The time has come to finish off the pi?a colada, fold up the beach towel and get back to work. Yet, amid the crowded libraries and procrastination on papers, we are all looking for that one last reprieve before the school year actually gets into full swing.
For that, there are no better footsteps in which to follow than those left by the 100,000 people who head to Spring Green each year. Only an hour-long drive from Madison, this is where you the American Players Theatre grounds is located, nestled among 110 acres of forests and meadows.
APT is a classical theatre company that dedicates itself to sharing a passion for timeless plays — those of Shakespeare in particular — in a language that is accessible to a diverse audience. Each year, APT performs five plays in rotating repertory from mid-June to early October on an amphitheatre built within a natural hollow atop an oak-covered hill.
Don’t let APT’s wooded isolation fool you. Since its beginning nearly 30 years ago, the company has garnered praise from The Wall Street Journal and The Chicago Tribune on the way to becoming one of the most popular outdoor theatres in the United States.
But APT also caught the eye of David Frank, who joined the company 17 years ago as an artistic director, after spending a majority of his career heading professional theatre companies in New York and St. Louis.
“I had been dreaming for a theatre with a company that specialized in classical work and was committed to a permanent company of actors, and [APT] was the perfect fit,” said Frank, who is now the producing director for APT.
This year, Frank directs “The Belle’s Stratagem” by Hannah Crowley, which joins the Shakespearean classics “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Henry IV: The Making of a King” — a combination parts one and two — as well as the aptly titled “Ah, Wilderness!” by Eugene O’Neill and George Bernard Shaw’s “Widowers’ Houses” to make up APT’s 2008 season. This season’s rotation, like every other year, did not come together overnight.
“It’s a combination of method and inspiration,” Frank said, “There are a lot of logistical and budget disciplines — such as we try to include three Shakespeares each year — but we also look for that spark that turns it from just a mechanical process to ‘Oh my gosh, we really want to do that play.'”
Needless to say, APT’s astounding plays would not gain the national recognition they do without the work of a gifted staff that includes more than 100 professional actors, technicians, designers and craftspeople. This group features not only a “core acting company” of fan favorites who have made a long-term commitment to the theatre, but also a wide range of extraordinarily talented actors from around the country. One other vital component of APT is their Actor Apprentice Program, which trains young actors who are early in their careers and gives them a taste of the APT aesthetic. Regardless of what role they play in making APT the place for classical entertainment, the company members’ central focus is on creating an enjoyable, yet insightful, experience for its audience. APT makes this possible by getting down to the root of the work they perform: the language.
“You have to live in that language. You have to make the details of that language accessible, unpretentious, immediate and meaningful to a contemporary audience,” Frank said. “You have to be able to play the details of the metaphors and similes so an audience can share in the thrill of unlocking it.”
While many students may be skeptical about seeing Shakespeare and similar playwrights live on due to fears they still harbor from high school literature classes, APT’s focus on this language hopes to exorcise some of those old demons.
“When they force you to read the play in high school, the written play is a really poor representation, but really the meat of it is the intention and the energy behind those words from the characters, which [APT] does a really good job of,” said Steve Wojtas, a second year MFA Performance student at the University of Wisconsin and a member of the APT’s Actor Apprentice Program.
But what really makes your day at APT a unique experience is its biggest draw, the natural wonder of an outdoor amphitheatre. From the moment you sit down in one of the 1,148 cushioned seats that surround the thrust stage and gaze upon a hill flanked with towering trees, you become swept up in the moment. With this outdoor atmosphere also comes the unpredictability of nature, which can make a show at APT unlike any you will see at an indoor theatre.
“Nowhere else do you get an answering thunderclap to King Lear’s tirades at the height of the storm, nor do you get a magical rainbow or a full moon hovering over ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ nor do you get a large night bird dipping over Hamlet at just the right moment,” Frank said.
However, your trip to the great outdoors goes beyond just the theatre itself. Dotted throughout APT’s sprawling acres are picnic tables for eating your own personal feast or a fresh, gourmet picnic dinner that you purchased on-site. Better yet, if you time your visit right, you can join in on events such as a Fat Jack’s Barbeque Buffet, chili feast or beer and wine tastings.
And things are only getting better out in the woods. In April, APT broke ground on a 200-seat indoor theatre that is projected to be completed by early next summer. Not meaning to take away from the trademark outdoor experience at APT, this new theatre will aim to showcase plays that are better suited for a smaller stage, develop future actors and directors and refine the company’s distinctive approach to language.
