Diversity is powering troupe to artistic peak

Gayle Worland, Wisconsin State Journal

It's been a good season at American Players Theatre for actor and playwright Gavin Dillon Lawrence.

This summer, the riveting production of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" at APT, which Lawrence directed, ran for 14 performances on the Spring Green theater's largest stage. And from Oct. 17 to Nov. 10, Lawrence will play the title character in "Nat Turner in Jerusalem," about a leader in the 1831 American slave rebellion, in APT's 201-seat indoor theater, the Touchstone. Some performances already have sold out.

The two plays bookend a season that continues what APT started years ago: an eff ort to bring works by more diverse playwrights, and diverse casts, to the stage. It's a nod to the future. And while other theater companies across the nation have tried to broaden their offerings in recent years, APT is remarkable for the length and breadth of its eff orts: Today, more than 50% of its actors are people of color. So are 38% of its artistic staff , such as designers, directors and other artists.

"I've worked for over 40 years in the American theater all over the country, and I've never witnessed the kind of support you get here to do your best work as an artist," said Lawrence, who is Black. "And I'm talking on every level — as an actor, as a director, as a playwright. I feel the theater gives the artist what they need to do their best work, and at the end of the day they care about the people and the storytelling."

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