This past weekend kicked off the Actors’ Attic Repertory Festival with performances of three different shows.

The best news is that it’s not over.

“The Wizard of Oz,” “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs” continue their success through this coming weekend with dozens of actors and actresses in the cast and crew and MaryBeth Babcock serving as director.

“The weekend went so well,” Babcock said. “The shows were so well-received.”

“The Wizard of Oz” is an “easy sell” because everyone knows the story, she said, but the other two were harder to sell because many people aren’t familiar with them.

“Even so, I was surprised by how many people came to ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ and ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs,’” she said.

Attendees of the past weekend’s shows were raving about the performances on the Columbia Theatre Project Facebook group, calling the shows “phenomenal” and “fabulous.”

“It’s very difficult to put three shows up at the same time because you have to change up the entire set,” Babcock said. “Technically, it’s very challenging. But it’s a really exciting two-week time where hopefully as it grows over the years, people will know it’s theater time in town.”

Her main goal as a director and a participant in these shows is to put on the best quality performances in two weeks using local actors and actresses.

“That’s kind of why I started doing this festival in the first place,” she said.

There are around 70 actors participating in “The Wizard of Oz,” seven actors in “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and 35 in the

cast of “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

“If there’s a lot of people in the cast, there’s a lot of people in the audience,” she said.

The Actors’ Attic has been a part of the Monroe County community since 2007 when Babcock directed “The Music Man” in Columbia.

She lived in Los Angeles as a working actress for 15 years but came back to the Midwest to raise her family.

Working with these shows over the years has been the most gratifying part of her acting career, she said.

“This has really just been the most fulfilling thing,” she said. “Nothing I did in L.A. compares to how great this has been.”

Babcock has appointed Illinois State University senior Emily Brutton as her assistant director. Brutton was valedictorian at Columbia High School and is studying theater education.

“I wanted her to start directing because her goal is to come back here and work with the Actors’ Attic,” Babcock said. “She’s been doing these camps with me for four years now and she’s just wonderful and talented.”

These three shows have only been in the works since early June, when auditions first took place.

“It was fast and furious from there,” she said. “We’re hoping for big crowds this weekend.”

For more information or to order tickets online, visit www.actorsactticcolumbia.org. Reserved tickets are $15 and general admission tickets are $12, with $10 tickets for students and seniors.

“The Drowsy Chaperone” will take place Thursday, Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 10 at 2 p.m.

“Brighton Beach Memoirs” will take place Wednesday, Aug. 6 and Friday, Aug. 8 at 7 p.m.

“The Wizard of Oz” will take place Saturday, Aug. 9 at 7 p.m.

All shows take place at Columbia Middle School.