s “American Idol,” HBO’s “Sex in the City,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Saturday Night Live,” Lifetime, MTV, CNN, “Extra,” “Ellen De Generes,” “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette,” “TMZ,” and many more.
PARIS has composed for stage productions Morpho-Genesis,The Judas Tree, Novel, The Island of No Tomorrow is a published poet and author of two books (Hal Leonard), an ASCAP Pop Plus and Abe Oleman Scholarship recipient, singer/songwriter and recording artist. Anika is a member of ASCAP, NARAS and is faculty at UCLA, the Grammy and Musicians Institute.
LANDON is a songwriter, producer/engineer, orchestrator, and multi-instrumentalist with 30-plus years of experience. He is a top-grossing composer for Warner Brothers Television, and owns and operates Viber Studios and Oceantide Music in Los Angeles.
This dynamic duo won an HOLA Award for Outstanding Music in “Temple of the Souls,” an Off-Broadway musical drama that premiered to rave reviews in NYC., and composed the 2014 Winter Olympic Theme for Canada which peaked on top 40 charts.
They just released a new EP, "Make the Wold More Beautiful" ( Sonoton music) are recording another one due our 2018.
LORCA PERESS (Director, Producer, Book)
MultiStages Artistic Director and Founder since 1997; Co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women (2011-14); member of Creative Network for the NY Regional Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA); panelist, moderator, and judge for numerous organizations and contests. Selected Credits: Comida de Puta by Desi Moreno-Penson (MultiStages,. HOLA Award), Black Girl You’ve Been Gentrified by Nichole Thompson Adams (Public Theatre’s Joe’s Pub), Temple Of The Souls (4 HOLA Awards: 2012 Outstanding Production), two premiere Operas by Bruce Saylor (Goldstein Theatre, QC-CUNY, National Opera Assoc., 2nd Prize), Arden Kass’ Appetite (w/ Tovah Feldshuh, Lynn Cohen, MultiStages Development), Morpho-Genesis by Fengar Gael (w/ Kathryn Layng, LPTW New World Stages), Anne Hamilton’s And Then I Went Inside (w/ Kathleen Chalfant), Earl Robinson‘s The Lonesome Train (w/ Ruby Dee, Sam Waterston, QC Symphony and Choir, Riverside Church). Peress is also a visual artist (masks, puppets and scenic design), actor, singer. Grants/Awards: 2015 Taino Award; 2015 Innovative Theatre Nominations; 2008, 2010, 2014 Manhattan Community Arts Grants from LMCC and DCA; 2009 Dramatists Guild Fund Award; La MaMa Inky Award for playwriting; N.W. Dible Foundation Grants and Jewish Communal Grants. Member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, Faculty: NYU Tisch-Strasberg, hotINK Curator (2002-10). Studies: Bennington College (BA Drama), National Theatre Institute. Member: SDC, National Theatre Conference, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, LPTW
http://lorcaperess.wixsite.com/lorcaperess-director
ANITA VELEZ-MITCHELL (Feb 1918-July 2015) Story, Book & Lyrics
Anita was a poet, writer, and performer born in Vieques, Puerto Rico, in 1916. She was honored with the 2013 ACE Extraordinary Award for Distinction and Merit, the top honor given by the Association of Latin Entertainment Critics of New York, and the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Puerto Rican Women. She is the subject of the multiple award-winning documentary “Anita Velez: Dancing Through Life,” by daughter and TV journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell, and an upcoming documentary by Claire Panke. Her life-long performing career includes The Ed Sullivan Show, Carnegie Hall, international tours as a solo artist, the 1963 production of “West Side Story” as Anita and culminates in the 2006 world premiere of “The Ballad of Eddie and Jo” by David Sard, directed by Lorca Peress at Hudson Guild Theatre. She was featured in the two-character award winning short film “Voice of an Angel” by Josh Marston, among other TV shows and films. Publications include: Woven Voices: 3 generations of Puerto Rican Women (2012, Scapegoat Press, Latino Book Award Nominee), Primavida: Calendar of Love (1986, Mairena Press), a bilingual book-length poem, winner of Puerto Rico's coveted Julia de Burgos Poetry Prize; Loco de Amor (2006 chapbook based on a Vieques tale); numerous bilingual poems, short stories, essays, and translations in literary magazines and anthologies. Her play, “A Newyorican Tail,” received its premiere with Danisarte (Julia de Burgos Center, 2009); other plays have been performed at Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre and Repertorio Español. Awards include: Poet of the Year; Association of Puerto Rican Writers and Poets Award; and University Press Award; Prince of Asturias Award for Belles Lettres; Partners in Education Award; Center of Ibero-American Poets and Writers Awards in four separate genres (short story, poetry, essay, and drama); Isaac Perez Award (1994); 2000 Woman of the Year (National Conference of Puerto Rican Women in the USA); La MaMa Inky Award; and a grant from the Thanks Be To Grandmother Winifred Foundation. She received the Proclamation from the City of New York in 2006 and Proclamation from the Governor of Puerto Rico in 2015 (at her memorial). Anita has addressed the UN General Assembly on behalf of the bombing crisis in Vieques, P.R., numerous times.
Temple of the Souls," a Musical Drama
Pictured left to right
Music by Dean Landon and Anika Paris
Orchestrations by Dean Landon
Story by Anita Velez-Mitchell
Directed/Produced and Developed by Lorca Peress
Book by Anita Velez-Mitchell, Lorca Peress, Anika Paris
TEMPLE OF THE SOULS, a story of forbidden love
A Story of Forbidden Love
TEMPLE OF THE SOULS. . .
