By Shannon Musgrave
In the idyllic hills of Spring Green, Wisconsin, situated on 110 acres of former farmland, American Players Theatre (APT) has been making magic for its community and providing an artistic home to theater-makers–including many Carnegie Mellon University faculty and alumni– for 47 years. This year, APT was the recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award–a prestigious honor that recognizes “a regional theatre company that has displayed a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally,” as described on the Tonys website. Unique in both its verdant setting and its core company model, American Players Theatre puts its artists, community, and natural surroundings at the center of its extraordinary work.
APT produces nine shows in rotating repertory each year between June and November. Their seasons are generally a mix of Shakespeare, classics, contemporary works and, occasionally, a world premiere of a new play. Their flagship venue is a 1,075-seat outdoor amphitheater (built on the spot where, in 1977, the company’s founders discovered the hillside’s natural acoustics) and in 2009 they opened a 200-seat indoor theater. APT draws an audience of around 100,000 people from across the country each year.
The Carnegie Mellon Connection
APT’s associate artistic director, Carey Cannon, is a graduate of CMU School of Drama’s acting program and first joined APT as an actor in 2001. She eventually became APT’s company manager, before taking on the role of associate artistic director. Her younger self would have never anticipated building a life and career in the woodlands of the Midwest.
“I always imagined that I’d be on one of the coasts because that’s where I grew up and what I understood about the theater. I didn’t really know much about regional theater,” she said. “I joke that I don’t know that I’d ever said the word ‘Wisconsin’ except to memorize the state capitals. I’ve never been outdoorsy, yet I’m about to spend 10 hours out in the woods in technical rehearsal for a Chekhov play. So, no, I did not anticipate this life. And it is such a gorgeous life.”
Cannon’s work as associate artist director runs the gamut from casting the season and overseeing the rehearsal process to hosting donor events and managing HR initiatives.
“It’s about humans,” she said. “It’s hot. It’s buggy. There’s weather. Artists require what they require to make art. So a big part of my job is holding space so that the work can be great, which is mostly taking care of humans.”
Some of those humans include fellow alumni and faculty from Carnegie Mellon. Robert Ramirez, Head of the School of Drama, is a frequent director at APT and Daniele Tyler Mathews, a graduate of the School of Drama’s MFA Costume Design program, is in their 17th season with the company.
Ramirez first learned about APT when he was in grad school, and got to experience it for himself as an audience member in 1994. He was working his first professional acting gig at the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival in Platteville about an hour away and decided to drive to Spring Green on one of his days off.
“It just kind of blew my mind,” he said, “this big outdoor space and the quality of the speaking and the acting of Shakespeare–to me, it was just like: Goals. These are goals.”
In 2011, those goals were realized when he was hired by APT’s then artistic director David Frank as a voice and text coach for a production of “Twelfth Night.” Ramirez returned for many seasons working as a voice coach, teaching in the apprenticeship program, and directing in their reading series. In 2022, he directed his first full production for APT–“The River Bride” in the indoor Touchstone Theatre. In 2024, he was asked to direct “Much Ado About Nothing” on the outdoor amphitheater stage, where he returned in 2025 to direct “Anna in the Tropics.”
The River Bride
Gabriela Castillo, Eduardo Xavier Curley-Carrillo, Erica Cruz Hernández, Triney Sandoval & Melisa Pereyra in “The River Bride” directed by Robert Ramirez.
Photo by Liz Lauren.
Much Ado About Nothing
Marcus Truschinski, Rasell Holt & Ronald Román-Meléndez in “Much Ado About Nothing” directed by Robert Ramirez, costume design by Daniele Tyler Mathews.
Photo by Liz Lauren.
Anna in the Tropics
Ronald Román-Meléndez & Melisa Pereyra in “Anna in the Tropics” directed by Robert Ramirez.
Photo by Michael Brosilow
“I never would have imagined that I would feel so at home in a tiny town surrounded by farmland in Wisconsin, but there’s something about the place,” said Ramirez. “I think it’s its dogged insistence on the importance of language and that the plays be heard that really touched me at my core. And they saw that that’s what I was about and so I was invited back.”
For Mathews–a New York City-based costume designer and drag artist (Gloria Swansong)–this summer marks 17 seasons with APT. In that time, they have costume designed 11 productions, including the “Much Ado About Nothing” that Ramirez directed. When asked what keeps them coming back, they point to the company’s commitment to artists and its democratized culture.
