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Where do some of Chicago's best actors and directors spend their summers? For a growing number of them, it's Spring Green, Wisconsin, known as the summer home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright called Taliesin, and also for one of the finest classical repertory companies in the country, the American Players Theatre. Nestled in a quaint and beautiful outdoor amphitheater built into the side of a hill, this professional company is currently in its 29th season in the picturesque Wisconsin village, where top-notch Chicago talent such as William Brown, James Bohnen, Tracy Michelle Arnold, Matt Schwader and Steve Haggard journey to make magic under the stars. And now with the five-play season fully under way, APT's Producing Artistic Director David Frank spoke with Theatre in Chicago about some of the pleasures and challenges of producing great classical theatre in APT's unique style.
It all began with a dream, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to be exact. The Shakespearean favorite was the first play to be produced by APT and is being revived this year along with Eugene O'Neill's "Ah! Wilderness," George Bernard Shaw's "Widowers' Houses," "The Belle's Stratagem" by Hannah Cowley, and "Henry IV: The Making of a King," a fusion of Shakespeare's "Henry IV, parts 1 and 2". Frank, who has been the guiding force behind APT since 1990, said that the recipe for choosing the season is a mix of two or three Shakespeare pieces, which have become the company's signature and perennial audience favorites, a great American piece that works well outdoors, and something a little unexpected. The rarely produced "Stratagem" is a nod to the latter, and also the first play written by a woman to be produced in APT's history. The qualifications of each play calls for works that glory in language and storytelling.
"If there is a secret (to the theatre's longevity), these plays are incredible entertainment for a surprisingly wide audience," Frank tells us. "If you're really enthusiastic about the play itself and you have great actors who can speak the language and handle the verse, they are way more accessible than they are normally given credit for. That single idea has sustained the theatre for nearly three decades. The growth seems to demonstrate the validity of the concept." Frank says it is a huge respect for the plays themselves that make his productions unique, "not trying to prove how clever we are but sharing our enthusiasm for these extraordinary works."
Frank also points to the strengths of his core company of actors. Much like the famous Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble, APT leans on the talents of a remarkable and versatile group of actors who play up to three roles each per season. They are augmented by the occasional actor who will join the company for one particular role later in the season, although that is the exception, Frank points out. "At the heart of our work is a core of actors who have worked and trained together to develop a common vocabulary and approach to the work, focused on language, clarity and good storytelling." The challenges of learning and preparing two or three roles at once require the utmost in training and dedication. "It is very stimulating for the actors. They have three roles to remember as opposed to one. On the other hand, you never get bored. It is also true that because you have 30 actors spread over 5 plays, the person playing a small walk-on one night may be playing the lead the next. You get a kind of consistency of talent throughout the company that is harder to match when you have one show at a time."
The unpredictability of Mother Nature is another factor, although Frank believes that performing outdoors has more pro's than con's. "There is a risk of it being cold or rainy. We perform in light rain and have done so very successfully, our audiences stay with us. On the other hand, there is nothing quite like watching a Shakespearean production such as ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream' under a moon, the feeling that 400 years ago under that very moon another audience watched this play. There's a sense of interaction, the whippoorwills being a part of it. We can use the forest, the trees and the woods behind our stage as a kind of cyclorama. There are many, many plusses and most people agree this is an extraordinary place to watch a play."
Frank knows well the power of great theatre to affect people, as his first introduction to the work of William Shakespeare came when he was a teenager in England. "It was purely academic. I didn't know very much about the theatre, but at 15 or 16 I was assigned to study ‘Hamlet' and I'll never forget being so excited by it. Then once I started in college placement courses, I was taken off to see plays and became so fascinated with Shakespeare in particular that I remember saying I want to be an actor, even though I had never been onstage or knew anything about it. I soon learned I wasn't going to be an actor, but the bug bites deeply."
Every summer, the American Players Theatre shares that "bug" with approximately 110,000 audience members, and around 15,000 of them are in student groups during the month of September. "There's a surprising number of young people in our audiences, and so often we hear that they first came here as part of a high school group and wanted to come back after they left school. We follow up with workshops for the school groups to make it more than just attending a performance. We bring in actors to talk about how you do Shakespeare and their relationship with Shakespeare and these plays, and it's often a very exciting part of the process too."
David says that while 60 to 70% of the audience comes from the greater Madison, Wisconsin area but that more and more people are traveling from Chicago (about a three hour ride), Iowa and further a field. One of the draws is the opportunity to see up to five different plays in a weekend. "It's a terrific place for a couple to take a long weekend or some days off. September is a lovely time to be here too, it's cooler and the leaves are beginning to change. It's a very special trip for theatre lovers who like to go to festival theatre, and an equal attraction to a really lovely place to visit."
With nearly thirty seasons and national acclaim under its belt, you can bet Frank will not be resting on his laurels. "We are in the process of raising funds to build our first indoor space and I'm pretty confident that it's going to be open next summer. We have the foundations in already and we're in the final stages of raising the funds to complete it. I've always thought APT and Spring Green were destined, hopefully not too far into the future, to become a major attraction for theatre lovers throughout the upper Midwest, as well as for the beauty of the countryside and the charm of the little village. I think this area has enormous potential and already word is spreading." Frank forecasts multiple spaces at some point in the near future and that APT will become "a very prominent theatre in the nation."
The current season runs through October 5. Ticket prices range from $36 to $58, and groups of 20 or more may qualify for special rates. Gourmet meals and tickets to additional events can be purchased along with tickets by calling the box office at 608-588-2361, or visiting APT's website at www.playinthewoods.org.
Joe Stead
Theatre In Chicago News Contributor Joe Stead has spent over 20 years as a critic, director, designer and performer. His reviews currently appear online at www.steadstylechicago.com.