David Frank of American Players Theatre leaves a legacy of language

Lindsay Christians, The Cap Times

David Frank could not sit still while directing a play. Looking out from the stage at American Players Theatre, actors tracked him warily as Frank’s bug-sprayed, oversized white shirt flashed from the middle of the house.

“It looked like he was directing a miniature orchestra,” recalled actor Jim Ridge. “His hands would be up in front of him, moving and conducting the language.

“He was just inside of it with us.”

Frank, who led American Players Theatre for 23 years, died on July 21 of progressive supranuclear palsy, a late-onset neurodegenerative disease. He was 80 years old.

Frank’s impact on APT is visible everywhere at the Spring Green theater, from modern bathroom facilities that replaced widely reviled portable toilets in 1995 to the $5.25 million Touchstone Theatre completed in 2009, which expanded the company’s ability to develop and produce contemporary classics.

Frank oversaw the creation of the core acting company, a group of performers who return year after year, giving the actors stable work and audiences favorite local celebrities. He insisted on fairness in the company’s pay structures and created an internal culture of directness and hard conversations.

“We all were given this incredible confidence and faith,” said Brenda DeVita, who worked with Frank for 20 years before taking over as artistic director in 2014. “We all rose together in a way that is 100% because David was like, ‘Stone soup. Open the fridge, what do we got? That sounds good, let’s make it amazing.’ That’s what he did.

“He planted seeds in the audience, faith in their intelligence,” she added. “He liked great language. He liked complicated ideas. He planted seeds in the audience — that they could trust us.”

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