Widely regarded as the founding text of Western tragedy, Sophocles' Antigone has spoken to every generation that has ever weighed conscience against the law. Lumen Rep's ANTIGONE: UNMASKED is a new contemporary adaptation, written and directed by Brian Niece*, that transplants that ancient reckoning into an unnamed country close enough to recognize. Staged across three distinct playing spaces, an elevated platform of official power, a threshold ramp of negotiation and witness, and a circle of truth and human consequence, the production folds the audience into the story as citizens of the country onstage, watched over by a masked chorus of apprentices who never quite look away.

In the wake of a civil war, a leader has mistaken order for justice, and a woman has decided that her brother's body will not go unburied, whatever the law says. As the state moves to make an example of her, the play widens into unnerving and deeply human territory, asking what a community owes its dead, what it owes its truth tellers, and how easily the machinery of order can come to matter more than the people inside it. And it raises the question underneath every version of this story ever told: what does it cost to say the truth out loud?

WRITTEN BY Brian Niece

ABOUT THIS PRODUCTION

All performances will be held at Betsy Lovett Hall, The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, 1100 Stockton St, Jacksonville, FL 32204. Dates and times are listed below.

Thursday, October 8 – 7:30 PM – Pay-What-You-Can Preview (donations accepted at the door)
Friday, October 9 – 7:30 PM – Opening Night – Our Blue Carpet Premiere, with post-show Afterglow and champagne toast
Saturday, October 10 – 7:30 PM
Thursday, October 15 – 7:30 PM
Friday, October 16 – 7:30 PM
Saturday, October 17 – 7:30 PM
Sunday, October 18 – 2:00 PM Matinee, with post-show Talkback “The Weight of the Law: A Conversation on Truth and Complicity”
Thursday, October 22 – 7:30 PM, NEXTGEN Night, with a post-show talkback for students focused on professional theatre-making and careers in the field
Friday, October 23 – 7:30 PM
Saturday, October 24 – 7:30 PM

The Afterglow follows every performance. It’s a time to grab another drink or snack, talk or listen, as we share about what we’ve just experienced.

WRITTEN BY Brian Niece, PhD*

DATES/TIMES & LOCATION

DIRECTION

Brian Niece, PhD*

CAST

Noah Bennett
Maggie Cox*
Eugene Lindsey
Zonnetta Marie
Kate McManus

APPRENTICE COMPANY

Dev Acharya
Jessica Coleman
Logan Everson
Kirstyn Lewis
Valeria Santiago

NEXTGEN STUDENT ASST. DIRECTOR

Jocelyn Smith

STAGE MANAGER

Faith Rautter

ASST. STAGE MANAGERS

Kylie Kall
Julie Nolasco

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Joshua Britton Andrews

HOUSE MANAGER

Grace Bryan

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

TICKETS

CREATIVE TEAM

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Tyler Hammond

CONCEPT VIDEOGRAPHY

Gregory Minton

LIGHTING DESIGNER

James Tucker

SOUND DESIGNER

Brian Niece*

PROP DESIGN

Claire Cimino

COSTUME DESIGNER

Laurén Paragallo

DIGITAL MEDIA

Joshua Britton Andrews

SEASON PARTNERS

Text black on white background reading 'Preston & Joan Haskell' with 'Haskell' in bold.

SHOW SPONSORS

WITH MAJOR SUPPORT FROM

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Limelight Theatre
River City Productions
Drew Frericks
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd

A NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR

For roughly 2,400 years, Antigone has asked every audience the same question: what will you risk to tell the truth out loud? And where you tell it matters: in the open, in front of power, knowing exactly what it will cost. Sophocles’ ancient play has a rich history of being revived, adapted, and updated throughout the centuries. Each time, audiences heard the question as their own. I suspect you will too.

Why Antigone, Why Now

I won't tell you what this play is about in 2026. You likely already know. What drew me back to Sophocles was less the clash between a young woman and a ruler, than the quieter story underneath it: two sisters who love each other completely and still cannot stand in the same place. Much of my scholarly life has been spent thinking about friendship, about what it means to see another person in their particularity rather than as an idea of them. Ismene is often played as the cautious one, the sister who failed. I don't believe that. I think she is the one who has to keep living, and her love for Antigone is one of the bravest things in our play, along with several other moments of bravery.

