Hi
"...but when I press play only the text on one of the layers shows. ...."
Are you pressing "Play" on the Clip Preview screen?? This will only show the specific clip on a track (e.g. a text clip) if it is selected. Usually though, you would have the Sequence preview visible by default or possibly dual displays, so it's only a suggestion.
Pressing "Play" under the The Sequence Preview screen should show all the tracks exactly the same as when you move the red cursor bar along the timeline. So what you describe is a bit odd.
Nat