A Weekend with American Players Theatre, 2024

Mary Boyle, Ozaukee Living Local

The very first play I saw at American Players Theatre in Spring Green was not as a theatre critic, but as a homeschooling mother of two among a large group of homeschoolers for a school matinee. The production was Shakespeare’s King Lear, with the great Jonathan Smoots playing Lear, the incomparable James Ridge as the Duke of Gloucester, and the fabulous Marcus Truschinski as the Duke’s bastard son, Edmund. Mine and my children’s love of Shakespeare brought us to the woods, but the magic of APT and the beauty of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area kept us coming back, year after year. I was thrilled when I saw that King Lear was a part of APT’s 45th Season, as it’s always fun to make a comparison of a production within the same company, but a weekend with APT is always one of the highlights of my summer, regardless of what plays they’re performing.

The beauty of Wisconsin's Driftless Area, decked out in its summer finery and full of delightful places to eat and visit is certainly a draw, but there is no other theatre company in the State that can claim such an incredible variety and quality of theatre over the course of one weekend than APT. With its 1,075 seat outdoor theater known as The Hill, APT is the second largest outdoor theater in the country, after The Muny of St. Louis, but they also have the intimate indoor Touchstone Theatre. APT maintains a core company of actors, several of whom have returned to the woods of Spring Green for over two decades (27 years for James Ridge and 21 years for Marcus Truschinski, in fact), which means regular visitors can watch actors go from playing characters like Hamlet in the beginning of their careers and advancing to roles like Polonius down the road; an incredibly rare experience in this day and age. In a recent article in the New York Times, Elisabeth Vincentelli expounded on one of the other theatre rarities that brings “the Packers fans of theatre” back each year to APT: the actors wear no microphones, just the way it was done in Shakespeare’s time.

While a dedication to classical theatre remains strong at APT (they produce at least two Shakespearean productions each season), they have branched out over the years into more contemporary theatre, including very recent works. The development of the core company and the diversity in productions are mainly the work of Artistic Director Brenda Devita, who has been with APT for the past 30 years in various roles, and has spent the past 10 years in her current position, along with directing a fair number of productions, including this season’s Dancing at Lughnasa, which was one of the shows I was able to catch on my weekend visit to APT this season

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