Category: Hill Theatre

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PSA: American Players Theatre Announces Its 2025 Season!!

AMERICAN PLAYERS THEATRE ANNOUNCES 2025 Season

To Run June – November in the Outdoor Hill Theatre and Indoor Touchstone Theatre

Artistic Director Brenda DeVita said, “First, I’d just like to say that I’m so proud of the season we produced this year. Our 45th season. The work was exquisite from beginning to end, and I’m so grateful to our artists and actors, and the staff that takes such great care of our amazing audience. An audience who comes to these shows, whether or not they’re familiar with the story, and puts their trust in us, and in the art we make here. It’s incredible the community that’s been created out here, in the middle of Wisconsin farmland – it consistently fills my heart and blows my mind.

This season has felt like a huge step in our growth as an organization. The company is gelling and maturing, which gives us confidence that the work we do here is special, and important, as well as being beautiful and engaging. We carry that confidence with us into 2025, when we will invite some exciting and new-to-us directors – especially female directors, the most we’ve ever had directing in a season – to work at APT for the first time. Shannon Cochran, who is an actor and director, will do Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels, a playwright she is very familiar with, and can deftly play with that wit and language. Shana Cooper, the talented director who created that indelible, creative production of The Taming of the Shrew at APT in 2021 will return to direct The Winter’s Tale.

And additionally, we continue to expand and grow the talents of our company. David Daniel, a member of the Core Company, and our education director, who directed Oedipus for us in 2021, will direct this Midsummer Night’s Dream. Gavin Lawrence, another Core Company member – he directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom for us this season – will direct a play he has written – The Death of Chuck Brown. And John Taylor Phillips who you’ve seen on stage at APT in Private Lives and Born Yesterday and many other plays, will be back to direct The 39 Steps. And we have a number of wonderful returning directors – John Langs on Tribes, Robert Ramirez on Anna in the Tropics, I’ll be directing Picnic, which has been a dream project of mine. We’re already getting started, and I believe it’s a lineup that fits our foundation, while allowing the organization to continue to grow and evolve.”

In the Hill Theatre:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By William Shakespeare

Directed by David Daniel

Love weaves a tangled web in this iconic Shakespearean fairy tale. Hermia and her beloved Lysander flee into the forest to avoid Hermia’s arranged marriage to Demetrius. They’re pursued by Demetrius himself, along with Helena, who is, in turn, in love with Demetrius. In that same forest, Oberon and Titania – king and queen of the fairies – are having a quarrel of their own. And when Oberon enlists his accomplice Puck, aka Robin Goodfellow to throw some magic into the mix, everyone  – including a hilarious group of “rude mechanicals” led by Nick Bottom – gets caught up in the spell.

Fallen Angels

By Noël Coward

Directed by Shannon Cochran

Noël Coward’s sparkling wit returns to the Hill for the first time since 2015. Jane and Julia are happily married to charming men when a message arrives from a former flame, sending their perfect lives into a tizzy. It appears a man with whom they’d each had a passionate tryst in the past is planning a visit, and they are both questioning whether they can – or want to – withstand his charms. As the husbands golf, the ladies plot and plan over copious glasses of champagne, with some “help” from a very worldly housekeeper, while awaiting the arrival of their former lover in this decadent and utterly entertaining comedy. Contains adult themes

Picnic

By William Inge

Directed by Brenda DeVita

It’s almost time for the annual Labor Day picnic in Independence, Kansas. But the town buzz is all about Hal – the young handyman hired by sweet Helen Potts. Her neighbor, Flo, is less than enthusiastic about having Hal in the vicinity of her daughters, Madge and Millie. When it turns out Madge’s steady guy, the steadfast Alan, is an old friend of Hal’s, Flo relents, and plans are made for Hal to stick around town more permanently. But young love may have other ideas, and hearts will be filled and broken in this play about desire, expectations and the sacrifices and settlements people make when it comes to love. Contains adult themes & language

Anna in the Tropics

By Nilo Cruz

Directed by Robert Ramirez

In the heat of Florida, a Cuban-American family spends long days rolling cigars for a factory. They carried with them many traditions from Cuba, including employing a lector to read to them as they work. But with automation on the rise, money is tight, and there are differing opinions on whether that tradition should continue. Still, matriarch Ofelia hires a new lector, Juan Julián – a charismatic young man who captures the attention of her daughters, Marela and Conchita. Juan Julián begins his reading sessions with Anna Karenina. As the book’s story unfolds, the family’s lives run parallel, bringing secrets and lies to the forefront and threatening their livelihood and relationships. Contains adult themes

The Winter’s Tale

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Shana Cooper

Shakespeare’s sweet and complex romance returns to the Hill. When King Leontes suspects his pregnant wife Hermione of having an affair with his good friend Polixenes, he jealously hides Hermione away in the palace. He has become so enraged that Leontes orders their infant daughter to be abandoned in the wild, leading Hermione to die of a broken heart. But all may not be as dire as it first appears, as a shepherd saves the young girl to be raised as a shepherdess, with help from a pair of ridiculous clowns, setting in motion a series of events that opens up paths to forgiveness, love and redemption.

