By Denny Patterson
Like every other theater company in the world, South Florida’s New City Players has a mission to entertain audiences while telling a story. However, they always aim to go the extra mile.
Through transformative theater, New City Players values and commits to staging powerful and poignant works that are not only excellent, but emotionally engaging and challenging. Founded in 2016 by a group of artists, the company quickly became a staple within the Fort Lauderdale area, and it continues to grow and expand.
OutClique had the opportunity to connect with Producing Artistic Director Tim Davis, where he talks more about New City Players and its beginnings, future goals he hopes the company achieves, and what’s in store for the upcoming 2024-2025 season.
Denny Patterson: You have been New City Players’ producing artistic director since 2016. What have you enjoyed the most about working with this company so far?
Tim Davis: Oh, wow. I would say it’s the people I’ve met. I mean, it has truly become my community. I have built so much of my life around this company; trying to help it grow, producing shows, directing, and acting. I have met so many people and made so many deep friendships through being a part of the community, and that’s a central part of our mission. We want to create this sense of community, and we have an ensemble of artists that we work with on a regular basis. We get together on a regular basis and talk about what kind of shows we want to produce, what we want to do with the company in the future, and we sometimes do training courses together. The family aspect of the company is what I love the most.
Denny Patterson: How did the idea and concept of New City Players initially come to fruition? Why did you want to start this company?
Tim Davis: That’s a great question. The group of us who started the company years ago read this book called How to Start Your Own Theater Company, and the first sentence in the book said, ‘Why start your own theater company? It’s simple, so you can act.’ You know, being an actor is a tough gig. You’re running around to all these different companies hoping that someone sees something in you. There’s a lot of, and I don’t mean this in a pejorative sense, but there’s a lot of gatekeepers in the entertainment industry, and breaking into it can be tough. So, me and a few friends were just like, well, what if we became our own gatekeepers? Produce work that we want to be a part of and seize the means of distribution. So, it really came from a desire to artistically create the kind of work that we saw ourselves in and wanted to passionately do. Then, of course, we needed to learn about fundraising, marketing, and accounting. There’s so much more to this than just putting on a play, but I’ve certainly gained so many more professional skills since then and learned what I’m good at, what I’m not so good at, and what I need help with.
Denny Patterson: Can you tell us what’s in store for the upcoming 2024-2025 season?
Tim Davis: This will be a very exciting season, and it kind of has a historical throughline. The theme that we’re going with is “Eras Collide,” which someone has already pointed out, oh, like Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour.” Look, if that’s an association that’s going to be made and it helps us, then sure! Why not? (Laughs). But I was trying to find a way to capture the different periods of history that the season will take place in. The first thing we’re doing in September, it’s just for one weekend, is a short play festival. We have a community event that we do monthly, where we bring writers and actors together to create new short plays, so this is sort of the greatest hits of the plays that have been written at that event in the last year. They’re all by local playwrights, and they’ll be performed at General Provision Downtown, which is a historic building that’s gone through many iterations since the early 1900s. We’re going to integrate Fort Lauderdale history into that evening of short plays, so that’s this era that we’re exploring in our first production. Then the Christmas show is set in 1999, Christmas Eve, right before Y2K, and then All My Sons, the show after that, is set in 1947. It’s a post-war play. Lastly, our final show, Confederates, half of the play takes place in the mid-1860s following a rebel slave, and the other half takes place in contemporary times at a university following a Black female professor. We are traveling the expanse of many eras in our next season and really looking back so that we can look forward.
Denny Patterson: I’ve noticed that many productions are performed at different theaters like Island City Stage. Does New City Players not have its own venue?
Tim Davis: Tim Davis: We do not have our own venue yet. We have been renting Island City Stage for the last few seasons, and that’s where we’ll be with our three main stage productions next season. That is part of our strategic plan over the next few years. The number one thing, as tough as it is, everyone is like, we need our own space, and I agree. There’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing, where it’s hard to grow past a certain point. If you are not established in your own space, it’s like, how legitimate is this? It could go away if they don’t have their own space, but then how do you get your own space if you haven’t grown to a certain level and have the capacity to make that kind of investment? That’s our real strategic challenge over the next few years. We will eventually find our own venue.
Denny Patterson: Has theater and the performing arts always been your passion?
Tim Davis: Yeah, it has. I was bit by the bug pretty early. My parents wanted me to be well-rounded, and in eighth grade, I played in the band, I did sports, and I sang in the choir. They were like, if you audition for the school’s Christmas show, and if you get cast and sing a couple solo lines, we’ll give you $100. So, I auditioned, sang a few lines, and got $100! I always joke and say it was another 10 years before I was paid for acting (laughs). But after that, I auditioned for the spring musical and did theater throughout high school and college. I did my master’s in theater studies, and I’ve also pivoted to filmmaking in the last five years. I’ve been producing short films and some micro budget feature films, as well as directing and writing. That has become an additional passion of mine, but the theater will always be my first love and one I never want to leave.
Denny Patterson: What are some future goals you hope to see New City Players achieve in the next couple years?
Tim Davis: I would like to see us find our own venue and do more shows. We are doing the three main stages and the short play festival right now, but I’d love for us to produce four main stages a year. I just think it will give us an opportunity to tell more stories. So, those are the main goals, but on a more philosophical level, and this is probably on me more than anything, but I would love for us to get better at sharing our mission in a way that makes sense to people. Yes, there is an entertainment value to theater. People are paying a ticket price and we want to entertain them and give them an experience that is exciting and emotional to some degree, but what is the transformative element of theater? The experience we’ve had on several shows is we’ll have someone watch and say, ‘I’ve never seen my own experience put on stage before this. This was really special and amazing.’ And then we’ve had the exact opposite, which is ‘I didn’t know anything about this other experience and you’ve opened my eyes to someone else’s life.’ I think those two experiences are truly transformative for a community, both in seeing yourself represented and being exposed to other stories. It grows our compassion, empathy, and our ability to remember that there are other people in the world
For more information and to stay up-to-date with New City Players, visit NewCityPlayers.org.
