By Quinn O’Hara

For the past five years, ACT Clay County has entertained folks with plays performed and organized by locals for locals.

The group, whose name stands for A Community Theater, puts on two plays a year: a comedy in the summer, and a holiday themed production in the winter.

Jan Keim, ACT Clay County’s Director, said the group got its start six years ago after she partnered with The Rex Theatre’s Managing Director Reneé Langvardt.

“I have done drama in our church for many, many years and I’ve always had a desire to do community theater in the community. The opportunity came up maybe six years ago, I believe. Reneé and I got together, and we moved forward that next fall with the play. That’s how we got started. A lot of the people that I’ve worked with in drama in the past years are involved. We now have many others that [remain involved] whether they’ve done one play or whether they’ve been in almost all the plays we have done. We just continue to grow as people have found out about us,” said Keim.

Keim said ACT Clay County is run solely by volunteers who assist in creating props for, engineering, and acting in their plays. She said ACT Clay County plans to continue their twice-a-year productions and hopes to continue growing in number.