Zane Williams
Alicia Storin and Jim DeVita in American Players Theatre’s 2015 production of "An Iliad," which is being remounted in the 2021 summer season.
Fans of American Players Theatre have been waiting more than a year to return to the woods of Spring Green to see the classical company perform extraordinary dramas and comedies in the open air in the Hill Theatre or in an intimate setting in the Touchstone. After an entire season of empty stages and vacant seats, today APT’s artistic director Brenda DeVita announced the theater’s return to live, in-person performances — the first since the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to public gatherings in early 2020.
To adhere to the latest safety mandates and to keep both audiences and theater practitioners safe, the 2021 theater schedule will include both fewer productions and fewer actors than in previous years. Beginning in May, the company will mount three pairs of plays, one in each venue rather than its traditional rotating repertory. The first plays will be the world premiere of James DeVita’s An Improbable Fiction in the Hill Theatre, and Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop in the Touchstone Theatre. Next up will be Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing (Hill) and a remount of the tour-de-force monologue with music, An Iliad (Touchstone). The third pair will be an adaption of William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline by Henry Woronicz (Hill) and Christopher Fry’s A Phoenix Too Frequent (Touchstone), which was originally slated for the 2020 season. APT also expects to announce three more productions to play in the fall and winter.
The only Shakespeare play on the docket this year is Cymbeline, which was last done at APT in 2004. Although it was extremely popular in the 18th century, the complicated, romantic story filled with jealousy and struggles for power is rarely performed today. Discussing the choice, DeVita says in an email, “We knew we wouldn’t be able to use our usual sized cast of 20-25 people, so were interested in selecting a Shakespeare play that would benefit by being concentrated — having a smaller number of actors playing all the characters. We did a virtual reading of Cymbeline last summer and thought it was an intriguing choice. We’re also excited about it being done by an all-female cast, and to be working with the director, Marti Lyons.”
DeVita says that safety concerns are driving the decision to keep the season smaller than usual. “We selected the plays in part based on their smaller cast sizes, so the company will be smaller by design. And with so few roles available this year, we had to put the apprentice program on hold, but expect it to be back next year.”
Additional safety measures for the actors include creating “pods” for the individuals in each production — ensuring that they interact only with their fellow cast members during the run of the show to prevent possible exposure to the COVID virus.
When audiences make the trip out to Spring Green to see a live show and picnic on the grounds prior to a performance, they will also be subject to new safety protocols. Patrons will be asked to wear masks at all times (except when eating); keep socially distant from other family groups; and refrain from bringing food or drink into the theaters. To maintain social distancing in the theaters, APT will only fill the venues to 25 percent capacity — a mere 30 seats per performance in the Touchstone, and about 250 in the Hill Theatre. The company’s ticketing software has been adjusted to automatically place patrons at a safe distance from one another.
Tickets for An Improbable Fiction and The Mountaintop will go on sale to priority groups beginning April 16 and will be made available to the general public 10 days later. DeVita says that to qualify for the early purchase date, individuals may have made financial contributions to the company at a certain level, donated the cost of their tickets from last season, purchased tickets or play passes in 2020, or fit the description of regular APT attendees.
Due to the sizable reduction in seats, APT expects demand to exceed the supply. To allow more patrons to view the productions, recordings of each play will be available one week after opening night. Tickets for digital plays to be viewed at home will start at $32.
Mike McDermott
A drone photo of the Hill Theatre at American Players Theatre, 2019.
The 2021 Plays
In the Touchstone Theatre
The Mountaintop
By Katori Hall; directed by Ron OJ Parson; May 14-June 19.
The night before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. returns to the Lorraine Motel after delivering his last impassioned speech. A mysterious maid delivers room service, though she seems to have more on her mind than serving coffee. As their conversation progresses, her true intentions come to light. Core Company member Gavin Lawrence will be joined by Sola Thompson in this two-person show that the couple performed last summer in a limited digital reading.
An Iliad
By Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare; directed by John Langs; June 25-Aug. 15.
Audience favorite Jim DeVita wowed critics and audiences in 2015 with his performance in this solo show that recounts the entire story of Homer’s classic, The Iliad. Joined onstage by cellist Alicia Storin, the pair once again explores one of the formative stories of the human race, full of glory, violence, and our seemingly endless addiction to war.
A Phoenix Too Frequent
By Christopher Fry; directed by Keira Fromm; Aug. 26-Oct. 3.
In ancient Rome, Dynamene is devastated by the death of her husband and has barricaded herself in his tomb, ready to starve to death due to grief. She has brought her faithful servant along to die with her (a plan that said servant is not 100 percent on board with). But it’s not long before Dynamene is distracted from her death wish by the arrival of a handsome soldier, Tegeus, providing a foil for her grief in this comedy about love and expectations.
In The Hill Theatre
An Improbable Fiction
By James DeVita; directed by Tim Ocel; May 27-June 26.
Much like Lauren Gunderson’s popular The Book of Will, performed at APT in 2019, James DeVita’s new play gathers an array of Shakespeare’s characters together to interact in a fantastic “what if” story. Out of sorts and out of work, Falstaff, Mistress Quickly, Othello, Juliet and Cleopatra all seek solace at The Boar’s Head Inn during the plague years in the early 17th century. Chock full of the Bard’s own lines, repurposed to tell a new story, it’s a tale of a frustrating year without theater that we can all identify with. The cast features Core Company favorites Tracy Michelle Arnold, Brian Mani, Sarah Day and Melisa Pereyra, plus Chiké Johnson and Ronald Román-Meléndez.
Rough Crossing
By Tom Stoppard; directed by William Brown; July 1-Aug. 7.
Two established playwrights hoping to refresh their careers take their show on the road. Or, rather, on the high seas, along with their two established stars. The plan is to ride the wake of a brilliant young musician — who happens to be engaged to one of the aforementioned stars — who will compose their new musical. But when the writers and composer stumble across a tryst between the actors, they’ll need to pull out all the stops to keep their young phenom from going overboard. A clever comedy, it is rife with Tom Stoppard’s legendary wit. The cast includes Core Company members Kelsey Brennan, David Daniel, James Ridge and Marcus Truschinski, plus Jamal James and Josh Krause.
Cymbeline
By William Shakespeare; directed by Marti Lyons; Aug. 12-Sept. 11.
When his daughter Imogen secretly marries Posthumus, a good man without financial means, King Cymbeline banishes Posthumus in a fury. In Rome, missing his wife and his home, Posthumus meets Iachimo, who plants a seed in his mind that Imogen will be unfaithful to him in his absence. In despair, Posthumus contacts his servant Pisanio with orders to murder Imogen, but the servant instead disguises her as a page and smuggles her out of court and off on a great Shakespearean adventure. The all-female cast includes Tracy Michelle Arnold, Gina Daniels, Sarah Day, Alys Dickerson, Elizabeth Ledo, Colleen Madden, Melisa Pereyra and Lisa Tejero.