Writing and directing the same piece is a strange privilege. This is a new play, one that Sophocles made possible, and I wrote it for this company and this city, though it won't stay only ours for long. We’ll seek publication after this run, and peers around the country are already asking to produce it. Long before it reached the rehearsal room, the director in me cut more of the playwright's lines than he ever would have allowed anyone else to, and the play is better for it.

The Voices

This is a story that turns on women's voices: Antigone's refusal, Ismene's plea, and a Chorus that watches, remembers, and testifies. Power in this play keeps trying to decide who may speak and who must be silent. I'd invite you simply to listen for who is heard, who is interrupted, and who keeps speaking anyway.

How We Tell It

You'll notice the stage is quite bare, and that is a choice. There are three playing spaces: a power platform, a witness ramp, and a truth circle. Each is stripped of ornament. When there is nothing to hide behind, every choice an actor makes is exposed, and so is every choice a character makes.

Watch who wears a mask, and watch for the moment it comes off. In our telling, unmasking marks the point of no return, the moment a character can no longer pretend. Antigone barely wears one.

Sound carries the other half of the story. The score includes trip-hop, contemporary piano, hard-edged rock, and it is supplemented by some original scoring and soundscapes. In some places, the music says what the characters cannot.

The Company

None of this exists without the artists in the room. Zonnetta Marie, Maggie Cox, Kate McManus, Noah Bennett, and Eugene Lindsey, Jr. have given these characters a depth and honesty I could only hope for on the page.

Alongside them is our NEXTGEN Apprentice Company: Jessica Coleman, Logan Everson, Valeria Santiago, Dev Acharya, and Kirstyn Lewis. They spent the summer training in Suzuki and Laban techniques and built a movement vocabulary that lets them serve as both an extension of the Chorus and agents of the State. They are paid professionals on contract, just like all our actors from all our productions, because we believe the next generation of artists deserves to be treated like artists from the start.

Four members of this company have worked with Lumen Rep before, and that matters. Lumen Rep is Jacksonville's professional, Actors' Equity-affiliated repertory theatre, and "Rep" is a promise: an ensemble that returns, grows, and builds a body of work together across seasons. We pay every artist, and most of every ticket you buy goes directly to the people on this stage and behind it.

Antigone: Unmasked is our fifth original work in four years, and that is possible only because this city has chosen to invest in professional theatre made here.

What I Hope You Carry Home

I make theatre because I believe in making beautiful things, collaboratively, that matter in the world. Antigone matters because she refuses to let the truth go unspoken. Her story has outlived every regime that tried to silence it.

So I'll leave you with the play's question, the one it has been asking for 2,400 years: what truth are you carrying, and what would it cost you to say it out loud?

Thank you for being here, and for listening.

— DR. BRIAN NIECE

WHO’S WHO IN THE CAST

MAGGIE COX*

as ANTIGONE
Maggie Cox is a NYC based Actor, member of Actors Equity, and a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Maggie holds her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts with Honors. At NYU she received the Outstanding Achievement Award in Drama from The New Studio on Broadway. Select credits include: Agnes in Agnes of God (Lumen Rep.) Alison Bechdel in Fun Home (Off- Broadway) and Alice Murphy in Bright Star (Limelight Theatre). Maggie is thrilled to be back in Jacksonville and taking on the role of Antigone in Antigone: Unmasked. She is grateful for the opportunity and to work with such talented artists!
KATE MCMANUS

as ISMENE
Lumen Rep audiences have seen Kate McManus in No Exit, The American Dream, Cadillac Crew, and most recently The Pillowman. This winter, she will reprise her role as Aneira the Ice Witch in Bella Lore Productions’ The Legend of St. Nick. Kate is active in Jacksonville’s film community and has appeared in regional and national commercials, as well as independent film projects. She is delighted to return to Lumen Rep as Ismene in Antigone: Unmasked.
NOAH BENNETT

as HAEMON
Noah Bennett is a performer, playwright, and director based in Jacksonville. Recent performance credits include his touring solo show The Phil Mitchell Radio Hour at The Tank (NYC), Asheville Fringe Festival, Atlanta Fringe (ArtsATL Critics Pick), and Jacksonville's Historic San Marco Church, and the films Humanity's Collective (Best Performance, MadRoyal Film Festival) and Mouthfeel. For Lumen Rep he directed The Fever and serves on the Board of Directors. His play The Waiting Room is published by Pioneer Drama. He holds an MFA from The Ohio State University and teaches theatre at Florida State College at Jacksonville. OfficialNoahBennett.com
EUGENE LINDSEY, JR.

