A New Stage, A New Horizon: Arts Collective Theatre Lights Up Jacksonville
By Rick Blasi
Something new is happening in Jacksonville theater โ and you can see it from the farthest row.
Arts Collective Theatre is open, and at the heart of the venue is a new innovation: a stage-wide LED screen that fundamentally changes what a set can be. Instead of static flats and painted backdrops, scenery moves, breathes, and shifts in real time alongside the performers. A Paris nightclub becomes a hotel suite in the space of a breath. Light, image, and live performance work together rather than in sequence. It is an open horizon for designers and directors, and for audiences it simply feels like magic.
The venue exists because two people believed Jacksonville deserves it. Entrepreneurs Jeremiah Carlson and Julie Harrington are investing their passion, their vision, and their financial resources to build a home for innovative work like this โ a serious commitment to the cityโs artistic future.
Bringing that vision to the stage is Creative Director Lee Hamby, whose inaugural production of Victor/Victoria is proving exactly what the space can do. Working with an enormously talented and volunteer cast and crew whose dedication shows in every scene, Hamby delivers a production that is as visually inventive as it is warm, funny, and human. Packed houses. Rave reviews. A standing-room energy that says a community has been waiting for this.
This is only the first show. The horizon just got a lot wider.
Arts Collective Theatre โ Jacksonville, FL
Follow along for whatโs coming next.