“When I first started at APT, David Frank always said that everybody should speak up in every meeting because you never know where the best idea is going to come from,” Mathews said. “It feels like they trust you and you can take risks and you can speak up. You don’t have to stay in your lane. And that just makes the work richer.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Casey Hoekstra, Jim DeVita & Joshua M. Castille in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Costume Design by Daniele Tyler Mathews
Photo by Michael Brosilow
Romeo & Juliet
Isabelle Bushue & Joshua M. Castille in “Romeo & Juliet” – Costume Design by Daniele Tyler Mathews.
Photo by Liz Lauren.
Much Ado About Nothing
Company of “Much Ado About Nothing” Directed by Robert Ramirez. Costume Design by Daniele Tyler Mathews.
Photo by Liz Lauren.
Artists + Audience = Community
Having a core company of artists that come back year over year cultivates a unique connection between those creating the work and those experiencing it from the audience. Cannon says that ethos is a very intentional aspect of APT.
“In order for the work to be this good, you have to have people who are committed to coming back and doing it,” Cannon said. “Dense poetic texts in a 1,000-seat outdoor amphitheater without amplification is no joke.”
To keep artists committed to coming back, the theater committed to them. Frank first established the need for a core company in the late 90s, and it has continued to grow under Brenda DeVita’s artistic leadership since she took the reins in 2014.
The deep attachment Spring Green audiences feel toward APT’s resident artists can be exemplified in the company’s current production of Ionesco’s “The Chairs.” One might not presume that an absurdist tragic farce would be a small town box office hit, and were it not for the recognizable faces in the lead roles, it may not have been.
“We have so few seats left,” Cannon said, before the production had even opened. “It’s one thing for ‘Come From Away’ to sell out; it’s another thing for Ionesco to sell out. And that’s because of the two actors who are in it, who are virtuosic. Our audience will be like, ‘What are Jim and Colleen in? Let’s go see that.’”
The relationship is reciprocal for the artists as well. In the hustle of the entertainment industry, it can be rare for theater-makers to really know and connect with the people in the audiences, but for the artists who return to APT year after year, they feel part of the community.
“The guy at the coffee shop knows you, and the lady at the antique shop knows you and she remembers what you like to buy,” said Ramirez, reflecting on his own connection with the people in Spring Green.
Mathews has gotten to know the local community not only through their many years working as an APT designer, but also through their own drag performances, which attract audiences from Spring Green and the neighboring towns.
“It’s been really edifying to bring my queer culture and my drag family to this town and to really get to know people through that,” they said.
From Rolling Hills to Radio City
Having such a tight knit community of both artists and audiences made the Tony win for APT all the sweeter. The award itself has been making the rounds in Spring Green, giving everyone in town the opportunity to see it, take a picture with it, and give the center medallion a spin.
“This town is 1,600 people. The Tonys per capita in this town beats any place in America,” Cannon said with a laugh. “It’s a community award, so it belongs to everybody who’s ever worked here, and everybody who’s ever worked here understands that inherently.”
Ramirez was elated when he heard the news. Both Cannon and DeVita reached out personally not only to tell him about the award, but to also acknowledge his part in making it happen. That kind of communal recognition seems to come naturally for a company whose mission and values are so human-centered.
Carey Cannon and Gloria Swansong outside Radio City Music Hall for the 2026 Tony Awards.
Laura Lamansky, Alex Huhn, Jim DeVita, Brenda DeVita, Sara Becker, Michele Traband, Evelyn Matten, Shana Lewis, Laurel Brown, Holly Payne, Gloria Swansong, Kelly O’Rourke, Carey Cannon and Sara Young at the Tony Awards.
American Players Theater’s Tony Award on the tech table.
Several members of the APT staff and company attended the Tony Awards on June 7 in New York City. For Cannon, the experience was profound. She had the opportunity to reconnect with some of her CMU classmates, including Tony nominee Michael McElroy, whom she met for lunch across from Radio City Music Hall.
“I could see a hologram of my 19-year-old self with all those theater baby dreams and hopes,” she said, “and then my actual almost 60-year-old self being in the reality of this beautiful truth that I hadn’t ever thought to dream of.”
American Players Theatre’s current season runs through November.
Learn more at americanplayers.org.
Header photo: “Much Ado About Nothing” 2024, Directed by Robert Ramirez, Costume Design by Daniele Tyler Mathews. Photo by Liz Lauren.