as CREON
Eugene has performed on stages throughout the First Coast and beyond. He says he’s excited and honored to make his performance debut here at Lumen Repertory Theatre. Eugene most recently appeared as Lieutenant John Stokes in American Son. Just prior to that production, he gave life to Ollie Ford in Morning After Grace. Eugene has given life to a wide range of characters, but says a few roles he particularly enjoyed birthing are Thurgood in Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in The Mountaintop, Troy Maxon in Fences, Mister in The Color Purple, Hoke Coleburn in Driving Miss Daisy … and Nomax in Five Guys Named Moe. Eugene says he welcomes a challenge because it’s an opportunity for growth and discovery. He says thanks to Lumen Rep for allowing him to be a part of their CHALLENGING season.
ZONNETTA MARIE

as CHORUS
Zonnetta Marie is a Jacksonville-based actor known for grounded, emotionally resonant performances across theatre and storytelling. Recent credits include American Son (The 5 & Dime Theatre, 2026), The Clockmaker (Mark Elijah Productions, 2024), Cadillac Crew (Lumen Repertory Theater, 2024), Trouble in Mind (Players By The Sea, 2024), and Doubt (Theatre Jacksonville, 2023). She also appears as a featured storyteller with Story and Song Center for Arts and Culture and Florida Theatre’s Untold Stories. “For the stories that ask to be carried.“

THE INAUGURAL 2026 APPRENTICE COMPANY

KIRSTYN LEWIS

Kirstyn Lewis has loved the idea of portraying characters people can love and relate to as long as she could glue her eyes to a TV. She is now thrilled to be starring in Lumen Rep’s production of Antigone: Unmasked. Kirstyn has competed in Florida’s District Thespians and received an excellent in duo acting and a superior in ensemble acting, as well as be a part of her school’s play Mutually Assured Destruction. She would like to thank the Lumen Rep team for the amazing opportunity. She would, of course, also like to give a big thanks to her family for always supporting her and all her dreams. When she’s not performing, Kirstyn is a homebody that enjoys playing Dungeons & Dragons, reading, and Marvel.
LOGAN EVERSON

Logan Everson is a graduate of St. Augustine High School, Class of 2025. Shortly after graduating, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he continued his acting training, studied with various acting programs, and signed with Osbrink Talent Agency and Stellar Artists Management. After a year in Atlanta, Logan returned to Florida and saw Lumen Repertory Theatre’s Apprenticeship as the perfect opportunity to continue growing and training as an actor. He is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a part of Antigone: Unmasked and is excited to continue learning alongside such talented artists. Logan is especially thankful for the wonderful people he has met throughout this experience and looks forward to sharing this production with audiences.
VALERIA SANTIAGO

Valeria is delighted to make her debut with Lumen Rep! Prior to becoming a Lumen apprenticeship, she took a short break from acting, but now she’s ready to get back into action! Her most recent credits include: Tilly from She Kills Monsters, Van Helsing from Dracula Radio Show, and Megan from Puffs. All of these productions were done with the Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Dramaworks program. Valeria was also the Alpha Psi Omega President while at her time at FSCJ. Valeria is also a Toddler teacher and has been teaching for 4 years. Valeria wants to thank her friends and her partner Madison Simeri for always supporting her acting endeavors, as well as Brian Niece, Katie Johnson, and Josh Andrews for the amazing opportunity. When she’s not performing, Valeria is teaching toddlers and spending time with the people who have supported her every step of the way.
DEV ACHARYA

Dev has been acting for as long as he can remember. From stage productions and acting competitions to appearing on television, performing has been a constant throughout his life. He has long dreamed of building a career as an actor and is excited to continue developing his craft as an apprentice with Lumen Rep. Dev is grateful for this new experience and eager to see where the stage takes him next.
JESSICA COLEMAN

Jessica Coleman is a Jacksonville-based actor and theatre artist. Her recent credits include Sister Act with Lyric Theatre, When Kingdom Comes with In the Margins Media Company (New Works), The Importance of Being Earnest with Bridgemen Theatre, Godspell with Bridgemen Theatre, and The Play That Goes Wrong with Bridgemen Theatre. Jessica would like to thank God, her family, and her community for their continued love and support!

