American Players Theatre's 2020 season succumbs to COVID-19 pandemic

American Players Theatre has canceled its 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s the only responsible thing to do right now,” said Brenda DeVita, APT’s artistic director. “We just can’t put people at risk. But everyone’s gone through their own version of loss right now. So we will rise above and we will come through this.”

By Samara Kalk Derby | Wisconsin State Journal | May 16, 2020

American Players Theatre has canceled its 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s the only responsible thing to do right now,” said Brenda DeVita, APT’s artistic director. “We just can’t put people at risk. But everyone’s gone through their own version of loss right now. So we will rise above and we will come through this.”

The nationally renowned outdoor theater company, which last year celebrated 40 years of theater in the woods near Spring Green, will move this year’s productions to its 2021 season, and meanwhile is offering a play reading series created in partnership with PBS Wisconsin.

APT is the latest casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, which is devastating arts and theater communities, leaving them unable to assemble audiences due to social distancing precautions necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The company had sold a little more than $2 million worth of tickets for the 2020 season before halting ticket sales last month, DeVita said.

“With no audiences in 2020, the financial hit to APT is simply unprecedented,” Carrie Van Hallgren, APT’s managing director, said in a statement. “The boards of APT and the APT Foundation are leading the way to help secure the theater’s future, offering a dollar for dollar match up to $750,000 to inspire ticket buyers to convert the value of their tickets into tax-deductible donations.”

Ticket holders can donate the full or partial value of their ticket to the theater or keep the value of the tickets in their account to use when the theater reopens. Refunds are also an option.

APT employs 29 people year-round, DeVita said, and at the height of its season has about 200 employees and 50 independent contractors.

The company hopes to produce plays this fall if restrictions on public gatherings are lifted and APT’s leaders deem the situation safe.

“We are going to be ready, ‘like greyhounds in the slips,’ as Shakespeare says,” DeVita said. “When there is a safe way to rehearse our plays and to produce plays, we will absolutely do that.”

Read the rest of the article here.