The Weight of Tears
by Stephen Temperley
directed by Vivian Matalon
starring Gian-Murray Gianino*


This world-premiere reading is based on a true story. What happens when ordinary people are caught up in the madness of war, when all the laws they've lived by no longer apply? Answers are found in a journal kept by Calek, a young Jew hiding in German-occupied Warsaw in 1943. To protect his wife and child Calek joins the ghetto police, only to be forced to load them on a train to Treblinka. How does he make sense of the evil he has seen, and of his own part in it?
CAST & CREW
GIAN-MURRAY GIANINO (Calek) A native Manhattanite, Mr. Gianino’s New York credits include Charles Mee’s BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA ( coming to BAM in October) and his SUMMER EVENINGS IN DES MOINES, The Backhouse Productions of CRAZY EYES and PRAYING FOR RAIN, CRAVE with Theatron Inc./XO Productions, TRANSFIGURES with The Group Collective, Arthur Kopit’s Reading Series at The Lark and Al Pacino’s Salome readings in NY and LA. His film and TV credits include LAW AND ORDER SVU, DEAD CANARIES with Charles Durning and UP TO THE ROOF HLS Films/Backhouse Productions. Regional credits include a summer season at the College Light Opera Company on Cape Cod where he played Gus in BABES IN ARMS and Evil-Eye Fleagle in L’IL ABNER. Mr. Gianino spent a season at the Actors Theatre of Louisville where “bobrauschenbergamerica” premiered and he created the role of the Pizza Boy working with the Siti Company and Ann Bogart, their director. Subsequently, they took it on a national tour. A graduate of Wesleyan University with a BA in Theatre, Mr. Gianino is the third generation of an acting family and is delighted to have studied with Vivian Matalon for two years.

VIVIAN MATALON (Director) has worked extensively in London's West End and on Broadway and regional theatres in the United States. His West End productions include SEASON OF GOODWILL with Dame Sybil Thorndike. THE CHINESE PRIME MINISTER with Dame Edith Evans, SUITE IN THREE KEYS by Noel Coward with Sir Noel, Irene Worth and Lili Palmer, BUS STOP with Lee Remick and Keir Dullea, I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER with Raymond Massey, THE GLASS MENAGERIE with Dame Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies and Anna Massey, and AFTER THE RAIN with Alec McCowen. He was artistic director for three years at the prestigious Hampstead Theatre, where his productions included Clifford Odets's AWAKE AND SING! and the European premiere of SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS by Tennessee Williams. Broadway productions include AFTER THE RAIN with Alec McCowen and Nancy Marchand, NOEL COWARD IN TWO KEYS with Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy and Anne Baxter, and BRIGADOON in its last Broadway revival. He received a Tony nomination for his direction of THE TAP DANCE KID and the Tony and Drama Desk awards for the 1980 revival of MORNINGS AT SEVEN.

STEPHEN TEMPERLEY (Playwright) plays include: BESIDE THE SEASIDE at the Hudson Guild, NYC. MONEY/MERCY at the Chelsea Theatre Centre, NYC. Mercy, HBO New Writers Project, LA. DANCE WITH ME at the 18th Street Theatre, NYC. Also at the Centenary Stage Co, Hackettstown, NJ. THAT KIND OF WOMAN, a musical workshop for Dodger Productions. IN THE COUNTRY OF THE FREE a staged reading for the Mint Theatre, NYC. And, most recently, THE F ABOVE C which, after a very successful presentation at the York Theatre is scheduled for a major off-Broadway production early in 2004. As an actor, Mr Temperley has appeared in London's West End, on Broadway (in the original company of CRAZY FOR YOU) and off. He has played leading roles with resident theatres all over the US as well as major tours. He now makes his home in Glenford.

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