Interview with Anika Paris

All of this brilliant DNA has come together in a new musical called Temple of the Souls, which started out with Anita's script and turned into a musical thanks to the songs of Anika and her writing partner, Dean Landon, and which is scheduled to open on December 8, Off-Broadway at The West End Theatre (on the corner of 86th and Broadway) under Lorca's direction. How cool is this - I mean, who gets to collaborate with their grandmother?

Another fascinating aspect of this project is it's reflection of the family's linguistic roots, as this tale of old Puerto Rico unfold in three languages - English, Spanish and Taíno (google that one!), which has earned it recognition as "Best New Musical 2011" by F.L.A.G. (that would stand for The Foreign Language Acting Group). I asked our songwriter, Anika Paris, to tell us something about herself and the evolution of  Temple of the Souls, and here is what she has to say:

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?
 
I grew up in a theatre family. My father is a classical conductor, who worked with Leonard Bernstein and Duke Ellington, and my mother an award-winning poet and publisher, and my grandmother got shot out of a cannon, danced on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and is still, at ninety-five, a true entertainer. As a child we spent summers in Europe where my brother, sister and I would perform walk-on roles and bit parts in operas and shows my father conducted. Each year there was a new “location,” and a new “show.” And every birthday of mine, which falls in August, we’d be eating some strange pastry crepe cake with liquor in it, and I’d hear Happy Birthday sung to me in some foreign language. And to think, I only wanted my best friend Nancy to be back home eating a ho-ho. Today, obviously, I’m grateful for the exposure and experience. During the school year, in the states, we had to attend classical concerts my father conducted with the philharmonic once a week. It was mandatory that we do most everything together. People used to call us the Von Trapp family; our motto being “the show must go on.” When my father conducted Tosca, the set designer, Peter Wexler, gave us the swing from the show.  It was a huge piece of wood with gigantic knotted ropes that were long enough to fall from the space above the proscenium. My father hung it on my favorite tree in our backyard. I’d swing for hours recanting songs and reciting lines from all the shows I had seen. Finally, I landed my own starring role at the age of seven when I played Marta in The Sound of Music and had a solo. I got to sing "Re" of "Do Re Me." I’m making fun, but for a pint-sized buck-toothed kid, this was big time. The bug really bit me then, as I stepped center stage. I felt more alive then ever and knew something was changing.
                  
Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.

After experiencing legit theatre, I fell in love with pop music. I’d tune into my radio on Sundays to hear Casey Kasem’s top 40 countdown. My sister would blast the car stereo driving my brother and me to school, because the only rock music allowed in the house was the Beatles. Everything else was noise, according to my father, and that included the television as well, so we didn’t have one. Listening to pop songs was being a rebel in our family, well, that and watching TV. I remember writing my first real song as young as eight. From there, I started composing at the piano and singing original songs everyday. It was something that seemed to help me find clarity and peace through my adolescent confusion, and it slowly became a life passion. I think I’ve always been a writer, poems first, then short stories, then humming melodies and eventually songs. After getting my Bachelor of Arts, I moved to New York to pursue music professionally. I formed a band, Double Exposure, with my brother Paul and we recorded our first EP. I spent every free moment rehearsing and singing in the studio, and collaborating with songwriters. I visited Los Angeles on a vacation and ended up hopping coasts, which was a good thing. Because after meeting and working with Dean Landon, my writing partner here in Los Angeles, I landed a record deal with a company (Edel a subsidiary of Sony Records) based out of New York. I moved from NY to LA to get signed to a company in NY; the irony. We recorded and released my debut CD On Gardner Street, and everything was uphill from there. After three solo CD’s, performing on national television, getting invited to performing for the Princess of Thailand, sharing the stage with Stevie Wonder, John Legend and John Mayer, as well as writing songs for other artists, some even selling platinum, I continued to challenge myself. In the arts, I believe you have to keep reinvented yourself. So, I branched out and started writing for television and film. I learned about the studio, Pro-tools and producing, and am now the only female composer for Warner Brothers Television. I’ve been very fortunate, but I also worked extremely hard, and am extremely grateful to be able to do what I love to this day. One day I got a call from my sister Lorca, who asked if I could compose a song for one of the plays she was producing. The author of the play was Fengar Gale, and they needed a song for the end of the show. I wrote it fairly quickly and sent it over. Fengar Gale loved it so much, she asked me if I could write the songs for her upcoming play The Judas Tree. I continued down this path, composing for other staged projects, and over time, this all eventually lead up to co-writing Temple of the Souls. Temple of the Souls is a musical drama written by my grandmother Anita Velez-Mitchell, developed, directed and produced by my sister Lorca Peress and co-composed by me and my writing partner Dean Landon. I feel it is our strongest work yet, and a wonderful collaboration between all of us. I guess you could say I’ve come full circle, back to the symphonic music and songs for legit theatre.
 
What is the back story on the creation and development of TEMPLE OF THE SOULS?

I’m sure there’s a lot more Anita can tell you about the creation of her beautiful love story. But the fact that the collaboration ended up “all in the family” was not the initial plan. There was originally another composer who backed out of the show due to time conflicts. Lorca had been developing the script with Anita for about a year, and called to ask us if we’d be interested in composing Anita’s opera. It was first a classical opera. I thought opera? Don’t get me wrong, I do love some operas, but it is a skilled specialty and to honor its art form, I knew we were not the right match. We are contemporary songwriters, first and foremost. So, we all spoke about it with the understanding that if Dean and I compose the music, it would lean more towards a classical pop feel in the realm of Sondheim and/or Andrew Lloyd Webber. We all agreed that this would change the direction and style of the show, but we would navigate our way through the process. After we hung up the phone, we immediately went into the studio and wrote the finale that night in a little over an hour. It was as if the words and music were floating off the page and into the air, taking on a life of their own. There was an unheard message in the history of the Taíno people, and we were telling it. We sang every part on the demo including bass, baritone, tenor, mezzo and soprano, even hitting a high C, and then collapsed. After we listened back, we knew we were working on something magical. And now I can’t believe that two years and twenty songs later, we have completed a musical drama premiering Off-Broadway in December! 

Experience TEMPLE OF THE SOULS!

 http://www.templeofthesouls.com/#!watch-trailer 

DATES: OPENS:Thursday, December 8, through December 23

                                         Tues - Sat @ 8pm, Sun @ 3pm

                             BENEFIT PERFORMANCE:Thursday, December 15^th @ 7pm

                             $75 includes Pre-Show Reception, Performance & Cast Party

             $50 includes Performance & Cast Party

THEATRE: The West End Theatre ~ 263 West 86^th Street

PRICE: $18/$10 Students & Seniors

RESERVATIONS: www.smarttix.com  (212)868-4444  www.templeofthesouls.com