The department has more than a dozen one-act-play district championships, countless regional and area awards, and holds last year’s trophies for state champion and best actor and actress.
“You go for it every year, but the planets have to be in alignment for it to happen,” said Natasha Tolleson, Temple High School teacher and one-act-play director. “You have to go through so many levels, you only have one judge and you’re up against every 5A high school in Texas.”
Last year’s show, “Ruthless,” featured the character Tina Denmark - a female character played by a male, Cory Kosel - doing anything to win the part of Pippi Longstocking in her elementary school’s version of “Pippi in Tahiti.”
“I think it was the right group of kids with the right play and we took major risks with it. We had boys in dresses,” Ms. Tolleson said. “Our lead character was supposed to be a 9-year-old little girl and it was a 16-year-old boy. I think you have to push the envelope.”
This year’s play is the comedy “Valhalla” that follows the lives of a young boy growing up in West Texas in the 1930s and the mad king of Bavaria in the 1800s.
“We are taking risks again,” Ms. Tolleson said. “I think it is very difficult scriptwise. We have two different worlds going on simultaneously and it’s a challenge to keep that going so it doesn’t confuse the audience.”
The discipline needed to stage the play was evident during a night rehearsal Feb. 21 that saw Ms. Tolleson held up in Houston during the scheduled practice time.
While left to their own devices, the students wasted little time calling roll and immediately running their lines. The choir director stopped by occasionally to check on the working students, but it really did not matter - they were going above and beyond on their own.
“That’s my expectation that they do it and it means enough to them that they will do it,” Ms. Tolleson said. “You hear so much negativity and bad things about high school kids and my experience is way on the other end of the spectrum because I work with incredible kids.”
Those “incredible kids” include a few seniors who have been with Ms. Tolleson and the theater department since day one of their freshman year.
Megan Foster is an example of the dedication and workmanship needed to prosper in the world of drama.
The actress went from playing the Cat in the Hat in “Seussical” to an old matriarch in a Tennessee Williams play and then straight into Sharpay in “High School Musical,” Ms. Tolleson noted.
“Megan is capable of playing lots of different roles,” Ms. Tolleson said. “She is a very, very strong presence on stage. You cannot help but watch Megan.”
Miss Foster plans to study theater at Brigham Young University; however, she sees her time on the stage as a stepping point to a yet undetermined future.
“I’m trying to take my life one step at a time and right now theater is what I love the most,” Miss Foster said. “I want to learn as much as I possibly can and see where that takes me.
“You don’t just have to be an actor. You always have options. It’s reading plays and reading all this great literature and learning about some of the most inspirational people that I’ve ever heard about and it’s become part of who I am and how I live.”
That way of life extends to another actor, Chris Greene, who credits the theater department with renewing his drive to be a success in school and on the stage.
“Honestly, theater saved my life,” Greene said. “I can say that I feel that were it not for this department I would have got my GED or finished early just to be out of this town, and I would have had nowhere to go. I need this world to thrive and it’s given me a direction and a goal.”
Greene plans on continuing his theater studies at Corpus Christi A&M and hopes to find a stage or screen to perform on and “if that doesn’t work I’ll be a high school theater teacher,” he said.
Props mistress Claressa Caswell stays out of the spotlight but is essential to the tone behind the scenes.
“Claressa is a good example of those kids that wear the black that run around backstage and make sure the shows happen,” Ms. Tolleson said. “She’s one of those unsung heroes of the group, for every performer you have to have more than one person backstage doing their costumes, lighting them and building the set.”
Miss Caswell doesn’t think twice about her role out of the spotlight because her job is another extension of the life she leads.
“I just live for it,” she said. “I’m in charge of every prop for the show. I help make them, decorate them, do everything with them. Everybody at school can’t believe we stay here so long, but it’s life. It’s what we do.”
Rachael Peterson was unable to perform in last year’s championship run due to other obligations but as her friend, Miss Foster, put it, “Rachael is talented with a great many things. She has too much to offer.”
“Rachael is one of those Renaissance children that is sort of good at everything,” Ms. Tolleson said. “Rachael is very savvy and understands humor real well. Comedy is so intellectually based and Rachael really gets it.”
Miss Peterson is the lone senior who does not intend to continue in her drama career outside high school, but she has learned a great deal from her time with the department.
“The people are phenomenal and they really become your family,” Miss Peterson said. “There is such a high standard in this department and we don’t just perform shows, we talk about them. There can be a lot of concepts about life in general and you need to understand that.”
Defending state champion actor Cory Kosel started his high school career as a “gung-ho band member and then someone convinced me to try out for ‘Seussical’ and I had a fun time doing that,” he said.
Even though he enjoyed the experience, he was not sure he wanted to continue with acting and it took a little prodding to get him on board with the play that would win him top honors.
“I was basically forced to come back,” Kosel said with a laugh. “I auditioned for ‘Ruthless’ and it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. I don’t really know how to describe it. I find it really hard to express myself and I think that acting really allows that outlet for me and it took me wearing a dress to find that out.”
Since Kosel is fairly new to the acting world, he seems to be making up for lost time.
“Cory takes reams of notes,” Ms. Tolleson said. “When I talk about different acting styles or different theories of acting or exercises or mention anything that he thinks he might need to know at some point, he writes it down.”
Ms. Tolleson also explained that Kosel has a special ability that has allowed him to excel more as a thespian.
“His honesty on stage is wonderful,” she said. “You see him think and you see the character, not the actor think. That’s a hard thing for a kid to do, to lose yourself in a role and Cory can do that.”
For the seniors, this year’s one-act-play is like a final curtain call. Their performances will continue away from high school and Ms. Tolleson hopes a few lessons will stick also.
“There are a couple things I try to instill in the kids,” Ms. Tolleson said. “That their capabilities are endless and we are able to start with nothing and then create anything we want. I try to teach them the importance of theater. If I can get them to respect themselves, respect other people and respect the art form and see the importance of it, I think that I’ve done my job.”
rrenfrow@temple-telegram.com