WHO’S WHO IN THE CREW

BRIAN NIECE, PhD*

PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR
Dr. Brian Niece is a multidisciplinary creative from Nashville, TN, where he founded and served as Artistic Director of People's Branch Theatre. He now serves as Producing Artistic Director of Lumen Repertory Theatre. A long-time member of Actors' Equity and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, he has worked as actor, director, writer, designer, and producer in scores of professional productions, and trained in Anne Bogart's SITI Company methods and Tadashi Suzuki's technique. He received the 2025 Arts Innovator Award from the Cultural Council of Jacksonville, and is Professor of Humanities and Theatre at St. Johns River State College.
JOCELYN SMITH

NEXTGEN STUDENT ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Jocelyn is a senior at Ponte Vedra high school and is exuberant to be working with Lumen Repertory Theatre as the NEXTGEN student assistant director. She has interned with Lumen Rep on Harlan and Bronna Jump Out The Window, and continues to work to expand their sublime organization. She’s like to thank her parents for their support and her teacher, Jason Nettle, for his glorious education.
FAITH RAUTTER

STAGE MANAGER
Originally from El Paso and where she fell in love with not acting but the black clothing of the tech world. She states there is nothing better than creating a world out of some wood, paint, fabric, lighting, and music. It has been an honor working with Lumen Rep the last 3 seasons. As a stage manager she finds joy in creating a family with each new cast and crew and seeing actors' transformation throughout the show.
She worked at the El Paso Playhouse for several seasons until she moved to Jacksonville. She took time off to raise her daughter Abigail who she loves and is amazed by daily. She would like to thank Abigail and family for support and more importantly God for blessing her every day.
TYLER HAMMOND

PRODUCTION DESIGNER AND TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Tyler Hammond is an actor, designer and director in North Florida. He is also a card holding member of The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, local 115. Recent production credits include: A Moon for the Misbegotten (Director, Scenic Designer), American Buffalo (Co-director, Technical Director), Shakespeare Sampler (Technical Director), Good People (Scenic Design), Bakersfield Mist (Scenic Design), 9-5 (Lighting Design), Wait Until Dark (Director, T.D., Lighting Designer, Sound Designer, No Exit (Master Carpenter), and many more.
KYLIE KALL

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
Kylie is thrilled to join the crew for her first production with Lumen Repertory Theatre. Kylie studied theatre at NYU, where she developed a love for the craft both in front of and behind the curtain. She is truly honored to be part of this production and is grateful to the talented cast and incredible crew for bringing this show to life.
JULIE NOLASCO

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
This is Julie’s third production with Lumen Repertory Theatre, and she is incredibly excited and grateful to be part of it. With a background in theatre, as well as experience working on commercial projects, she is grateful to continue growing within Jacksonville’s arts community. She feels truly honored to work alongside such a talented and inspiring group of artists. Julie extends a heartfelt thank you to director Brian Niece, as well as the entire cast and crew, for showcasing the incredible local talent Jacksonville has to offer.
JOSHUA ANDREWS

PRODUCTION MANAGER & DIGITAL MEDIA SPECIALIST
Joshua Andrews is a Jacksonville-based creative producer, photographer, and theatre artist. He is the co-founder and Brand Director of Lumen Repertory Theatre, where he leads brand strategy, creative direction, marketing, and communications. He is also the founder and photographer behind Jax Headshots. His work spans producing, performance, photography, marketing, and creative production, with a focus on strengthening Jacksonville’s professional arts community.
LAURÉN PARAGALLO

COSTUME DESIGNER
Laurén is thrilled to be part of another production with Lumen Rep. Previous shows include Pillowman, The Fever and Harlan and Bronna Jump Out the Window. She is a proud member of IATSE, local 115, as wardrobe and seamstress, working on numerous Broadway productions. Her favorite role however will always be Mom to Nova.
GRACE BRYAN

HOUSE MANAGER
Grace Bryan is happy to be with the team of Antigone both as House Manager and newest board member. You may have seen her previously on stage for Lumen Rep playing Amelia in Harlan and Bronna Jump Out the Window or various other theatre, film and commercials around the southeast. Thank YOU for supporting Lumen Rep!
CLAIRE CIMINO

PROPS DESIGN
Claire Cimino is fortunate to have been part of the design team for every Lumen Repertory production since its inception - most recently Harlan and Bronna Jump Out the Window.
Other productions include the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Prop & Scenic Designer - 5 & Dime ); Normal (PA Asst. - Film); Night Carrier (Props – TV pilot); The Cake (Director - Players by the Sea); The Little Toy Shoppe (Props - Jason Woods Productions).
JAMES TUCKER

LIGHTING DESIGNER
This is James’s second Lumen Rep show. James has been designing and rigging lights in Jacksonville since 1996. He owns River City Productions.