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Chris Verrill, right, the new executive director for Florida Rep, talks about his experience during a Nov. 4 event at the theater to welcome him. On the stage with him were John Martin, left, and Producing Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen, center. FLORIDA REPERTORY THEATRE / COURTESY PHOTOS
Chris Verrill, a seasoned theater professional with nearly 40 years of experience, recently took over the reins as executive director of the Florida Repertory Theatre in Fort Myers.
His appointment follows the departure of John Martin, who held the position for over two decades, guiding the theater through a period of tremendous growth.
With an extensive career that includes leading the Theatrikos
Theatre Company in Arizona and the Beijing Playhouse in China, Verrill is eager to bring his wealth of knowledge to Florida Rep, a theater renowned for its consistently high-quality productions.
“I’ve been doing theater for a long time. You name it in the theater — almost everything — I’ve done it. I love it. Prior to theater, I worked for public television and public radio,” he said at a Nov. 4 event held at the theater to welcome him.
What attracted Verrill to the Florida Rep was the consistent quality of its productions.
“One of the privileges and wonderful things that Florida Rep has is that you come and see a show here, and it’s brilliant. And it’s not just brilliant occasionally. It’s brilliant consistently every time you’re here. My old theater was brilliant. It was wonderful. It wasn’t consistently brilliant. Here, it’s good every single time,” observed Verrill.
Verrill arrived in Fort Myers mere days before Hurricane Milton, tackling challenges unique to Southwest Florida before he even unpacked his bags and settled in his new home. His first days on the job were spent meeting with flood mitigation experts to prepare the 124-year-old Arcade Theatre that houses the Florida Rep for potential future water intrusion.
“I think every good transition begins with a hurricane,” he joked.
Hurricanes aside, Martin explained that he is working closely with Verrill and the leadership team to assist in a smooth transition. He is introducing Verrill to community leaders and government officials and going through the structure and function of the leadership department at the Florida Rep.
“I would say that we’re going to be spending a lot of time talking about managed growth. When I arrived, we were a $1,000,000 operation, slightly over. Now we’re slightly over a $5,000,000 operation. So, managing that growth is essential to our future,” said Martin.
“John has been doing this job for 23 years, so I’ve got some pretty darn big shoes to fill, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s a little bit daunting and very exciting,” explained Verrill.
As he integrates into his new role, Verrill leans on his extensive leadership experience.
“What I’m doing now is sitting back and watching. I know theater, the industry, but I’m learning, specifically, Florida, and I’m learning fast and getting a chance to digest that and really see what this staff is doing wonderfully and then building on their success,” Verrill said. “And then, because I’ve been doing this for so long, the next step is to bring in ideas of things that they might not have thought about.
“The crew is great. This theater succeeds in the long run because those 60 crew (members) are doing a good job. This theater succeeds because they are putting in their top level. So, my goal is to get the best out of them and is just encouraging and making sure that I nurture them. I’m the new kid on the block, so not much nurturing is going on yet, but hopefully, it’s getting there,” Verrill added.
Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen, an original founding member of the Florida Repertory Theatre, is looking forward to collaborating with Verrill.
“I feel really confident that we’re going to work well as a team. I think Chris brings a tremendous amount of knowledge, and I bring a tremendous amount of, not just knowledge, as well, but also institutional knowledge of this specific institution — this area,” Longenhagen said. “And Chris seems very respectful of that. I will absolutely respect Chris if it’s something to do with the finance department, which is something that Chris oversees, whereas I know he will respect anything that happens in terms of the production side of what we do, the plays we do, the quality of the plays we do and anything having to do with the production.”
The Rep’s board of directors have been creating a strategic plan to guide the organization toward future growth. According to Longenhagen, one of the most important initiatives is to address the economic challenges facing theaters across the country in the wake of the pandemic.
“One of the things we talked about is addressing the fact that all across America, not just here, we see an attrition in terms of patrons coming to the theaters,” he said. “Less so here than at some other theaters around the country, but we’ve seen it, too. We know that from a bigger standpoint, we need to do two things. One is we need to find more folks to come to our theater. We know that we produce really terrific work. We know that the work is of a level that we think people will enjoy. And we absolutely need to increase our contributed revenue.
“It’s a critical time. One of the things that a lot of people don’t understand, especially people in government, especially people who are handing out taxpayer money, what they don’t understand is that Florida Rep and other arts organizations — museums, operas, ballet, especially theater companies — they return so much money back into the local economy. The arts in Lee County alone have way surpassed what baseball brings,” Longenhagen continued.
A lifetime of theater experience has given Verrill a deep appreciation of all aspects of the industry and the network of talented crew members who work behind the scenes to bring quality performances to audiences throughout the country.
“Anything I can do to take something that is already going extremely well and take it up a few notches and work with an amazing staff and crew to make that happen, that’s a win for me. It’s a win for the crew. It’s a win for the audience, most importantly. The most important person sitting in the theater is not the actor. It’s not the director. It’s the audience. And this audience has been very, very loyal, and they love us, and we want to make sure that continues,” said Verrill. ¦