The Packer Fans of Theater: How American Players Has Kept Shakespeare - and More - Thriving in a Tiny Wisconsin Town

Mary Wisniewski, NewCity Stage

It was the summer of 1980—the first season for American Players Theatre in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin. The company was performing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on the hilltop stage. William Borth, who hated Shakespeare, had been dragged to the show kicking and complaining.

It had rained all day, but stopped before showtime. As Puck made his entrance, a mist rolled over the stage until the fairies were “knee-deep in a swirling, firefly-lit fog,” Borth remembers. His partner Bob Kuehlhorn whispered, “Special effects by God.”

Borth became both a fan of Shakespeare and a longtime patron, according to his account in the “Book of Lore,” a history of the theater. The anecdote helps explain why American Players Theatre has managed to survive for forty-six seasons in the Wisconsin woods while fancier, more centrally located, and less mosquito-y venues have closed.

“It’s really kind of a miracle that APT is still here,” says managing director Sara Young. She says a key is the theater’s intensely loyal patrons, who come year after year for works by Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen and other classic writers, as well as new plays. They arrange weekends around shows, bringing picnics and school-age children. Then the children grow up and bring their own children.

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