Thespian Troupe #1966
Temple High School, Temple TX

Temple High School's UIL One-Act Play team advanced to the area contest from the district contest held Thursday, April 1, at the Cultural Activities Center in Temple. This is the 18th year in a row that Temple's one-act play team has been the district co-champion and advanced to area. No UIL team at Temple High holds such a record. A&M Consolidated was the other advancing team from our district. There are now only 64 schools (out of the original 255) left in the 5A one-act competition.

Trenton Schneiders was named the Best Actor in District 12-5A. Selected for the All-Star Cast were Maddie Kleypas and Gloria Matthews. Named to the Honorable Mention All-Star Cast were Kathryn Pasichnyk and Mikah Young. Temple's five-person crew (Anya Godigamuwe, James Roeder, Samantha Sheffer, Lexie Tankersley and Joel Williams) were selected at the Best Tech Crew in the district. Samantha Sheffer was named Temple's best techie.

Temple will compete at the Area Contest on Friday, April 9, at Cedar Park High School, 2150 Cypress Creek Rd., Cedar Park TX 78613. Admission is $5 per person. There will be a concession stand with drinks and snacks. (We've been notified that the concession stand will no longer include Chick-fil-A sandwiches, sausage wraps and pizza.) The contest manager is Mark Pickell.

The approximate performance times, schools and play titles include:
   4:30 -- Vista Ridge High School of Cedar Park, The Shadow Box
   5:20 -- Temple High, Degas in New Orleans
   6:10 -- A&M Consolidated, The Women of Lockerbie
   7:00 -- Leander High School, Picasso at the Lapin Agile

Critic Judge will be Terry Lewis, the Director of Theatre at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi. He has served as the Director of the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble and Theatre Arts Department Chair at Amarillo College. Mr. Lewis received his BA degree from Southern Utah University, his MA from Brigham Young University and his PhD from Texas Tech. He was named Community College Theatre Educator of the year in 1994 by the Texas Educational Theatre Association. His production of Breaking the Code was selected as the national winner of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.

Please remember that performance times are approximate. Performances begin at 4:30 p.m. and the plays run back-to-back (with Temple being the 2nd school to perform). Audience members may enter or exit only between plays. The contest manager anticipates the Awards Ceremony to begin around 9 p.m., with the judge's critique for each of the four schools following that. Two schools (out of the four) will advance to the Regional Contest at Baylor University, Friday, April 23.