Live musical theatre returns to Temple in June! 

Temple High School will present the musical Chicago (High School Edition) June 24-27, 2021, in the Temple High School Auditorium, 415 North 31st Street. The musical was scheduled for earlier this school year, but was delayed until June because of COVID. Evening performances will be June 24-25-26 at 8 p.m. A Sunday matinee is scheduled on June 27 at 2 p.m. Specifically designed to be content-appropriate, this high-school edition has been adapted to remove overtly sexual references and adult language.

Advance general admission tickets are $10, and are available from students involved with the show and online from www.CentralTexasTickets.com. Premium reserved seat tickets (first eight rows) are $20 and are only available online. General admission tickets will be $15 at the door. Credit cards will be accepted at the door.

Set in the legendary city during the roaring “jazz hot” 20s, Chicago tells the story of two rival vaudevillian murderesses locked up in the Cook County Jail. Nightclub star Velma Kelly (Genevieve Myers) is serving time for killing her husband and sister. Chorus girl Roxie Hart (Hanna Prince) has been tossed in the joint for bumping off her lover. Roxie had convinced her hapless husband, Amos (Michael Rodriguez), to take the rap — until he finds out he's been duped and turns on Roxie.

Velma enlists the help of prison Matron "Mama" Morton (Sereniti Patterson) and slickster lawyer Billy Flynn (Cameron Hooper), who turn Velma’s incarceration into a murder-of-the-week media frenzy. When Roxie also winds up in prison, Billy takes on her case as well — turning her into a media circus of headlines by using sensationalist newspaper reporters and radio personality Sunshine (Terry Austin). Neither "Merry Murderess" will be outdone in her fight against the other, seeking fame, fortune and acquittal.

The movie adaptation won Best Picture and starred Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs. Musical numbers include "And All That Jazz", "Cell Block Tango", "When You're Good to Mama", "All I Care About is Love", "Mister Cellophane", "Razzle Dazzle" and "Nowadays".

 has much more information about the cast and crew.

Did you realize — the last musical production at Temple High was Peter Pan in October 2018?

Temple High School was named second runner-up in this year's UIL Theatre Team Champions competition. The award is determined by scores from UIL one-act play, theatrical design and film competitions held throughout the school year. Temple advanced to the one-act play state meet for the fifth time in the last six contests. The group also received 16 acting awards in the four one-act contests, won the bronze medal in the group theatrical design contest and had three film entries advance in the state film contest.

The UIL added this annual award in 2017. State champion was Northside Taft High, with Laredo Alexander as first runner-up. Tied with Temple were Humble Atascocita and Deer Park.

Temple's Theatrical Design Group Team was awarded the Bronze Medal (3rd Place) at the UIL State Theatrical Design Championship. Results were announced May 10, 2021. Temple's team included Genevieve Myers (set design), Sereniti Patterson (hair and make-up), Hanna Prince (costumes) and Daniel Salazar (marketing).

Students were required to create a design for the musical Man of La Mancha in a way that it had not been produced before. Temple's team competed in Division 2, which included 5A and 6A schools. Temple has competed in the annual UIL contest since it started in 2008, and was the first group state champion.

     Although Temple High's One-Act Play team was not ranked in the Top 3 at the 2021 State Finals, the team had a great showing and received many wonderful audience comments about their production of Student Body. It was a huge honor to be in the Elite Eight out of the 249 schools that began the 6A contest. The contest was held April 30 and May 1, 2021, at Waxahachie High School. This was the 5th time in the last six state finals that Temple has participated.
     Three Temple team members received individual acting awards. Named to the State All-Star Cast was Genevieve Myers (in the role of Liz). Selected for the State Honorable Mention All-Star Cast were Sereniti Patterson (in the role of April) and Cameron Hooper (in the role of Rob).
     There was a delay in announcing results when the online tabulating software came up with different results when used on different computers. The rankings had to be sent to the state UIL office for them to compute and verify. They also had a technology problem with the virtual Zoom awards presentation because they didn't purchase the large meeting add-on for $50 to allow up to 500 people to watch the ceremony. Some participating schools could not sign-in to view the ceremony. Tickets had been $10 per person for each of the eight individual plays.
     Selected as the state champion was San Antonio Northwest Taft High with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. First runner-up was Deer Park High with Moon Over Buffalo. Second runner-up was Midland High with The Old Man and the Old Moon.

Here is a photo of Temple High's One-Act Play Team on Thursday prior to boarding the bus for the State Finals. The team performs Saturday, May 1, at 3 p.m.

At the District 12-6A Speech Academic Meet, held March 24 at Belton High, the five speech contests sent a total of 15 students to the regional competition. Out of those 15 advancers, 10 were from Temple High School.

Temple students advancing to regional include:
Informative Speaking = Smrutu Ramanathan, Kylie Burke, Mimansha Shrestha
Lincoln-Douglas Debate = Marc Wong
Persuasive Speaking = Marc Wong
Poetry Interpretation = Austin Madsen, Michael Rodriguez
Prose Interpretation = Sereniti Patterson, Genevieve Myers, Saniyah Galbreath

Temple also won the District Champion Team awards for Literary Criticism and Speech. Alivea Johnson was named the alternate advancing student in persuasive speaking.

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