In the Touchstone Theatre:

The World Premiere of

The Death of Chuck Brown

By Gavin Dillon Lawrence

Directed by Gavin Dillon Lawrence

A local icon’s death signals the end of an era and the beginning of a new look for a once-predominantly African American neighborhood in Washington, DC. A barbershop is the backdrop for conversations about gentrification, race and family as the owner, Kofi, considers selling his beloved establishment while keeping his son Prince on the path to success. A funny, touching and devastating world-premiere from APT Core Company Member Gavin Dillon Lawrence. Contains adult themes & language

Art

By Yasmina Reza

Director TBA

Reza’s philosophical comedy comes to APT at last. Three long-time friends – Serge, Marc and Yvan – ponder art, class and love; fraught and funny discussions sparked by Serge’s extravagant purchase of a painting that is simply a white canvas with a few thin lines. As the conversation progresses, cracks form in the men’s relationships as they question whether they are who they think they are, or if they are who their friends think they are, in a play that has been awarded the Tony, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, and Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Contains adult themes & language

Tribes

By Nina Raine

Directed by John Langs

There is the family we choose, and the one we’re born to. And neither are perfect. When Billy, Ruth and Daniel – Beth and Christopher’s adult children – all move home, the rivalry is intense among this group of “creatives.” But not for Billy, who is the sole deaf member of this hearing family. The family made the decision long ago that Billy should not learn sign language, and instead learn to read lips. But when he meets Sylvia, who comes from a deaf family and is coping with losing her own hearing, Billy’s world opens up as she teaches him to sign. What his family makes of this new world is another thing entirely, as they try to elevate themselves while holding Billy at status quo in this funny, biting play. Contains adult themes & language

Opening in October

The 39 Steps

By Patrick Barlow

Directed by John Taylor Phillips

Richard Hannay’s adult life has taken a decided turn for the boring, when one night he decides to go to the theater. There he meets a mysterious woman (and a couple of clowns) during a performance by Mr. Memory. When shots are fired, Hannay finds himself hurtling toward a hilarious adventure built from a foundation of all the most famous noir, and into a delightful parody of the genre itself. A theatrical and hilarious send up of Hitchcockian thrillers, with four actors playing every character – a special event perfect for fall in the Touchstone Theatre.

About American Players Theatre:

APT is a professional repertory theater devoted to the great and future classics. It was founded in 1979 and continues to be one of the most popular outdoor classical theaters in the nation.

The Theatre is located in Spring Green, Wis., on 110 acres of hilly woods and meadows above the Wisconsin River. The outdoor amphitheater is built within a natural hollow atop an oak-wooded hill. Under the dome of sky, 1,075 comfortably cushioned seats encircle three sides of the stage. In 2009, APT opened the 201-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre, offering a different type of play and experience.

For more information, visit www.americanplayers.org

The 2025 schedule will be available in January, and tickets will go on sale to returning patrons in March. More information at www.americanplayers.org.

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Laura Gordon Paints A “Ring Round The Moon” At American Players Theatre

Set for Ring Round The Moon. Photo courtesy of the American Players Theatre. Photographer Liz Lauren.

I don’t know exactly where to start here, it’s a tough play to write about. If I am lucky, this will write itself!

Let’s try this, from the director’s notes to the play from the incomparable Laura Gordon: “Ring Round the Moon is a play that I find difficult to classify. It’s a comedy. It’s a romance. It contains farcical elements, yet it’s not a farce.” I will quibble with this last bit…although a few definitions require horseplay for a farce (and I will maintain that there is a bit here), most don’t, like this one from Merriam-Webster: a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot. So my first review statement, we have ourselves a farce here of grand proportions and I loved every moment of it, in no small part as the result of Gordon’s direction!!!

