The Abandoned Act

The theater community is alive and vibrant throughout many corners of the world. From The West End in England to Boadway in New York City and even your own home town community theaters there is a passion to be found for the performing arts. 

These many theaters can come in un orthodox ways adding an unique environment for the show to go on. This is the case for The Actors Charitable Theater, or “The ACT”, in Tuscaloosa Alabama. 

The ACT is a community theater organization for all ages of actors. Founded in 2008 by artistic director Joey Lay, the group has put on shows of all kinds and sizes. Previous seasons have featured shows like “Mary Poppins” and “Seussical,” with the organization also putting on various “Youth Series” and theater camps. In accordance with the mission of The ACT, a portion of each show’s ticket profits is donated to a charity in the Tuscaloosa community.

What sets this theater apart from the rest is not its feature performances but rather where it chooses to display them. While other theater companies would opt to stage a show in a more traditional theater, The ACT has gone another route, setting up shop in the Abandoned former Holt High School.

(Picture courtesy of theact.online)


Built from the ground up in the remains of the school’s old auditorium, The ACT made its move to this new venue immediately following the shutting down of the school in 2020 due to the pandemic. The already struggling school was unavoidably closed as community resources were stretched thin during the pandemics early months.  

video from @theACTofTTown on YouTube

Holt High School had a rich history within the town as the original school burned in 1929 and in 1941 the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education rebuilt Holt High School at 3801 Alabama Avenue. As the community grew, two annexes were added to the school in the 1960s.  The Paul Singleton Area Career Technical Center was added to the school in 1974. Students from other schools in the county received training in welding, auto mechanics, and masonry. The school even underwent a $2,000,000 renovation during the summer of 2006.

As of now The ACT does not have ownership of the entire school and is limited to the auditorium they have renovated. However, images were captured of the school. Once lively and crowded hallways are now only filled by an eerie feeling of loneliness and silence. Empty classrooms, raided libraries and leftover school supplies is all that is left to inhibit the school as it is forever frozen in time while it stands leaving a haunting feeling over the town for future generations.