Playful outdoor seasons lie just over horizon in Wisconsin

Posted December 31, 2024

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Regina Belt-Daniels, The Scene

Beyond the border in Wisconsin are two popular professional resident summer theater companies that many Illinoisans have subscriptions to: American Players Theatre in Spring Green and Peninsula Players in Door County’s Fish Creek. Patrons return summer after summer, drawn by consistently exceptional seasons of classical and contemporary theater.

Set amid 110 acres of meadow and woods, American Players Theatre includes the renovated 1,075-seat outdoor Hill amphitheater and the 200-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre. American Players Theatre draws an annual audience of 100,000 from around the country; The Wall Street Journal named it theater company of the year in 2011.

The APT founders deliberately sought an outdoor setting after looking at 43 sites to “follow the inspiration that many of the playwrights and authors sought from the natural world.” The very first production was Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 1980; one of APT’s most-produced shows (last staged in 2017), it will open in June 2025. It is the classic tale of fairy kingdoms and star-crossed couples.

During its season from June 7 through Oct. 5, APT offers four additional plays at the Hill Theatre (with production dates to be announced Jan. 7):

• Noël Coward’s comedy of manners “Fallen Angels” – Jane and Julia are happily married to charming men when a message arrives from a former flame, sending their lives into a tizzy.

• William Inge’s “Picnic” – the infamous 1950 drama about women in Independence, Kansas, when handsome Hal comes to town.

• Nilo Cruz’s “Anna in the Tropics” – the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the first Latin selection at the Hill, is set in a Florida cigar factory in 1929.

• William Shakespeare’s problem play “The Winter’s Tale” – centered on a husband’s jealousy.

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