Here are a few thoughts about the six shows that we saw, in the order we saw them (two per day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). The two shows that we didn't see are A Midsummer Night's Dream in the outdoor amphitheater called The Hill Theatre, and 'Art' in the indoor Touchstone Theatre, where we were for the first two shows, with the final four Up-the-Hill:
The Barber and the Unnamed Prince, written and directed by Gavin Dillon Lawrence
Tribes, written by Nina Raine and directed by John Langs
Fallen Angels, written by Noël Coward and directed by Shannon Cochran
Picnic, written by William Inge and directed by Brenda DeVita
The Winter's Tale, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Shana Cooper
Anna in the Tropics, written by Nilo Cruz and directed by Robert Ramirez
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| the barbershop (photo by Michael Brosilow) |
In addition to classics, APT also produces new work, like this one. Gavin is the first of several familiar faces from #TCTheater that we encountered, from his work at Penumbra and other Twin Cities theaters. He has written a beautiful, funny, utterly devastating play about "The Godfather of Go-Go" Chuck Brown, the gentrification of a Washington, D.C. neighborhood formerly known as Chocolate City, and the love between a Black father and a Black son in an increasingly dangerous world. Similar to an August Wilson play, The Barber features a close-knit Black community facing difficulties as the world around them changes. The titular Barber, a man named Kofi (David Alan Anderson), is watching his neighborhood disappear, replaced by condos and coffee shops in the familiar gentrification story. His son Prince (Jonathan Gardner) attends an elite high school with the president's kids (this is 2012, solidly in the middle of Obama's presidency), having moved out of the neighborhood after his parents' divorce. On the day that legendary Chuck Brown dies, Kofi learns of his son's academic probation, and meets (and flirts) with his son's girlfriend's mother (Shariba Rivers), while providing service to his few remaining customers, including the neighborhood elder Smitty (Cedric G. Young) and the White man who just moved in (Josh Krause), and keeping his "brother" and employee Sweep (#TCTheater actor Nathan Barlow) in line. The entire cast (including La Shawn Banks as the spirit of an ancestor) is wonderful and makes these characters feel real, this place lived in. The play is incredibly relevant in the way it tackles issues of gentrification, the changing landscape of cities, and the dangers of growing up Black in America, all to a terrific Go-Go soundtrack, a style of music with which I was previously unfamiliar but really enjoyed. I hope that this world premiere new play has more life in it; it needs to be seen by more people, and I would love to see it produced in #TCTheater soon.
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| family dinner (photo by Michael Brosilow) |
The Guthrie produced this great family dramedy in 2013, when I noted that it's "about nothing less than the nature of love, family, language, words, books, emotions, music, and the interaction of all of these things," and I was thrilled at the chance to see it again. This uniquely dysfunctional family features three adult children (one of whom is deaf) living with their parents in North London. The deaf son never learned to sign, and dad is especially proud that they brought him up as if he were hearing. But he's not hearing, and he misses a lot of the family conversations, which are loud and boisterous and often not nice. It's only when he means a woman who grew up hearing in a deaf family and is slowly going deaf, who teaches him to sign and introduces him to the deaf community (that his family tried so hard to shelter him from), that he finds the fullness of his expression and identity. He's finally able to truly participate in the family discussions, and it's absolutely devastating when he tells his family how he really feels in the most angry and expressive sing language I've ever seen. Chicago-based deaf actor Joshua M. Castille (his second season at APT but my first time seeing him) is so true and real in the role, his emotional explosion at the end of the play seemingly nearly uncontrollable. Playing his bickering siblings and also giving raw and vulnerable performances are current and former #TCTheater actors Maggie Cramer and Casey Hoekstra. (I wish I had been able to see Midsummer on this trip; Joshua and Casey both play Puck in a dual performance, and I would have loved to see how the two paired performances informed each other and complemented each other.) Completing this excellent cast are Colleen Madden and Jim DeVita as the parents, and Lindsay Welliver as the new girlfriend. They all beautifully bring this messy and complicated family to life, a family that loves each other desperately, but doesn't know how to communicate with each other, doesn't know how to listen, until the deaf child teaches them.
