Before we launched 913 in December 2011, several colleagues and I at The Star attended focus groups of readers to talk about what you wanted in a new Johnson County publication.

Much of what we heard helped us make tweaks here and there and reinforced our plan to offer a broad range of topics and a mix of local news, living, business, sports and opinion coverage. Readers offered story ideas and cultural communities we should look into.

We were struck by several readers’ mention of community theater.

And that brings us to today’s cover story. A year and a couple of months later, we give you The Barn Players, a longtime theater group based in Mission.

Star reporter Melissa Schupmann goes behind the curtain to give us the ins and outs of community theater. Melissa brings us the stories of those whose dreams come alive on a community stage, how they work together on a shoestring budget and form a family.

Her well-told story and the photographs of Keith Myers and Susan Pfannmuller illuminate a subculture in Johnson County, one we know of and have probably visited, but that most of us don’t know.

And that’s what we strive to do here at 913 with each story, each column and photograph: illuminate our community.