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Florida Players is a student-run theatre company open to all @uflorida students.
Sponsored by @ufstudentgov.

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Join Florida Players and Shakespeare in the Park in a collab workshop this Wednesday!!

When: October 21st at 6:30pm
Where: Reitz Room 2315

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“Alas, poor yolk, I know thee well.” 🍳

A massive thanks goes to @floridaplayers and the Something Rotten! cast and crew for bringing this show to life. I am so happy that I got to be a part of the evening cast, it was a pleasure working with you all.

Thank you @rosa.y24 for putting this Bottom on Top!

Also, special compliments to @allyzcd for choreographing this show. This was some of the best choreo I’ve performed on stage! 💃🕺

Musical Direction 🎵:
@wyatt.thumbs.up
@miliekap

Shout-out for the amazing costumes 👗:
@rose_crochet_12
@lily__johnston

Photo Credits:
@_eva.badger_
@oooorileyyyb
@miliekap

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Scarlett!!!!

I’m so glad to have had an opportunity to direct my own play. I had such a great experience working with the cast and designers on this show, thank you for bringing my vision to life!

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Another great production from @floridaplayers! Congrats to everyone!!

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UF’s theatre facilities got their first major glow-up when the Constans Theatre opened its doors in 1967—but for more than three decades prior, starting with the Florida Players’ formation in 1931, thespian Gators made the magic happen with limited resources: lots of elbow grease and ingenuity, and the occasional rodent-nibbled prop housed in an HVAC-deficient barn.

Today #ufcota50 time travels back to 1962 when the Players’ design, rehearsal, and performance facilities were still scattered across campus: table reads in Tigert and Norman Hall classrooms, costume designers tucked away in a University Auditorium back room, and props production and storage in an old wooden dairy barn (formerly part of a “model farm” used by the agricultural college) that stood near the site that would later become the Architecture & Fine Arts Complex.

Since then, UF’s theatre scene has really moo’ved (🐄) up. The Theatre Department formalized in 1975 at the College of Fine Arts and was upgraded from the departmental level to become the School of Theatre and Dance (@ufsotd) in 2004. Today’s SOTD features dedicated costume and scene shops, a state-of-the-art lighting lab, and acting and dance studios that are utilized by @gatordesigntech, @ufacting, and @uf.dance.

Also(!)—the O.G. @uflorida thespians, the @floridaplayers, are still going strong nearly a century since their formation as a student-run club.

Image IDs:

1: Florida Players put up a sign on the old lofted barn Scene Shop advertising their production of Molière’s “Tartuffe” (1962)

📷🏚️: ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00045566/00001/images

2: Florida Players actors Sandra Belk and Dan Wilson in costume as Lady Elmira and the titular character Tartuffe. (The Alligator, May 8, 1962)

📷🎭: ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028291/02069/

3-4: Excerpts from The Alligator (March 1, 1962) reporting on the Players’ petition for improved facilities

📰: ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028291/02047/images/9

As always, shoutout to @uflib Digital Collections for making history accessible 🤓🫶

PS: we can’t wait to celebrate the ✨newly reopened Constans Theatre✨ with RENT, running October 15-26, 2025! Tickets are going fast, so go get ‘em asap. Details at @ufsotd 🎟️ Circa 1962 B&W photo of three people hanging a bespoke sign on the exterior of a two-story wooden barn with “Florida Players Scene Shop” hand-painted across the 2nd story wall. A person leans out a 2nd story window.

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Forgetting anything? 🤔

Just a reminder that self tapes for So Glad We Never Met are due this Monday, September 1, by 11:59 pm. ⏰

Want to audition? Follow the directions on the casting call google form in our bio. 📋

And contact producer Nadia Cox (nadiacx20@gmail.com) with any questions.

