'Fannie Lou' Musical

Dean Temple

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“There’s this aspect of it that feels very giving, and I think that’s why I like acting. It’s the whole thing, stripping everything down. It’s a matter of finding that at your core.”

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Playing the cello opened a lot of doors for Dean Temple. The problem was, they weren’t quite the entryways he wanted to walk through.

“I always wanted to be on stage,” Dean recalled. “Playing the cello was largely passionless for me. I’d be playing in the pit and I wanted to get onstage [with the actors].”

For the past several years Dean has been walking through doors at various performing arts sites that have put him right where he wants to be. On Oct. 9, 2014, was on the Zankel Hall stage at Carnegie Hall, performing the role of Mr. Richards in “Scenes and Songs from Fannie Lou: At Carnegie Hall.” The one-night-only production tells the story of Fannie Lou Hamer’s historic struggle through her interactions with a number of fictional characters.

Playing a Southern aristocrat staunchly opposed to voting rights for African Americans fits right in with the kind of challenge Dean enjoys. While Mr. Richards’ viewpoints might not be tasteful to a 21st-century palate, it’s Dean’s job to help audience members relate to such a complicated character on some level.

“I like parts that have intelligence and some soul behind them,” said Dean, whose dad is actually from the South. “I like variation or I get very bored.”

Growing up, Dean was exposed to variation in the arts. He began playing cello at age 4, in an environment of family members and friends who exposed him to opera and classical music, and ballet, early-on. His grandmother, for example, was a concert pianist, and a close family friend was a choreographer for the erstwhile Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

Ironically, Dean wasn’t really encouraged to pursue the arts as a career for himself. In fact, his mom and dad hoped Dean would seek a more traditional career path. Dean was drawn to the arts, however. Having decided to become a writer, he majored in Russian language and literature while an undergraduate at Columbia University.

"I became an English major in another language,” quips Dean, whose mom’s family is from Ukraine.

But college also gave Dean the opportunity to hone his skills as an actor. Among his college productions, his favorite role was Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Not just for the acting, but because of what he learned about set design and other elements of the theater. The director, Dean added, was “fascinating” and “positive,” creating a nurturing environment.

“That was a comprehensive experience,” he said.

The more Dean learned about the craft of acting, the more it fulfilled him.

“I think possibly the only time I can make myself vulnerable is onstage,” he said. “There’s something about connecting with actors onstage. There’s something about connecting with an audience and that energy that moves back and forth.

“There’s this aspect of it that feels very giving, and I think that’s why I like acting," continued Dean. "It’s the whole thing, stripping everything down. It’s a matter of finding that at your core.”

Despite the personal satisfaction that came with acting, it took a while for Dean to commit to a career as a performer. After graduating from Columbia, he went into the publishing field.

“I took a job with a publishing firm and they trained me to be a creative director,” Dean said. “They kind of sent you around the world to work on stuff, and you end up working lots and lots of hours.”

Burnout was inevitable, he said. But there was a silver lining.

“After five years you’re battle hardened, but you’ve learned a lot.”

Dean applied what he’d learned to his own business, Drake Creative, LLC, which he started in 2003 with wife Alexandra. The company specializes in corporate identity and environmental graphic design. Dean is the creative director and writer, and Alex handles graphics duties for what has turned out to be an ideally complementary partnership, said Dean. Their work has included projects for corporations and municipalities, and venues that include New York’s Lincoln Center and its Apollo Theater, and the New Orleans Superdome and Superdome Arena.

As fate would have it, in the midst of concentrating on his business activities, Dean fell back into performing.

“I went to see a play and mentioned to a friend that I had been acting,” Dean recalled. The friend happened to have a connection, and Dean soon found himself cast in a play. Because of his hiatus, however, it took some time for Dean to feel fully comfortable.

“I hadn’t been on the stage in a long time,” he noted. “You lose a part of yourself, your craft – that part of yourself willing to let go and not care what people think. It was actually kind of a long and difficult road back.”

Dean said that for him readjusting to the stage meant he had to “shed adulthood in some ways.” To do that, he returned to
the basics.

“I ended up going back to classes, because [it helps] you remember certain things – how to use your voice, how to use your body. So the last five years have been me trying to remember how all of that works.”

Dean’s recent projects include lead roles in the films “The Convict” and “The Naked Truth About Fairies.” Critics have taken notice.

In one review for “The Convict,” Dean was praised for his “nuanced performance that strikes just the right balance of intimidating and heartfelt.” Another reviewer said the film “works because of the quiet allure of its lead actor … a mesmerizing yet often subtle performance by Dean Temple.”

Such observances please Dean, who said he wants to move audiences when he performs.

“I’m trying to touch upon those human experiences,” he said. “I’m trying to get to that core. That’s why I do it.”