Players by the Sea

Players by the Sea has been staging live theater in Jacksonville Beach since 1966, giving it nearly six decades of history as a community theater in the area. The company operates out of its own building on North 6th Street, a short walk from Jacksonville Beach’s downtown core, and it has built its identity around a simple idea, that theater should be made by the community, for the community, using volunteer actors, directors, designers and crew members rather than paid professionals brought in from outside the area.

The theater produces a full season of shows each year, mixing familiar plays and musicals with newer or less frequently staged work, so both casual theatergoers and dedicated fans of live drama have reasons to keep coming back throughout the year. Because everyone involved, from the people building sets to the actors on stage, volunteers their time, ticket prices stay well below what a professional touring production typically costs, with general admission set alongside discounted pricing for seniors, students and military members. That pricing reflects the organization’s stated mission of keeping live theater accessible to as much of the beaches community as possible.

Beyond its mainstage productions, Players by the Sea also runs educational programs and workshops meant to give people of different ages a chance to learn the craft of theater, whether that means acting, technical work or the many other skills a live production requires. This educational side of the organization matters in a smaller coastal town like Jacksonville Beach, where formal opportunities to train in the performing arts are not as widespread as they are in a larger city, and it helps explain why the theater has stayed active through so many decades of change in the surrounding area.

The organization describes itself as artist driven, and that shows in how it approaches programming, favoring creative risk taking and a range of stories and perspectives rather than a narrow, predictable slate of crowd pleasers. Volunteers are welcome not just on stage but throughout the organization, and the theater regularly invites new members of the community to get involved, whether through auditioning, joining a production crew or simply becoming a regular face in the audience.

For residents and visitors looking for something beyond the beach and the boardwalk, Players by the Sea offers a genuine piece of local culture that has outlasted plenty of other businesses in the area. Its long run, its all volunteer model and its steady production schedule make it a dependable part of the arts scene in Jacksonville Beach, and its small, intimate feel is very different from what audiences find at larger regional theaters closer to downtown Jacksonville.