Based on diaries, letters and interviews, the celebrated production brings to life nine extraordinary women including Madeline Astor, the teenage bride of one of the wealthiest men in America John Jacob Astor, Margaret Tobin Brown, the 'Unsinkable Molly', stewardess Violet Jessop and an imaginative English music hall performer en route to New York to appear in American vaudeville, Nora.

The nine women on board not only survived the fateful night on April 15, 1912 when Titanic sank in the north Atlantic, but it changed their own lives and the world around them.

Written while the actress played seven roles for 21 months in the American tour of the Tony award-winning Broadway Titanic musical Templins' dramatisation includes songs from vaudeville to ballads.

Born in Glencoe, Minnesota, Deborah grew up on a dairy farm, but has lived in Manhattan for 35 years.

An award-winning veteran of theatre, film and television for three decades, she has played leading roles at America's most prestigious theatre companies.

National tours include Mamma Mia!, Titanic, Annie, Baby and Passion of Dracula.

New York stage credits range from We're Still Hot! to Tomfoolery and Eternal Love.

At the Edinburgh Festival, Deborah starred as an Auschwitz survivor in Playing For Time.

Unsinkable Women was first produced by John Adams and The JENA Company in 2003.

Regarding the inspiration behind Unsinkable Woman, Deborah first got the idea while covering for seven women as a 'swing performer' on the US tour of Titanic.

"If any of the women were ill I had to go on," she recalled. "When I had to play someone who died that was one set of emotional values and when I played a survivor it was another thing.

"I found it difficult emotionally, but there was a beautiful moment at the end of the musical where the living meet the dead and we go through the people that died who are frozen in time.

"I started to think about the women who survived and wanted to know more about them.

"I researched the play and characters, what they did with their lives and decided to write act three."

It was during a period in 2000 she met Walter Lord who wrote the film classic A Night to Remember.

"I did a developmental reading of the show at the York Theatre Company in New York City," Deborah said.

"The director, Jim Morgan, said it was great, but I needed input from a Titanic expert so I went down to the South Street seaport museum and someone suggested I meet Walter.

"The English film is still perhaps the best Titanic version.

"I told Walter I could find things about 'Molly' Brown and others in first class, but what about those in third.

"Walter is a great historical fiction writer and told me to use my imagination.

"I'm a singer and performer, but there were no singers on board, it was all instrumental music, so I invented a character called Nora, who was a good friend of Wallace Hartley."

Hartley, an English violinist and bandleader on board the Titanic, was famous for leading the eight-member band as the ship sank on April 15, 1912.

The musicians, recognised for their heroism, perished in the tragedy.

"I researched a lot about performers at that time and Nora is probably closest to my heart because I'm also a performer who must find work," Deborah noted.

"I did a 42-day tour of the United States in April to tie in with the anniversary.

"In every city I performed someone would come up and tell me a link they had to a member of family on board or who missed the voyage by chance as they forgot their luggage."

It was during this series of shows, Deborah met the great great grandson of Isadore and Ida Straus.

Isadore, a German-American Jew, was co-owner of Macy's department store and served on the US House of Representatives.

"I played Ida and she is very important to me," she said. "Ida didn't survive, but her maid did and I say in my imagination that she gave her coat and blanket to her when she went in the lifeboat.

"Ida stayed behind with Isadore and they both died."

Deborah added that her late father saw her play Ida at the Chicago Lyric Opera House.

"It was the last show my father saw me in," she lamented. "He could have seen me in Mamma Mia! but I was particularly touched that my parents, who were married 63 years, got to see me play Ida opposite Isadore.

"Their love is a very interesting story. How it has been interpreted and analysed throughout history could be another story in itself. I love doing Ida."

Deborah is looking forward to performing in Yorkshire for the first time when she will also take the opportunity to visit Howarth.

"I want to see where the Bronte sisters lived," she said.

"I come from a family of four sisters, not all of us write, but our parents had a great respect for education."

Deborah is a recipient of Philadelphia's Barrymore Award for Outstanding Performance for a best actress in a musical and the Los Angeles Arts Council's Richard Burton Award for acting,

Unsinkable Woman will be staged at Northern Ballet on June 25 and 28.

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