#SGWNMFilm #SoGladWeNeverMet #FloridaFilm #CastingCall #FloridaActors #FloridaActresses

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“Bus Stop”

A room full of strangers
Becomes a fool’s paradise
As love forces a voice from the restless
And joy from the desperate

A room like any other
But for the dreams we paint with minds
After the embers burn
The cool of the night stays

And the hearts we found along the way

Giving up something of themselves
Is the gift men are afraid to make
Kept in their bosoms forever
Knowing not love, but only it’s facsimiles

We are our characters in their lives
Our love, the story
And in the tale of it all
I hope I contribute a verse

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#ufcota50 shoutout to the “All Girl Light Crew” who ran the lights for the Florida Players’ May, 1960 production of “Teahouse of the August Moon” staged inside Norman Hall.

Prior to the construction of J. Wayne Reitz Union, where the Constans Theatre made its home in 1967, Florida Players facilities were scattered across campus. From the 1930s until the construction of the Constans, Players rehearsals took place in classrooms at Tigert Hall and Norman Hall; costume design was in a back room at the University Auditorium, and sets were constructed in the Players’ Scene Shop—a rickety, loft-style wooden barn.

We wish we knew these gals’ names so that we could recognize them properly for stepping up to the challenge of lighting the “arena style” production of “Teahouse.” The six-show run featured a 29-member cast—including a newborn goat, whose name we actually 𝘥𝘰 know…

Her name was Lady Aster 🐐 👑

Sadly, we cannot find any photos of a Jeep parked in Norman Hall, so we’re just going to have to take the Alligator’s word for it.

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Image credits: Courtesy of UF Archives (@uflib)

📸 Florida Players light crew for Teahouse of the August Moon:
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00030061/00001/images

📰 Clippings from The Florida Alligator:
May 6, 1960 edition:
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028291/01942/citation
May 10, 1960 edition:
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028291/01943/citation Black and white photo (1960) of four women standing in a backstage area with theatre lighting equipment. They are wearing matching sweatshirts that say “France Hill’s All Girl Light Crew.”

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🔔👖 Bell-bottoms alert! Today’s #ufcota50 throwback is an early 1970s photograph taken outside the Constans Theatre at the Nadine McGuire Theatre and Dance Pavilion, home of UF School of Theatre + Dance.

Named after @floridaplayers founder Henry Philip (H.P.) Constans, the theatre first opened in November 1967 to a packed-house production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Swipe to see vintage Alligator news clips from opening night!

Image Credits: Courtesy of UF Archives.

📷 Constans Theatre photo archive link:
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/uf00034591/00001

📰 The Florida Alligator, Nov. 16, 1967 archive link:
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028291/02725/

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In honor of UF COTA’s 50th anniversary, we’ll be diving into the @uflib archives and sharing College of the Arts history throughout the year.

Check back with us on Thursdays for more #ufcota50 Black and white photograph of two women walking by a bicycle rack in front of the Constans Theatre at UF’s Nadine McGuire Theatre and Dance Pavilion.

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i would eat his heart in the marketplace ❤️‍🩹

i am going to miss playing beatrice SO much it is unbelievable. she is such a strong, witty, and loving woman and i thank willy shakes for writing her because playing her has been the biggest honor. im especially emotional because this was my first shakespeare and ANI’S FIRST SHOW!!! thank you so much to this cast and crew for making it such an unforgettable experience, i love you all so much. 🫶🫶🫶

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it’s one hell of a drug!!! 🐊

great first year in the swamp, see y’all in the fall! 🫶

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“We’re not friends, we’re family! Now let’s get this wagon into that ragging river” - Mother, Trail to Oregon, onstage April 19th-21st

When I first started acting I was terrified of improv. I remember dreading the days when conversations would be structured in “yes, and?” Always hoping my partner would carry the scene. In fact, the only thing I found scarier than improv was comedy.

This past weekend I tackled both while being in @floridaplayers Trail to Oregon!
A show characterized by never ending ad libs, insanely cool masks, lots of dysentery noises, and some of the best cast and crew I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.

Last time I was in a show I thought I may never step foot on stage again. Now, I know that not to be true, I’ve found a family in the @floridaplayers and once again theatre has become my second home <3

Till next time, happy trails,
The Liberal Agenda/ Megatron/ Booster/ Mommy Milkers

(^All the names I had during the run)

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