A tale of forbidden love where nightmares and dreams come true.
TEMPLE OF THE SOULS is an award-winning contemporary pop musical of secrets, lies, and forbidden love. Two worlds collide in this mythical tale when Amada, the beautiful daughter of a Conquistador, and Guario, a young Taíno, meet in the magical rain forest of Puerto Rico. To escape the intolerant world below, our young lovers run away to the Temple of the Souls where nightmares and dreams come true.
Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes

The 2017 New York Musical Festival, which runs July 10 through August 6, will bring audiences four full weeks of new musicals, concerts, readings, and panel discussions. We spoke with Lorca Peress (book), Anika Paris (music, lyrics, book), and Dean Landon (music, lyrics, orchestrations) about their musical Temple of the Souls. What was the first musical that made you want to make musicals? Lorca: There are so many, growing up with our music conductor father, Maurice Peress, we saw numerous operas but only a few musicals that he conducted. When I was a little girl, he conducted Camelot in a summer season in Massachusetts. I remember falling in love with the music and the characters, but I think the first production that took me deep into the world of musical performance was Candide that he conducted in Los Angeles and then in NYC at the Metropolitan Opera (featuring Madeline Kahn as Cunegonde). That production was a huge turning point for me. The work was in English, I could relate to it (although I missed many of the salacious jokes), but I really wanted to be onstage with them. I had a performing career as a child and later as a professional in operas, musicals and theatre product …Read more