Deborah Jean Templin portrays Violet Jessop in this photo.
The 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center presents Broadway actress Deborah Jean Templin in Unsinkable Women: Stories & Songs from the Titanic live on stage on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Templin toured in the Tony award-winning Broadway musical Titanic from 1998 to 2000, serving as a swing performer covering the roles of seven women characters on the ship. It was during this period she became intrigued with the original music of the period and the lives of the women who survived the great ship’s sinking. While performing in more than 45 cities throughout the US, she began research at the homes of Titanic survivors and the nation’s libraries, and was moved to create her solo show Unsinkable Women: Stories and Songs from the Titanic.
Based on actual diaries, letters and interviews, Templin’s one-woman show brings to life nine famous figures including Madeleine Astor (the beautiful teenage bride of John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest men in America), and Margaret Tobin Brown – the “Unsinkable Molly” herself – whose account of the Titanic’s final moments brings the evening to its dramatic climax.
Other characters who share their stories of tragedy and triumph include stewardess Violet Jessop (who tells of the friendships and loves of the below-decks serving crew) and Nora, an English music hall performer on her way to New York to appear in American vaudeville.
With musical underscoring created by musical director C. Colby Sachs, choreography by Broadway veteran Ron Schwinn, nine sumptuous period costumes designed by Sara Jablon, and direction by Nancy Robillard, Unsinkable Women offers vivid portrayals, punctuated with period songs from vaudeville numbers to Victor Herbert’s “Toyland.” Drawing wigs, costume and props from a vintage wardrobe trunk while on stage, Templin transforms herself, shifting from character to character in full view of the audience. Internationally acclaimed as a remarkable tour-de-force, Unsinkable Women has been called “the most affecting and truthful version of the Titanic story today.”
Templin has performed on stage, screen and television. Her most recent appearance was as the inspired, but vocally flawed, wannabe opera diva, Florence Foster Jenkins, in Stephen Temperley’s Souvenir. Her New York credits include the premiere of We’re Still Hot! and Tom Lehrer’s Tomfoolery. She has performed in the critically acclaimed York Theatre Company’s “Musicals in Mufti” series in Darling of The Day, Miss Liberty, Johnny Johnson, and Take Me Along.
Theatrical Awards include the Richard Burton Award for Acting, Los Angeles, and the Barrymore Award, Philadelphia, for her performance as Kay Goodman in Nite Club Confidential, and the New Hampshire Theatre Award for Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein.
Regional theatre performances include Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage as Mary Stewart in the Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers, the Walnut Street Theatre as Dolly in Hello, Dolly!, Hannigan in Annie, and The Bird Woman & Miss Andrew in Mary Poppins. On the international stage, she starred at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Arthur Miller’s Playing for Time. Her national tours include Mamma Mia!, Titanic, Baby and Annie.
She has appeared on television in Gotham, What Would You Do?, Midnight Caller and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Having successfully toured the country with Unsinkable Women, Templin created her autobiographical play, Singing for the Cows. These two solo shows have played in more than 150 venues, including the New York’s Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library Series.
Tickets to the show are $27 (Adults), $25 (Opera House Members), and $10 (Students) and can be purchased in person at the Opera House Box Office or by phone at 716-679-1891, Tuesday-Friday, 12-4:30 p.m. They can be purchased online anytime at www.fredopera.org. The show is part of the Opera House Spotlight Series, which is generously sponsored by DFT Communications.
In addition, Opera House programming is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
The 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center is a member-supported not-for-profit performing arts center with a mission to “present the performing arts for the benefit of our community and region … providing access to artistic diversity … and high-quality programming at an affordable price.” It is located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.