All in all, there is something to be said for how APT continues to thrive and amuse audiences by simply continuing to perform plays the way the Greeks did thousands of years ago.
“There is something about doing this under an open sky and to be at the mercy of the elements,” Wojtas said. “It’s kind of clich? I guess, but it really is almost magical.”
American Players Theatre is located at 5950 Golf Course Rd., Spring Green, WI, 53588. Visit www.playinthewoods.org for more information about tickets and showtimes.
Tony Lewis
In today’s heated political climate, shoppers may often engage in debate regarding the morality of low-price retail corporations like Wal-Mart, which may convincingly be portrayed as insensitive employers with little regard for their workforce. This discussion of the corporate world’s abuses, though, is not as new as one would think.
Echoing this theme, the American Players Theatre is now performing George Bernard Shaw’s provocative play “Widowers’ Houses,” which treats playgoers to an entertaining story about two lusty young lovers embroiled in a romantic Victorian tale about late 19th century commercialism and its exploitative tendencies. This piece is the first in a series of three “plays unpleasant” Shaw wrote beginning in 1892 to highlight the rampant social injustice plaguing his generation of wealthy English aristocrats unwilling to confront the brutality of poverty.
The play’s protagonist, Dr. Harry Trench — played by Matt Schwader in his third season with APT — is a well-meaning member of the aristocracy who falls in love with Blanche Sartorius, the strong-minded, slightly sexualized daughter of self-made businessman Mr. Sartorius. Blanche’s performance, by Susan Shunk in her fourth season with APT, is energetic and complex, and her confidant character is marked by coquetry and flirtatious nuances left by the wayside once her temper flares and she’s without her most immediate whim.
With the lush and almost overwhelming background of dramatic trees and bushes on a summer Sunday afternoon in Spring Green, the play opened with an innocent discussion between Trench and his audacious cohort William Cokane while they are vacationing in Germany. The flippant tone of the play is set with one of Cokane’s most insidious remarks: “How do they know you are well connected if you do not show it with your clothes?” This concern with status and wealth is a primary theme for Shaw’s production as his ingeniously woven story of economic disparity speaks honestly and openly about the dark side of privilege.
The best scene of the play is at the end of Act II, when Harry and Blanche’s engagement is broken off once he discovers her family’s money is derived from Mr. Sartorius’ underhanded, devious ownership of slum tenements in London; their argument is an explosive display of emotion performed flawlessly by the young lovers.
Trench, happy to take Blanche’s money in marriage until he becomes aware of its questionable source, parallels the potentially ignorant consumer in today’s society as he unknowingly participates in the exploitation of the lower class. Mr. Sartorius later reveals that Trench’s modest income of 700 pounds per year is generated from interest on Sartorius’ poorly maintained slum tenements.
Mr. Lickcheese, one of Sartorius’ marginalized former rent collectors, approaches Sartorius after making a considerable profit from gentrification in other urban areas of London. His business proposal merits turning out the poor residents and building up the area to generate a much larger profit. This proposal, though, requires Harry Trench’s affirmation to be completed.
The play is a compelling exploration of urban poverty and its exploitation with the catch-22 Trench faces. By agreeing to turn out the poor individuals, he would completely disenfranchise them, as they’d be doomed to a homeless existence, but he would be removed as the beneficiary of their current deplorable housing situation. But Trench’s continued involvement and financial gain earned from their current dangerous living situation is not an appealing position for him to take either.
Blanche, on the other hand, continues to reveal herself as an incorrigible member of the upper class by verbally and physically abusing her maid and continually expressing her almost animalistic distaste for the poor. Her character is a poignant, over-the-top critique of the lack of understanding and compassion arguably found in those who might not understand what it is like to be truly poor and disenfranchised.
Trench’s eventual decision to remodel Sartorius’ property after concluding to his business partners, “No use in being sentimental about the poor,” is an example of the corrupting force of misguided and exploitative norms found in a capitalist society motivated by making the largest profit possible.
Despite the characters’ faults, the audience was still slightly charmed by Harry and Blanche’s romance as it did in fact triumph in the end and endured even the most heated arguments. This performance, as is typically found with every APT performance, was a successful, earnest attempt to portray some of the disgruntled sentiment of Shaw’s aristocratic generation. The message of a desensitized upper class is one that resonates strongly today as our economy ails while mega-corporations experience more economic success than ever. The trip to Spring Green is worth it, since Shaw’s characters in “Widowers’ Houses” are powerfully brought to life on stage with witty banter characterized by an interesting, larger societal critique many debate today.
Vicki Pietrus
