For theater connoisseurs in The Woodlands looking for downtown theater quality but not wanting to make the trip or pay theater prices, Class Act Productions has offered community theater performed by talented young actors from their own community for 16 years.

"I think Class Act just has an extremely high quality production," Class Act marketing director Christine Cherry said. "We do live music with a live orchestra at all of our live productions. The production value is as close as you're going to get to a downtown quality of theater."

The nonprofit theater organization features young actors primarily from The Woodlands area, although the actor base has grown to include students from Conroe, Spring, Klein, Magnolia and Tomball, Cherry said.

"Shrek: The Musical" just completed its run in February, but auditions are upcoming for "Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific" in April. The show is scheduled for July 11–13 and 18–20.

Staged at the Nancy Bock Center for Performing Arts at McCullough Junior High School, the theater organization focuses primarily on musical performances, Cherry said. The group usually performs four shows per year, with past productions including "The Sound of Music," "Best Christmas Pageant Ever," "Seussical," "Peter Pan" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

"We like to do a mix of classic theater pieces that are like Rodgers nand Hammerstein, but we also like to do more family-oriented shows," Cherry said. "It's such a great experience for the audience. I don't think anyone who goes to a Class Act production would walk away disappointed."

Although the shows mostly feature local student actors, she said the students are instructed by veterans of the theater industry and instructors who have worked with Class Act for years. The organization was originally founded in 1996 by co-founder Kathy Goodfellow and Executive Artistic Director Keith Brumfield.

"They formed it because they realized there just wasn't a lot of opportunities in The Woodlands to perform theater," Cherry said.

The organization has not only provided an outlet for local theater-goers but also for student actors. Cherry said thousands of students have been part of Class Act over the years, and as many as 200 are involved with the program at any given time. Both of her daughters are part of the program, and her daughter Devin, a junior at The Woodlands High School, wants to pursue theater professionally.

"I think there's so many things to be gained [from Class Act], [such as] confidence, poise and ability to speak in front of people, teamwork and being flexible," Cherry said.