Feature: Brenda DeVita receives 2023 Peter Capell Award for Midwestern Creativity & Entrepreneurship

Emma Bohmann, Arts Midwest, October 25, 2023

American Players Theatre (APT) is a professional theater located outside Spring Green, Wisconsin. They produce nine plays annually for over 100,000 audience members. APT ranks as the country’s second largest outdoor theater devoted to the classics. Brenda DeVita has worked at American Players Theatre for over two decades, serving as artistic director since 2014.

“I am incredibly honored to be the 2023 recipient of the Arts Midwest Peter Capell Award,” said DeVita. “[Capell’s] example of creative thinking and his insistence that the arts are for everyone is inspiring to me. As a native Midwesterner, I have always been passionate about the need for access to the arts in areas the world has deemed too remote.”

DeVita has led APT’s efforts to become an equitable space that is welcoming for all people. She recently worked to launch Creating the Classics of Tomorrow, a program that commissions and develops new plays by BIPOC playwrights. She also developed and nurtured APT’s actor program, the Core Acting Company, and their renowned Voice and Text Program. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DeVita maintained APT’s audience by creating eleven productions that were streamed to thousands of patrons.

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