American Players Theater Spring Green Wisconsin

My wife and I attended a play at the American Players Theater in Spring Green Wisconsin.  Spring Green is in the “driftless” area of Southwestern Wisconsin, featuring rolling wooded hills and scenic valleys.  It is also home to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin design studio and home.  It is a perfect place for an outdoor theater, and the ATP was founded on a hilltop in 1980.

The theater originally focused on Shakespeare and classics, but now has diverse genre.  My son watched Hamlet with his high school class years ago, and told me about the theater with great excitement.  After seeing a play there several years ago, I have been a fan.

We saw the Royal Family, which is a 1920ish story about the New York Barrymore theater royalty.  The family was renamed the Cavendishes, probably to appease esteemed actress Drew Barrymore.  The Cavendishes are totally dysfunctional, providing a humorous backdrop to an otherwise senseless story.  The acting was great and everyone at the 1,148 seat theater has a great seat.

The temperature during the day was 96° F or 36° C.  However by evening, the temperature dropped and with a slight breeze, the weather was perfect.  A number of times during the show, bats swooped through the stage, chasing insects.  The actors seemed oblivious to the sideshow. 

If there is a better theater venue, I haven’t seen it yet.