What is JaxPlays?
JaxPlays is your front-row seat to the dynamic world of theatre in Jacksonville and beyond into all of Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. As the ultimate directory for live performances, we keep you tuned in with our all-encompassing Live Theatre Calendar, spotlighting shows at professional, community, and college venues. But we don’t stop at what’s playing now; delve into our rich archives to discover the storied past of local productions. JaxPlays is your indispensable guide to the area’s theatrical tapestry.
Why is JaxPlays?
Our mission is to:
- Preserve the rich history of live theatre in Jacksonville, Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia,
- Promote the region’s vibrant theatre scene in the present, and
- Fuel the future of live theatre in the area
JaxPlays is not just a historical archive; we’re a dynamic hub for everything related to live theatre in the area.
Where is JaxPlays?
We cover all professional, community, and college live theatre within a 40-mile radius of Jacksonville, Florida. This spans multiple counties in Florida and Georgia. If your favorite theatre isn’t listed, let us know!
Who is JaxPlays?
In November 2019, Ray Hollister faced a problem many theatre enthusiasts in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia know all too well: the absence of a one-stop source for all things live theatre.
Struggling to keep tabs on upcoming shows required endless clicks through various websites and social media feeds. On top of that, tracing an actor or crew member’s career involved a dusty dive into mountains of playbills. Recognizing these as common challenges, he conceived JaxPlays—a streamlined hub aimed at alleviating both issues.
The journey wasn’t straightforward. Though the project went on hiatus due to the global upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was far from forgotten. Resuming in 2022, the platform underwent multiple evolutions, switching gears from MediaWiki to Wordpress, from Wordpress to Jekyll, and finally settling on Hugo as the technological backbone.
Realizing that the vision for JaxPlays should be a community endeavor with longevity that surpassed his own involvement, Ray brought together a circle of like-minded theatre aficionados.
In September 2023, the project matured from a passion project into a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, complete with a committed board of directors:
- President & Executive Director: Ray Hollister
- Vice President: Jo El Snyder
- Treasurer: Robert Snyder
- Secretary: Amber Hollister
We welcome your contributions and expertise as we aim to make JaxPlays the definitive resource for live theatre in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.
Editorial Independence
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.
Financial Support
JaxPlays is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. If you would like to support our mission, please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Your contribution helps us maintain and improve our platform, ensuring that we continue to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on live theatre in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.
Contact Us
If you have any inquiries, comments, or feedback email us at contact@jaxplays.org.
Disclaimer: JaxPlays leverages the capabilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT for drafting articles and processing data. However, the human touch remains essential to us. Each piece is thoroughly reviewed, edited, and revised by our author to ensure it aligns with our standards and voice. We, at JaxPlays, take full responsibility for the content published on our platform.
We strive for accuracy in all our publications. If you spot an error or misrepresentation of facts, we urge you to contact us at contact@jaxplays.org. Your input helps us maintain the highest level of accuracy and continually improve the quality of our content.