Temple Thespians will be competing again this year at the Annual Texas Thespian Convention, November 15-17, at the Gaylord Texan Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Grapevine. Contestants in the national contests can advance to the International Thespian Festival, June 24-29, 2019, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Last year, the Texas convention had 7892 people in attendance (students, teachers, and chaperones).
National individual events involving Peter Pan include Scenic Design (Izzy Poehlmann), Theatre Marketing (Joseph Espinoza), Sound Design (Michael Jones), Costume Design #1 (Brianna Alexander) and Lighting Design (Ricardo Fontanez). Costume Design #2 is for Anna Karenina (Morgan Madsen).
National group events include Group Acting #1 with scenes from The Most Massive Woman Wins (Anaiya Harris, Jalilah Brooks, Torrie Culp and Sereniti Patterson), Group Acting #2 with scenes from Art (D'Andre Wright, Anthony Williamson and Austin Madsen) and Group Musical with "The Crime of the Century" from Ragtime (Sierra Amalbert, Rebecca Alley, Kylie Burke, Olivia Cabrera, Kerryn Eckenrode, Jonathan Equels, Dylan Hardy, Seth Little, Erica Lynch, Genevieve Myers, Allison Quiroz, Daniel Salazar and Mimansha Shrestha).
Texas-only events include Team Costume Design (Brianna Alexander, Lauren Bruckbauer, Karelya Palomera and Allison Quiroz), Team Make-Up and Hair Design (Anaiya Harris, Baylee Black, Jonathan Equels and Anthony Williamson), Team Set Design (Ashlyn Farley, Izzy Poehlmann, Kerryn Eckenrode and D'Andre Wright), and Team Mask Making (Rebecca Alley, Kylie Burke, Olivia Cabrera and Morgan Madsen).
The Texas Tech Challenge team includes Simon Juarez, Ashlyn Farley, Caleb Gommert, Dylan Hardy, Michael Rodriquez, Raymond Garcia and Seth Little.
Coordinating the All-Star Troupe Display entry will be Anaiya Harris, Rebecca Alley, Kylie Burke and Izzy Poehlmann. Temple Thespians auditioning for colleges and Texas Thespian scholarships include Sierra Amalbert, Izzy Poehlmann, Rebecca Alley and D'Andre Wright.
Last year, all 10 of Temple's national events received superior ratings and advanced to the international competition. No other troupe in the entire state had that many entries advance. Out of the 280 troupes at last year's convention, Temple was one of 10 schools named an All-Star Troupe. Temple was also named one of the three finalists for the 2016-17 Outstanding Troupe award. Two Temple students received $1000 Texas Thespian scholarships.
SHOWN BELOW are photos from Team Costume Design, Team Mask Making and Team Hair and Make-Up Design for The Wizard of Oz.