Players by the Sea continues its 61st season with “Every Brilliant Thing,” a beautiful, immersive play about the small things that make life worth living. The play, making its Jacksonville premiere, invites the audience into an intimate story of love, loss and the small joys that make life meaningful. After their mother attempts to take her life, a young person begins compiling a list of everything brilliant about the world — ice cream, laughing so hard you snort, staying up past your bedtime. As she gets older, the list takes on new meanings and new forms shaped by relationships, setbacks and life’s unexpected challenges.
What begins as a child’s attempt to bring light into the darkness grows into something much bigger: a deeply personal way of making sense of the world and holding onto hope when it feels hardest to find. Through humor and honesty, the play becomes a life-affirming conversation about mental health and the extraordinary beauty found in the ordinary.
Written as a solo play, Players by the Sea’s production will feature two local actresses who will rotate performances: Lindsay Curry and Jillianne Tamillo. Both Curry and Tamillo are arts educators, administrators and theatre artists with a combined 30-plus years of storytelling across Northeast Florida stages. “Every Brilliant Thing” marks their return to the stage for the first time in nearly five years, following illustrious careers as directors and designers.
“This is a beautifully rare opportunity in Jacksonville,” said Players by the Sea Managing Director Bradley Akers. “Having two performers bring their own unique perspective and method of storytelling to the same script makes each performance more intimate and uniquely special.”
The experience doesn’t stop there. “Every Brilliant Thing” is presented in a nontraditional manner.
“For starters, the audience will sit on the stage at Players by the Sea, fully surrounding the performer,” said Akers. “The story unfolds through intentional audience involvement, and the importance of the audience seeing each other throughout the performance is paramount to the show’s success.”
Akers reassures audiences that participation is gentle, guided and voluntary.
“We hope audiences become so immersed and captivated in the way this story is told that they begin to see their own stories unfolding on the stage.”
With only 50-60 seats available per performance, this limited engagement offers a rare opportunity to experience the story up close.
As Players by the Sea continues its 61st consecutive season, its commitment to varied, bold storytelling that challenges and uplifts audiences reaffirms the theatre’s dedication to the community.
“My goal for Players by the Sea is that we continue bringing work to the stage that pushes our limits creatively, technically and in the ways that we approach live theatre. This experience-driven play supports all of those categories, and I invite anyone who’s been here and anyone who hasn’t been here to come be part of this experience,” said Akers.
“Every Brilliant Thing” performs select Thursdays through Sundays from March 13 through April 12. Seating is limited to 50-60 audience members per performance to maintain the intimacy and involvement required by the script.
Tickets start at $32 for seniors, students and members of the military, with $35 for general admission. The full performance schedule and more details can be found at the theatre’s website, playersbythesea.org.