And I have no idea how Gordon managed to put this on stage. It contains 12 major characters with speaking roles, dozens of entries and exits, as she mentioned any number of characters taking on an alias or two, any number of costume changes, relationship changes, falsehoods and exposures, and one hard put upon actor who had to play twin brothers! I saw it! I admired it! I laughed out loud! Heartily. But even now I am having a hard time remembering every morsel of the action. Yet, it moved and swirled with seemingly no effort…well except our hard put upon actor! Brava!!!

Nate Burger and David Daniel. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photographer: Liz Lauren.

Now, on to the twins! Twin brothers, Hugo and Frederic are of course somewhat competitive with one another in a typical sibling competitive way. And physically, they are identical twins and quite handsome, in a Nate Burger sort of way if you catch my drift. But their personalities are vastly different, Hugo being brash and direct and a bit diabolical, while Frederic is more reserved, maybe a bit introverted, and certainly a respectful young man. They are rich…well as many of the characters here are. And Nate Burger plays both men…very very well. But with their different mannerisms and vocal inflections, I have no idea how he keeps them straight, evokes the correct personality and vocal inflections, or for that matter, how he remembers all of his lines. But he does have a body double of sorts…one Nick Farasey who plays one twin or the other when they need to be seen off in the distance or somewhere about in the next room. But for us the audience, it’s look out, Burger just entered stage left, who is it to be, Hugo or Frederic??

One of the other standouts (no I am not belittling anyone here) is Barbara Kingsley, as Madame Desmortes, the aunt of two intrepid twins. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, she isn’t above partaking in a bit of hi-jinks and subterfuge by manipulating the various guests and principals for her own amusement and a result where all ends well!

Phoebe Gonzalez. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photographer: Liz Lauren.

Others who amused above and beyond, Laura Rook as Diana Messerman who is in love with Hugo, I can’t imagine why, but is engaged to Frederic who is marriageable as her plan B. And Phoebe Gonzalez is amazing as ballet dancer Isabelle. Gonzalez easily and believably morphs from a giddy dancer for hire to becoming a bit resistant as Hugo’s pawn, to finally despair as too many things go awry?? Or they just become too fluid to manage?

But the farce here isn’t restricted to the aristocrats on view or the impersonators they bring to the fore, but to the servants. David Daniel takes a hilarious turn as, in the cast list, a crumbling butler, and Elizabeth Reese has mastered the dramatic eye roll as Capulet, Madame Desmortes, ‘faded’ companion!

Colleen Madden and Phoebe Gonzalez. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photographer: Liz Lauren.

Ring Round The Moon was adapted by Christopher Fry in 1950 from Jean Anouilh’s Invitation to the Castle from 1947 (which is described in the literature as a satirical play). But I still hold that in Fry’s hands it is a farce!!

Again, sorry that I am so late into the season, there are only two dates left. But info and tickets can be found here!! Play is just over three hours including two 15 minute intermissions.

Barbara Kingsley. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photographer: Liz Lauren.
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Racing Across The Prairie To Go “Dancing At Lughnasa” @APT

left to right, Maggie Cramer as Chris, Colleen Madden as Maggie, Laura Rook as Agnes, Tracy Michelle Arnold as Kate, Elizabeth Reese as Rose. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photos by Liz Lauren. 

Certainly the American Players Theatre has done this before, but not in my memory. But for Dancing At Lughnasa, the back wall of their venerable main stage in The Hill Theater was open so we could view the bit of prairie in the background. And I wondered why until the play started and a number of the Mundy sisters came running and skipping across the prairie to their shared home at mid-set. And this grand entrance sets the scene for ‘girlish’ frolics and fun, even though our sisters are now young adults. Well all but the eldest sister Kate, who is a school teacher and something of the head of household here…and determined to maintain a home and social standing of decorum and etiquette proper to adult women in rural Ireland.

The Mundy’s live in a small cottage just outside of the fictional village of Ballybeg in County Donegal. There are five sisters in all. Kate, the eldest, is a school teacher. Maggie, the uninhibited soul of the clan, is also the one who has taken on the drudgery of keeping the house. Agnes and Rose earn a bit of cash by participating in the local cottage industry of knitting mittens. And Chris is the youngest, and the mother of seven year old Michael Evans. They are also caring for their older bother, Father Jack who has just returned from a 25 year sojourn as a missionary in an African leper colony. He is home to recover from malaria but there seems to be something more as well. This is both a blessing and a curse.

Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photos by Liz Lauren. 

Director Brenda DeVita writes in her notes in the program, “…I have to confess a tiny bit of pride, a satisfaction rests on my chest. I have a lump in my throat. I love my people. They are the people of this play.” Well, she has also put a lump in my throat and they are my people as well. And there should be more than a tiny bit of pride involved…she has assembled an amazing cast from APT’s 2024 ensemble and she has clearly brought them together on stage with a genuine feeling of joy, angst, and love leaving little doubt that this is an actual family that we are seeing here.

