Even though staging shows during a pandemic is “twice as hard” as usual, Rick Kerby says he feels fortunate that the Manatee Players is able to keep producing while so many other theaters have shut down. “It does make me appreciate the fact that we’re able to do anything,” said Kerby, the producing artistic director of the Manatee Performing Arts Center, home to the Manatee Players community theater. “So many of my friends who run theaters across the country are shutting their doors or waiting it out. It makes us feel good about us as a company, promoting our actors and working to keeping a product going.”