APT turns 10, and a corner

American Players Theatre launches its 10th anniversary season with Shakespeare's King Lear, "but the company's own fortunes no longer seem the stuff of tragedy," notes staff writer Kent Williams. APT co-founder Randall Duk Kim, who left the company after its 1987 season, returns to portray the leads in both Lear and Oedipus Rex. Managing director Sheldon Wilner says the company's deficit has been cut from $800,000 to $370,000. Tickets sales and revenues are on the rise. On the downside, a Wisconsin Arts Board panel expresses "deep reservations" regarding the stress Lear might put on the company. But Wilner says that while Lear requires more than 70 costumes and "lots of extras," the company is "not lavish. We're even pretty frugal." Wilner leaves APT in 2006; the company begins its 30th anniversary season on solid financial ground.