Thespian Troupe #1966
Temple High School, Temple TX

Temple was named one of two advancing schools at the Regional One-Act Contest held Friday, April 23, at Baylor University in Waco. The other advancing school was Carrollton Creekview High School (A View from the Bridge). Temple will be one of eight schools (the Elite Eight) to compete at the state contest at Bass Concert Hall in Austin on Saturday, May 8.

This is the third time in the past four years that Temple has advanced to the State Finals. In 2007, Temple won the State Championship with Ruthless! In 2008, Temple was named 2nd runner-up with Valhalla. In 2009, Temple was the alternate school at regionals to go to the State Finals.

Gloria Matthews was named the Best Actress in the Region (one of only four such awards given in the entire State of Texas). Trenton Schneiders was named to the Regional All-Star Cast (one of 32 in Texas) and Mikah Young was named to the Regional Honorable Mention All-Star Cast (one of 32 in Texas).

The 5A Conference started the year with 255 schools in the one-act contest. Now we're down to the Final Eight schools. Here is the performance order on Saturday, May 8, at Bass Concert Hall in Austin:

SESSION ONE -- 4 p.m.
    (1) Temple High, Degas in New Orleans
    (2) Atascocita High (Humble), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
    (3) Ball High (Galveston), Equus
    (4) Keller High, Richard III
SESSION TWO -- 7:30 p.m.
    (5) Central High (Keller) (News Release) (Facebook), Glory Days
    (6) Brandeis High (San Antonio), After Juliet
    (7) Austin High (Austin), Reckless
    (8) Creekview High (Carrollton), A View from the Bridge

Temple will have a "Send-Off" Performance at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, in the Temple High School Auditorium. Tickets are $5 per person and will be sold at the door only. The team leaves for Austin the following day.

At Bass Concert Hall, tickets are sold by "session." Tickets are $10 student and $12 adult for each session. After the 4th show is performed, the entire audience is required to exit the seating area and then those with tickets can re-enter from the other side of the building.

The critic judge at the state contest will be Perry Crafton, director of theatre at West Texas A&M University in Canyon. Crafton holds an MFA in acting/directing from the University of Arizona (Tucson) and a BFA in acting from Sam Houston State University. During high school, he competed twice in UIL one-act play at the state level. Crafton has been a one-act play judge since 1997, and judged the AA state meet in 2004 and the A state meet in 2006.

CLICK HERE for more information, including Cast, Production Staff and Production Photos

CLICK HERE for Regional photos posted to Facebook. (Also posted to our Snapfish group.)
CLICK HERE for YouTube Videos from the Regional Contest.