Three cast members took individual honors as well. Cory Kosel, who plays Tina Denmark, was named best actor for high schools, and he also won the prestigious Samuel French Award, which goes to one performer each year from 5A high schools. Kosel received the award from a representative of Samuel French, a major theatrical publishing company.
Emily Kleypas, who plays Judy Denmark and Ginger DelMarco, was named best actress for 5A high schools.
Megan Foster, who plays talent agent Sylvia St. Croix, was named to the state honorable mention all-star cast. She is one of eight students to be named to the group.
“You go and you hope,” said Natasha Tolleson, sponsor of the group. “And we took a big risk with the type of show we did. It was a highly stylized comedy.”
Tolleson and Greg Stanley, Temple High theater arts instructors, directed the show.
“Ruthless!” is a comedy about the lengths to which people will go to get what they want in life. The show is a parody of such productions as “The Bad Seed,” “Mommie Dearest,” “All About Eve” and “Gypsy.”
Young Tina Denmark (Cory Kosel) knows she was born to play Pippi Longstocking in her elementary school’s version of “Pippi in Tahiti.” She will do anything to win the part, including eliminating her competition.
“We had a cross-gendered show. We had boys in dresses. One of the parts called for that, but we had other parts cross-gendered, too,” Tolleson said. “And Temple is a small 5A school. We were in competition with big city 5A schools from San Antonio and Houston. That makes it even more special.”
Also, the play had never been done before in UIL, Tolleson said. The school had to get permission from an agent in New York to perform it.
“It’s such an accomplishment just to get to state (competition), but to actually win the championship, is such an achievement, I just can’t tell you how proud I am of these kids,” she said.
Tolleson said much of the group’s success is due to its working together.
“They are such a team. And they have such a love for each other. They were just all holding their breath, hoping they (the individual actors) would win the awards.”
Tolleson said they would check the school calendar and schedule a state championship final performance of the show in the high school auditorium.
This is only the third time in the school’s history to compete at the state contest, and the first time Temple has won the state championship.
Temple last advanced to state in 2001 when it was named second runner-up for “The Marriage of Bette and Boo.” The only other time was in 1928 when Temple also was second runner-up.
Critic judge for the state contest was Dr. Terry Lewis, director of theater at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.
Lewis told the group that the show was “engaging from the beginning to the end.” He complimented the comedic timing of the show and maintaining the style all the way through.
“I didn’t want to miss a thing,” Lewis said, “so I didn’t write down much during the show.”
