TEMPLE, Texas — Twenty-four Temple High School Theatre Arts students qualified to advance to national competition after receiving superior ratings at the Texas Thespian contest last month. The students competed in the contest during the organization’s annual convention November 19-22nd in Grapevine.
Students earning superior ratings (the highest possible rating) during the competition qualified to advance to national competition. Temple High School qualified a group musical theatre dance team made up of Lauren Porter, Lydia Livesay, Coileuis Davis, Zailey Ward, Alana Hollub, Melody Preachers, and Cy’Niya Smith. The ensemble acting team of Joshua Bastin, Lillyan Goodwin, Leah Preachers, Christian Yepez, Kyrah Clements, Asha Raju, Edwyn Manriquez, and Callen Hildenbrand also qualified for nationals.
Other Temple High School students qualifying for nationals include Renee Golladay and Adrian Lopez for duet musical, Major Linzy and Jered Wozniak for duet acting, Nathan MacCurdy and Ellora Rounds for short film, Avery Morris in contrasting monologues, Junius Thompson in playwriting, and Michael Walters for lighting design.
“We brought home more national qualifiers this year than we have in the past several years, so I am really happy with that,” said Kayla Stewart, director of Temple High School Theatre Arts. “They worked really hard to get there and were doing all of that while we were also rehearsing for our next show. Our kids have so much self-discipline and worked tirelessly to put things together for the convention. They are very good at multi-tasking and do a great job.”
In addition to the national qualifiers, Temple High School was also recognized with the All-Star Troupe Award and took second place in the team tech challenge during the convention.
The Temple High School Theatre Arts Department will return to the stage with a three-day run of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: The Musical” from December 5-7th. Tickets for those shows are available at CentralTexasTickets.com.
More than 10,000 students attended the Texas Thespians Conventions in Grapevine and Corpus Christi this year. The Temple national qualifiers will also be recognized at an upcoming meeting of the Temple ISD Board of Trustees.