Joseph Reed Hayes, playwright

Tempus 

Avram Saltzman is newly arrived in New York, a working musician with talent and ambition. It is the mid 1940s, when a thriving population of Jewish players who worked in both popular jazz and swing bands and "oriental" (klezmer) orchestras were being displaced by the advent of bebop and the increasing prominence of black musicians onstage and in recordings. It is a story of heritage, pride and conflict, when black and white musicians shared musical styles and explored new avenues of expression after hours, but still weren't allowed to perform together in public.

Taking inspiration from Shakespeare's The Tempest, with live musicians onstage playing original jazz and klezmer music written specifically for this project, Tempus looks at life spoken in the universal languages of music and love.