According to director Lynne Crowe of Sedona-based Potter’s Hand Productions, rehearsals are going well for this year’s production of “Esther! For Such a Time As This.”

“I think it’s these younger brains,” Crowe said, adding that 2015 brought an unusually young crop of actors in to make the live theatre a reality. In its third year at Tequa Festival Marketplace in the Village of Oak Creek, the original production brings together approximately 50 actors and a tech crew of 10 from all over the Verde Valley.

Potter’s Hand Productions bills itself as a “non-profit Christian Community Theatre Company,” but Crowe said that the organization’s productions are “for people from all walks of life.” Over the last 11 years, she and her peers have distinguished themselves as active participants in the greater Sedona community, drawing up to 1,500 people to their free three-day spring and Christmas productions.

“I don’t believe having to pay for something makes it professional,” Crowe said. “It’s the quality of the production …. We have a standard that is really high and we maintain it.”

Part of this standard, she added, is innovation. “Every three or four years, we have a new production.”

To read the full story, see the Wednesday, March 18, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.