Brian Niece, Artistic Director, Lumen Repertory Theatre

In an interview with Invest:, Brian Niece, Artistic Director of the Lumen Repertory Theatre, attributed the theater’s success to fair pay and nurturing emerging talent. He also discussed strategies to address challenges related to venue accessibility and financial constraints.

What have been some of the main highlights and achievements for the Lumen Repertory Theater in the last 12 months?

In the last 12 months, we have completed our inaugural full season. We have secured significant corporate and private funders, including multi-year gifts. Having run nonprofit arts organizations before, I know that securing such support typically takes around five years, so having done it in our second year is a significant and great success. We also brought in a nationally recognized guest artist for our 2024 summer production, SLOW BURN, which resulted in a highly successful run. 

Furthermore, we are having  conversations to premiere a new play by a well-known Hollywood and New York writer, director and producer. This individual has taken an interest in our work and wants to debut this piece through us, with the hope that it will have a life beyond Jacksonville, possibly moving to Hollywood or New York. We have made both artistic and business connections that I did not anticipate within our first two years. Additionally, we have employed over 25 local and out-of-state professionals in the field, compensating them fairly. This is the primary reason we started this company — to provide real money, real dollars and real resources to artists working at a professional level, which we’ve accomplished. 

What are some initiatives or measures you have implemented to attract and retain talent, and how do these contribute to achieving the theater’s overall mission?

A significant part of our mission is to cultivate emerging professional talent and maintain stable working relationships with established professionals. This is twofold: we focus on local talent, particularly since there was no established professional theater company in Northeast Florida until we came along. Many individuals have professional-level talent but have never had the opportunity to work at a professional level. We employ them, whether they are actors, designers, stage managers or technicians, and provide them with guidance from our established staff, including myself and some of our out-of-state team members, to help them improve their craft.

We also use data-driven methods to measure our success in this area. For instance, we analyze our budget to determine what percentage goes directly to salaries and benefits for personnel. From the start, we decided that a minimum of 50% of our earned and unearned income would go directly to people. In our first year in 2023, 68% of our income went directly to personnel and for 2024, we are on track to be close to that percentage again. Beyond data, we rely on feedback from those who work with us, especially those who have worked with us multiple times, to ensure we are maintaining a positive and supportive environment. This feedback is anecdotal, but it is crucial for understanding how real people feel about the work we are doing.

What are the main opportunities for the arts sector in Jacksonville?

The opportunity for growth lies in collaboration and synergy among arts organizations. Beyond that, there is potential for collaboration between the arts and various businesses across Northeast Florida. For example, Jacksonville has a large sports industry, but there is not much crossover between the arts and sports. Even though, from a business perspective, arts, sports and entertainment are often seen as part of the same package, we as a city have not found ways to integrate them yet, especially on a professional level. Jacksonville has multiple professional sports teams and organizations, alongside a professional symphony, a couple of professional dance companies, our professional theater, and a film sector that is gaining international recognition. 

I believe there is a great opportunity for crossover between these disciplines and organizations.

What are some of the challenges that you foresee?

The challenge, particularly in theater or live performance arts, is related to the rise of automated intelligence (AI). Live theater is one area where AI hasn’t taken over as real humans, and bodies are essential. However, this uniqueness underscores the need for spaces that support professional performing arts. In Jacksonville, while there is support for culture and the arts, many venues remain underutilized due to financial and logistical barriers.

Furthermore, a key challenge is educating city officials and organizations, business leaders about the value of investing in people rather than physical spaces. There are some beautiful city-owned theaters that are typically used for one-night musical acts or jazz performances. While these venues are aesthetically pleasing and functionally suitable, the real challenge lies in the bureaucracy and restrictive access that comes with using them.

As such, many spaces remain unused 75% of the year, yet they could be utilized through collaboration with cultural organizations to create events that thrive on live, human interaction. The focus should be on making these spaces more accessible to arts organizations, especially nonprofits.

For example, some venues offer rent-free space, which sounds promising, but the catch is the minimum wage payment for our numerous staff members — front-of-house, stagehands, ushers and concessions workers to name a few. As a professional company that values fair pay, we face a significant financial burden where we are in effect spending tens of thousands of dollars for a single four-to six-hour use of the space.

To put this into perspective, a small production might cost around $25,000. If $10,000 is spent on personnel for just one performance, that eats up over a third of our entire budget. Successful theater runs require multiple performances to build word-of-mouth and audience reach, but the financial constraints make this difficult. 

Additionally, many of these spaces are tied to Ticketmaster, which takes 30% of the ticket price for processing fees — a significant hit for nonprofits. While we might afford two performances, this is not viable when we need at least seven or eight shows to be effective.

Looking ahead to the next two to three years, what would success look like for your theater, and what are some of your priorities, plans, and strategies?

First, we have already debuted two new pieces, and I would love for a piece we create to have a life beyond Jacksonville. Whether that means making the circuits of theater festivals internationally, being performed off or on Broadway, or being adapted into another format like film.t would be a significant achievement for Lumen Repertory Theater to debut a piece that gains recognition elsewhere.

Secondly, I would like us to have a core group of creatives — perhaps three or four actors, one stage manager and one set designer — who are contracted for an entire season. They would know they can depend on this work for a certain number of weeks, which would allow  them to schedule other projects around it. This would put Jacksonville on the map for professionals, as they would know that Lumen Repertory Theater offers seasonal contracts, guaranteeing work for a significant portion of the year.

Third, I would like to see the beginnings of a real performance space, ideally a collaborative space that we share with other disciplines. Jacksonville needs a Performing Arts Center, not just in name but in reality, with rehearsal spaces, offices, educational resources and performance spaces for various arts — visual, performing and film.

Finally, I would like our corporate sponsorship to account for at least 50% of our unearned income. This would mean that businesses in Jacksonville recognize the value of investing in the arts and understand that by doing so, they are investing in people and helping to put Jacksonville on the national cultural map.