SPRING GREEN, WISC.: American Players Theatre (APT) has announced its 2018 season, featuring nine productions. The shows will run in repertory June 9 to October 14, 2018, at the company’s newly renovated outdoor ampitheatre, the Hill, and the indoor Touchstone Theatre.
“We are so grateful to every single person who helped us build our beautiful new stage,” said artistic director Brenda DeVita in a statement. “The past 12 months have been absolutely wild, and this summer we were able to produce plays that would just not have been possible for us in the past. The flexibility it gives us—the creativity it inspires—can only continue to make the experience richer for our patrons and our artists.”
The Hill season will begin with Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The comedy follows Rosalind, who flees persecution in her uncle’s court and finds love in the Forest of Arden. The cast will feature Tracy Michelle, Melisa Pereyra, and Marcus Truschinski. James Bohnen will direct.
Next up will be Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday, about a businessman who travels to Washington, D.C., for business with his ex-showgirl girlfriend, and hires a journalist to make her appear more intelligent. David Daniel and Colleen Madden will star, and DeVita will direct.
Following will be The Recruiting Officer, by George Farquhar, a comedy about two recruiting officers who fall in love with women while on the job. Kelsey Brennan, Nate Burger, and Marcus Truschinski will star. William Brown will direct.
Next will be Heartbreak House, adapted by Aaron Posner from George Bernard Shaw, about a dinner party that goes awry when a young woman finds that her fiancé isn’t who she thought he was. The cast will include Tracy Michelle Arnold, Jim DeVita, and Colleen Madden. Posner will direct.
Following will be Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, about a novice who must choose between her brother and her virtue when he is found guilty of fornication. Melia Pereyra and Marcus Truschinski will star, and Risa Brainin will direct.
The 201-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre’s season will begin with Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot, about two brothers living in apartheid South Africa who discover that their pen pal is a white woman. Jim DeVita and Gavin Lawrence will star, and Ron OJ Parson will direct.
Next up will be Eugéne Ionesco’s Exit the King, translated by Neil Armfield and Geoffrey Rush, about a fading ruler unable to accept his mortality. James Ridge will star and Kenneth Albers will direct.
Following will be Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, adapted from the novel “The Playmaker” by Thomas Keneally, about a group of soldiers and criminals in a penal colony who put on a production of The Recruiting Officer to raise morale. The cast will feature Kelsey Brennan and Nate Burger.
The season will conclude with John Morogiello’s Engaging Shaw, a comedy about how George Bernard Shaw’s friends urged him to pursue a romantic relationship with Charlotte Payne-Townshend despite his aversion to marriage. Colleen Madden and James Ridge will star. David Frank will direct.
Founded in 1979, APT brings classic plays to its 110-acre home above the Wisconsin River.
