Or because she wanted to go shopping with her girlfriends.
Instead, she bypassed her classroom, walked to the music room, sat at the piano and started playing. Her teachers and classmates could hear her voice echoing through the pipes.
“I couldn’t stay away from music,” she said.
That was true then.
It’s still true today.
No wonder her fellow 2013 MCS graduates voted her “most likely to be famous.”
Temple, whose stage name is Mallory Georgia Marie, recently performed alongside Dolly Parton during Play On! Dollywood’s 40th anniversary celebration in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Now performing closer to home, Marie has the lead role in La Comedia Dinner Theater’s production, Legally Blonde: The Musical.
She’s a regular at La Comedia after making her debut there when she was 10. She has appeared in shows such as Footloose, The Marvelous Wonderettes, Disaster!, Saturday Night Fever, Charlotte’s Web, Miss Nelson Goes Missing, Ring of Fire, and All Shook Up.
She called performing at Springboro’s La Comedia, just up Interstate 75 from her hometown, “super special” because she doesn’t have to travel to theaters in New York or Los Angeles.
“I want to keep being creative,” she said this week while taking a break from rehearsals.
She said Elle Wood, the character she plays in the musical, is considered “a typical blonde” who others think is “just a little silly girl.”
So throughout the musical Wood tackles stereotypes and scandal in pursuit of her dreams to become a lawyer.
“She has some spunk in her,” Marie said. “There is an under story in there.”
When she’s on stage, Marie hopes the audience relates to the character that makes Wood “as human as possible.”
Other times when performing, she thinks of items to add to the grocery list, she said with a laugh.
“There is a fun balance,” Marie said.
After performing with Parton, whom she called a childhood heroine, Marie realized she was talented enough to sing on stage with one of the country’s most recognized stars.
“I was meant to be there,” she said. “I’m confident in that.”
It seems she was always meant for the show business. Her father, Shane Temple, is an accomplished musician and Marie was raised in a music studio.
When she was 2, her family sang at Middletown Nazarene Church on South Sutphin Street. She walked into the pulpit and sang, “Jesus Loves Me.”
As her mother, Lushelle Temple, said: “She never has shut up since.”
Her mother said watching her daughter’s performances, regardless of the venue, melts her heart.
“You see her living out her dream,” she said. “She gets to do what she loves to do.”
But the mother realizes the music industry can lead some performers down the wrong path. Fame can change a person. But she says her daughter is even more humble with maturity.
“She was grounded in the church,” her mother said. “She’s got a good handle on life.”
Marie, 30, has a 9-year-old son, G.T. Bryer, whom she had during a relationship that ended ugly, she said. She has a lot to say and hopes to tell stories through her songs.
She has released a single entitled, “Hold My Hand.”
Writing the lyrics was “a healing journey” after her failed relationship, she said.
In part, the song says: “They say I’m broken in two. Now I’d like to go through this life next to you. We don’t have to do this alone. Take my hand."
“I just want people to know how important they are to me and I hope they connect with me,” she said. “We need more of this in the world today.”
Columnist Rick McCrabb writes about local people and events every Sunday. If you have an idea for a story, contact him at rmccrabb1@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
WHAT: Legally Blonde: The Musical
WHEN: Sept. 18-Oct. 26
WHERE: La Comedia Dinner Theater, 765 W Central Ave., Springboro
TICKETS: 937-746-4554 or lacomedia.com
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