“Hi! My name is Strawberry.”

That’s the first line Jada Temple ever uttered on stage. She was four years old and played a fairy in her elementary school’s performance of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

On Wednesday, Temple will grace Belk Theater on opening night of “WICKED,” the Broadway musical that explains what happened in the Land of Oz long before Dorothy’s farmhouse dropped in.

Temple, 27, grew up in San Diego and attended a performing arts school. At age 18, she moved to New York and got a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater.

Her “WICKED” journey began in 2018, when she first auditioned during her senior year in college. From then until 2024, she auditioned six or seven times before landing the role of Nessarose, one of the witches of Oz..

“That’s just how it goes in t

See Full Page