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| Phoebe González and Laura Rook (photo by Michael Brosilow) |
After the above two intense and somewhat heavy plays, we were ready for a light bubbly comedy. And we found it at our Saturday matinee on an unseasonably warm September day. Director Shannon Cochran notes in the program that this play was Coward's "sole attempt at a genuine farce," and I found it to be so delightful and almost modern (despite premiering 100 years ago) that I'm surprised it's not done more often (it could be 90-100 minutes without intermission, without the dancing interludes before and between scenes, except that they're too utterly charming to remove, and besides without an intermission we wouldn't get the needed ice cream break on a hot day). The play features two married couples, husbands and wives both best friends, who find that after five years their marriages have gone a bit stale. Enter a Frenchman named Maurice, with whom both of the women had brief but torrid affairs before meeting their husbands. He's come to London, and the women are all flustered about what to do. Run away? Or stay and see what happens? They end up staying, getting deliciously drunk waiting for Maurice to call, having a falling out, and the next morning telling the other's husband that his wife has run away with Maurice. When the long-awaited gentleman caller finally arrives, things don't go quite as expected, but in a way that's most entertaining. Core company members Phoebe González and Laura Rook are sheer perfection as the BFFs in love with the same man from the past, with some excellent physical comedy, faux drunkenness, and real eating. As their befuddled husbands, Nate Burger and Sam Luis Massar, respectively, also charm in smaller roles, Colleen Madden is a delight as the new maid who knows everything, and Ronald Román-Meléndez makes the most of his brief appearance as the man in question. A delightful and surprisingly feminist (women can sow their wild oats too) period escapist comedy, expertly executed, with bubbles on top (literally).
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| the yard (photo by Dan Norman) |
This Midwest American classic (by a playwright I like to refer to as "the Midwest Tennessee Williams"), set in small town Kansas, is a perfect choice for APT. These interrelated characters full of dreams and longing, stifled by the limitations of their circumstances, played out beautifully on the outdoor stage, with the fading sunlight of Act I giving way to the evening stars for Act II, just as the characters experienced sunset and early morning. And it was impossible to distinguish the recorded sound effects of nature from the real nature sounds surrounding us. The play takes place entire in the shared yard between the homes of two single women, one caring for her elderly mother, the other with two very different teenage daughters (one "the beauty" and the other "the brain") and an "old maid schoolteacher" boarder. The arrival of a mysterious and charismatic stranger sets in motion a chain of events that will change all of their lives. It's a beautiful and sad play, a little dated in that the women's stories almost exclusively involve wanting a husband, but also evergreen it its themes of having big dreams, some of which are realized, but at a great cost, and some of which will never come to be. And also the limited options for happiness available to women, then and now, if they're even in a position to pursue happiness. Another super strong cast (some of whom we'd seen previously in the weekend, or day) fully inhabiting these characters, with perfect pacing and tone, allowing all of the moments and emotions to play out.
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| Act I Sicilia, the king with his family and BFF Bohemia (photo by Michael Brosilow) |
The only Shakespeare we saw at APT this year, The Winter's Tale is one of those rare Shakespeare plays that is neither all comedy nor all tragedy, and includes a bit of both. Which actually makes it one of the more interesting and well-rounded plays, and this is a fantastic production of it. Act I is the tragedy, with the King of Sicilia accusing his wife of having an affair with his good friend the King of Bohemia, imprisoning her and putting her on trial, which results in great tragedy for the King, who regrets his rash overreaction a little too late. Act II moves from the elegant court of Sicilia to the charming rustic Bohemia 16 years later, full of good-hearted fun-loving shepherds, and a romance that will heal all, well most, of the wounds of Act I. Director Shana Cooper suggests the subtitle Shakespeare's Recipe for Combatting Tyranny, which fits well. The King of Sicilia is infuriating the way he accuses his good and loyal wife because of some kind of inner paranoia, but through time, reflection, love, and good counsel, is able to repent and make good (which is played with great nuance and humanity by Nate Burger). The heaviness of Act I is relieved by the lightness and love of Act II (which also includes some really lovely live music and singing) - just the story we need in these dark times.
