Opening night had arrived, and the theater students of Dougherty High School were ready for their big debut. For months, they’d been rehearsing their stage production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, a comedy centering on five bridesmaids at an ostentatious wedding reception. They were nervous, but giddy—for many of the teens at the school in Albany, Georgia, this was their first time being in a play. They’d been through a lot recently—cast members were struggling with family tragedies and financial issues—yet their drama teacher Christen Taylor believed what they brought to the stage was “magic.”

That evening, though, nobody showed up to see them.

“Tonight, not a single adult came, except my mom,” Taylor posted on Facebook on Dec.2, after the show. “Not one family member, cousin, no faculty, no one. Cast and crew were so discouraged. Broke my heart.” She wrote that she went home and cried.

Taylor’s friend Josh Powers (Reddit user

The word spread through social media.

Then, when the cast came back to do their next shows, this happened.

One-hundred-forty people—mostly strangers from the Internet—attended the final performance. Taylor was speechless.

“Doors opened and people started streaming in,” she wrote in another Facebook post. “A friend of mine bought flowers for the entire cast. … The house was completely full. Students were having to stand up. … Intermission hits and I’m putting out more chairs. Audience is buzzing and talking about how much they love the cast and how great they are doing. I check on the cast members and their eyes are sparkling with fear and pure joy. ‘Ms. Taylor, did you hear them? They love us.'”

At the end of the performance, the cast members were in tears as they received a standing ovation.

Theater is not funded program at Dougherty High, a low-income school, and the stage production was paid for by Taylor herself. She would buy what she could within pay periods, ask for items on Facebook, haul in props from her house and go to Walmart for concession snacks and scenery decorations.

For Taylor, the image of the standing-room only crowd will stay with her always. “I am still in awe with the talented students I work with,” she wrote. “There is magic that happens on that stage. These students have incredible chemistry, natural ability and great inclinations. I am so thrilled that so many of you know what I now know. My heart can be at peace.”