The Template class is quite flexible about how you create its members. What I would do, for readability, is code your template as an actual page element in the HTML, and then remove it on page load before using it to fill in your JSON.
<div id="template-1" class="#{classname}">
<h1>#{headline}</h1>
<p>#{description}</p>
</div>
<div id="articles"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
var tmp = $('template-1').remove();
tmp.writeAttribute('id',false);
var template = new Template(tmp.outerHTML);
// do whatever with it
$('articles').insert(template.evaluate(myJSON));
</script>
That should get you started. The major benefit of working this way is that you don't have to keep backslashing quotes and writing everything in one line, or bashing it together with + signs.