Temple Thespians will compete at the International Thespian Festival June 24-30 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. The students competed at the Texas State Festival, held in November 2018, where 100% of Temple contestants advanced to Lincoln with superior ratings.

Individual technical event competitors include Scenic Design (Isabel Poehlmann), Sound Design (Michael Jones) and Costume Design (Brianna Alexander and Morgan Madsen).

Group events include Group Acting 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, Baylee Black, Kylie Burke, Olivia Cabrera, Kerryn Eckenrode, Jonathan Equels, Dylan Hardy, Seth Little, Erica Lynch, Genevieve Myers, Allison Quiroz, Daniel Salazar and Mimansha Shrestha).

Three Temple students will participate in college auditions for the chance to receive admission and scholarships to several prestigious theatre programs. These students include Olivia Cabrera, Torrie Culp and Kerynn Eckenrode. Recent graduates Sierra Amalbert and Isabel Poehlmann will compete for International Thespian Society scholarships.

Last year, the festival had a record-setting attendance of 4500 delegates from 41 states as well as several foreign countries. To make room for more delegates, next year the event will move to Indiana University in Bloomington.

Graduating seniors who attended the end-of-year Thespian Banquet on May 26 are pictured with Mrs. Natasha Tolleson.

Temple High School held a signing ceremony for fine arts students who were recruited by colleges. Below is an article that appeared in the Temple Daily Telegram on May 25, 2019.

Temple High School Thespians assisted on May 4, 2019, with Temple Civic Theatre's annual Mother-Son Dance at the Bell County Expo Center. This year's theme was "Star Wars" so the Thespians dressed accordingly. More photos on the Facebook page.

The final performance of Temple High School's award-winning 2019 entry in the UIL One-Act Play Contest will be Wednesday, May 8, at 7 p.m. in the Temple High School Auditorium. Temple performed at the state finals, and finished 5th out of the 254 schools that started the school year in the 6A classification. Admission is only $5 per person.

Temple High School's UIL One-Act Play team placed 5th at the state meet, out of 254 schools that began the school year in the 6A classification. Seth Little was named to the State All-Star Cast. Sierra Amalbert was named to the State Honorable Mention All-Star Cast.

Temple will schedule a final performance of "Baby with the Bathwater" back in Temple. Details will be announced.

State Champion was Medea (Keller: Central). 2nd place was In the Blood (Fort Bend: Bush). 3rd place was Things I Know to Be True (Houston: Carnegie Vanguard).

UIL STATE THEATRICAL DESIGN CONTEST — Temple's group entry was awarded 5th Place in Texas. Group members included  Isabel Poehlmann, Morgan Madsen, Olivia Cabrera and Allison Quiroz.

Temple's UIL One-Act Play team will compete in the UIL State Finals on Thursday, April 25 around 5:40 p.m. at the Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center, 5800 McNeil Dr., Austin TX 78729 (seats 1,500). The eight finalists are broken down into two sessions which begin at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are not available in advance and seats are not reserved. Tickets are available only on the day of the contest (beginning at 2:30 p.m.) at the PAC. You can buy tickets for both sessions at once. CASH ONLY. Adults $14 per session, Students $12 per session.

The school year began with 254 schools entered in the 6A one-act competition. Now, there are only eight schools remaining — and Temple is one of the eight!

Performance times are approximated. Shows run back-to-back in each session. Audience members may enter and exit only between shows.

SESSION ONE
    (1) 4:00 p.m. Pflugerville: Hendrickson High — The Caucasian Chalk Circle
    (2) 4:50 p.m. Keller: Central High — Medea
    (3) 5:40 p.m. Temple High — Baby with the Bathwater
    (4) 6:30 p.m. Houston: Carnegie Vanguard High — Things I Know to Be True
SESSION TWO
    (5) 7:30 p.m. Austin: Stephen F. Austin High — A Rosen by Any Other Name 
    (6) 8:20 p.m. San Antonio: Ronald Reagan High — I Never Saw Another Butterfly 
    (7) 9:10 p.m. Fort Bend: George Bush High — In the Blood 
    (8) 10:00 p.m. Arlington: Martin High — Dancing at Lughnasa

JUDGE'S BIOS — Critic judges will be Margaret Valenta-Davis, Jill Ludington and Charles Falcon

We have established a Go Fund Me page asking theatre alumni and friends to contribute an amount equal to their graduation year. For example, if you graduated in 2012, we are asking that you donate $20.12 (GoFundMe rounds it to whole dollars) to help give the students a memorable trip to state. CLICK HERE and help if you are able. The trip is April 23-25, so we need help quickly! (HINT: Set the TIP amount for GoFundMe to "other", and then enter zero.)

  CLICK HERE for the cast and crew information page. For the 27th year in a row, Temple's team has advanced from the district contest. No other UIL team at Temple High holds such a record. This will be the 4th time in the last five years that Temple has advanced to the state finals. Last year, Temple's entry (On the Verge)  placed 4th in the state, out of over 250 5A schools. This year, Temple is in the 6A classification.

The following article appeared on the front page of the Temple Daily Telegram on April 23, 2019.

Eight Temple students have advanced to the state finals in the annual UIL Theatrical Design Contest. This year's contest involved designs to produce Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in a way that it had not been produced before. The target audience for the design was specified as "children and the adults who love them." Results were announced March 15, 2019.

The student's work will be on display during the state one-act play contests, April 24-26, at the Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center. Oral critiques will be given on Friday, April 26, with the awards ceremony at 3 p.m. Awards are given for six places, and Temple competes in Division 2, which is 5A and 6A schools.

Temple's group entry will compete against 13 other schools in the division. The group included Isabel Poehlmann, Morgan Madsen, Olivia Cabrera and Allison Quiroz. The theme used was retro 1980s video games.

Set designers advancing to state included Ashlyn Farley (claymation theme) and Anthony Williamson (medieval dark fantasy). Costume designers included Brianna Alexander (whimsical, playful) and Rebecca Alley (bittersweet, texture of latex).

Competing against Temple's group team are Allen, Baytown Goose Creek, Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Keller, Laredo Alexander, Mansfield Legacy, Mission Veterans Memorial, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo North, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Southwest, San Antonio East Central, Taft, Texarkana Texas and Waco University. Previously, Temple's group team won the State Championship in 2008 (first year of the contest, winning against all Texas schools) and in 2014 (5A and 6A only).