Kate. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photos by Liz Lauren. 

Tracy Michelle Arnold brings us a believable Kate, a school teacher and the eldest sister. She functions as a matriarch of sorts given her role in the community as a school teacher and principal wage earner in the family. Arnold brings to life a bit of her stern nature and sense of Christian devotion but at times easily melts to a softness around her family and particularly Father Jack…well until! And Arnold also clearly depicts Kate’s disquiet around her treatment by the local priest and later her ‘release’ from her teaching duties.

Rose is a bit of a question mark…the most girlish of the sisters in a youthful way…because of apparent developmental issues. Elizabeth Reese portrays her here with all of the ease and joy of the childlike but as quickly shifts to a disquieting and tragic mood when Rose has apparently been taken advantage of my a local man.

Laura Rook’s Agnes is often hard to read at times but Rook provides us with an industrious knitter and yet still a soul that rocks with the family. And she apparently has a bit of a secret interest in the elusive Gerry Evans.

Chris is the youngest but has an older edge because she is raising her son, Michael Evans, her out of wedlock ‘love child’. She helps around the house and watches over Michael, but is still easily distracted by the attentions of Gerry Evans, Michael’s father. Maggie Cramer exudes an incredible energy and joy in life when Gerry is around the house…and as easily becomes moody when he fails to fulfill his promises…because we later learn that he can’t.

And Maggie, dear, sweet, Maggie. Colleen Madden is most often the keystone to any cast that she is in, as she is here. But, she was born to play Maggie Mundy. Madden gives us a Maggie in touch with her soul and is easily expressive of her spirit while quietly, well not always, accepting her role in the household. While working to outdo or overplay her sisters during their intervals of merriment, Madden’s Maggie is also ready to make her point about their reliance on her labors. Even when she wasn’t speaking I couldn’t ignore Madden’s movements about the stage.

James Ridge as Father Jack. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photos by Liz Lauren. 

And the ‘man’ about the house is Father Jack, returned from Africa to recover from malaria but also surrounded by a bit of mystery. A local hero particularly in the eyes of Kate, if you ignore his time spent as a chaplain in the British Army during World War I, Jack has served as a missionary in a leper colony in Africa. James Ridge is a superb Father Jack, providing the shuffling body of a very ill individual and a man seemingly older than his years. And Ridge presents just the right moments of hesitation as he forces himself to remember his sisters’ names and other common English vocabulary words that he’s forgotten while overseas speaking primarily Swahili. But as his physical control returns and his memory improves, we find the reason for the reticence of the local priest to engage with the Mundy’s. Father Jack has gone native and Ridge excitedly and vigorously acts out and vividly describes the various native ceremonies that he’s committed to memory and explains how ‘we’ used them in Africa.

Maggie Cramer as Chris and Nate Burger as Gerry. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photos by Liz Lauren. 

And Gerry? I am not sure exactly how to describe him but he is a cad and a romantic one at that. Nate Burger’s portrayal gives us a very active and somewhat suave Welshman who has romanced Chris and fathered Michael. Is being Welsh a foreign enough attraction for small town Irish girls? But he is footloose in a number ways, popping in and out of the Mundy home with a disdainful irregularity. But each appearance brings new hope to Michael and Chris…a hope that will remain unrequited.

Marcus Truschinski as the narrator, Michael Evans. Photo courtesy of American Players Theatre. Photos by Liz Lauren. 

And our last character is Michael Evans, a seven year old boy in August 1936 when these events take place. But the seven year old does not appear in the play…he is spoken to, looked after, spoken of, and searched for…and obviously loved and cherished by the entire household. But the physical Michael Evans is played by Marcus Truschinski. And this Michael is an urbane and well spoken adult who is the narrator here…and Truschinski slowly materialized on stage from the various wings to give us a succinct and telling narration on the backgrounds, causes, and results of the various events that we witness in Ballybeg. This adult Michael is of indeterminate age in the play, but as presented here, clearly a free agent adult.

One last kudo that I think is very important. I would like to thank Adrianne Moore, the Voice and Text Coach, and Director DeVita for providing for the lilt and melody of the Irish accents here without getting so dense as to obscure the dialogue. Clearly hearing and understanding the text here is very important to understanding the story.

I apologize that my APT season was later than normal this year and that there are only a few dates left to see Dancing At Lughnasa: but Ticket Info and Other Info can be accessed here.