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| Act II Bohemia, the young lovers and revelers (photo by Michael Brosilow) |
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| the cigar factor (photo by Michael Brosilow) |
Our final play of the weekend was this beautifully written play, with text that flows as gracefully as the cigar smoke wafting into the night sky. It's a story about the power of storytelling itself. When a new lector arrives at a cigar factory in Florida to read to the workers, including a Cuban-American family with two adult daughters, he reads Anna Karenina to them. The two young women in particular are enthralled by the story, drawn in by the romance and wishing for it in their own lives. But like in the novel, this romance and excitement comes with tragedy. This play is not dissimilar to Picnic in its themes of dreams and longings, and the harsh reality that often comes along with seeing those dreams realized. And another lovely cast bringing this family to vivid life.
The best part of repertory theater is watching a company of actors play multiple roles in different plays, and seeing some similarities, like Ronald Román-Meléndez playing a charming and swooned over man with an accent in both Fallen Angels and Anna in the Tropics, or differences, like Colleen Madden as the acerbic mother in Tribes, the wise servant in Fallen Angels, and the desperate "old main schoolteacher" in Picnic. This company ranging from longtime APT company members to actors spending their first summer in the woods is consistently great, and work and play together very well.
Another fun part of repertory theater is watching these very different plays performed in the same space that has been completely transformed in just a few hours beten shows. In the indoor Touchstone Theatre, the set for The Barber is the realistic inside of a barber shop, complete with a sink with running water, and windows looking out to the street beyond. Sound and lighting reflect the ambient noise of the neighborhood - loud Go-Go music from passing cars, police sirens, breaking glass. Then in a few hours the barbershop transformed to the home of the Tribes family, an incredibly detailed and realistic kitchen and dining room, with piles of books and laundry in every corner. The intimate thrust space means we're up close and personal to these two tragic stories.
A few common themes I noted among the six plays I saw:
- Two of the plays ended with someone being shot (proving that theater is not always an escape from the real world).
- In four of the plays, women were accused of / contemplated / actually did cheat on their husband/boyfriend.
- In four of the plays, characters smoked on stage (presumably herbal cigarettes or cigars), none more beautifully done than the cigar smoke of Anna slowly wafting out into the night sky and dissipating.
- Five of the six plays featured dancing, but only one live music.
- Only one of the six plays was a straight-up comedy, but several others had moments of comedy to lighten the tone.
If there's a more idyllic place to watch theater than the Up-the-Hill Theatre at American Players, I've not been there yet. The natural amphitheater was renovated in 2017 with comfy seats and great sightlines (and sound), and features a thrust stage and wide aisles for entrances and exits, not to mention the unique entrances and exits into the woods on either side. The backdrop for all plays are the tall trees behind the stage and the bright summer sun or starlit sky overhead. The permanent set of gray wood frames the stage, with additional set pieces added for each of the five plays, fitting in like intricate 3-D puzzle pieces. We watched the posh art deco London flat, with the most elegant grand staircase, make way to the rural yard between two Kansas farmhouses, then the elegant Sicilian court and rustic Bohemia countryside full of sheep's wool and colorful yarn, and finally a cigar factory in Florida complete with worktables and a raised lector chair.
In addition to the incredible theater offerings, APT offers programs like talkbacks and tours, and excellent concessions (important when you often spend all day there). In-theater concessions range from drinks and savory snacks to ice cream and sweet treats, the concession booth near the idyllic picnic grounds, with picnic tables nestled amidst the trees and hills, sells pre-made sandwiches, snacks, and drinks, and you can pre-order lovely picnic boxes. People also bring their own picnics, complete with gingham tablecloths and stemware.
Spring Green offers several acceptable lodging offerings; I'm still on the hunt for that one great place to stay that I want to return to year after year (if you know of any let me know). I've stayed at the Spring Valley Inn (free continental breakfast, pool, and outdoor firepit), House on the Rock Resort (the best location-wise at about a mile away, but no walking path in between, the restaurant now open for weekend breakfast), and Round Barn Lodge (location near to town and a nice pool). The cute small town also has many fun shops and restaurants, but it's a good idea to make reservations on a Friday or Saturday night as it can get busy with the theater-going crowd in town. Nature also abounds in the area - with water activities and hiking opportunities, not to mention the local wonders that are Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin and the bizarre House on the Rock.
Visit the American Players Theater website for all of the details on their plays, the APT campus, and visitor information. Make plans for a visit this year, and/or follow them and watch for the 2026 season announcement early next year. We are so lucky to have this gem of a festival so close to the Twin Cities.
