Welcome to the Woods
American Players Theatre is located on 110 serene wooded acres just outside of Spring Green, Wisconsin. From June through November, APT produces nine world-class productions in a rotating repertory across two stages nestled into the rolling Driftless landscape. APT opened its 1,075-seat outdoor Hill Theatre in the summer of 1980. The 200-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre followed in 2009. Today, five productions are staged for the Hill Theatre and four productions are staged in the Touchstone. These nine annual productions feature a breadth of genres and stories, ranging from ancient Greek dramas to incubated world premieres. APT is not just a night at the theater. APT is a seasonal ritual - one that everyone does a little differently. APT is a rare opportunity to disconnect from the world and reconnect with those around you. An audience of strangers become a community as they journey together beneath a sky of stars as brilliant as the performances onstage.
Take a look around!
- The 2026 Season
- The Core Acting Company
- Our Mission
- Spring Green, Wisconsin
- APT in the Press
- More to Discover
- Get in Touch!
The 2026 Season
APT is currently setting the stage for it's 47th season, opening June 2026. The season schedule is now available. Learn more about the upcoming plays below.
The Core Acting Company
A forest 40 miles from the nearest city may seem like a surprising venue for world-class theater. But these pastoral stages draw talent from around the country, both on stage and behind the scenes. At the heart of the company is a core group actors who have made APT their artistic home. Having worked together for years on our stage and others, they have a chemistry that’s hard to match, and the put every ounce of it into these stories.
Full bios for the 2026 Acting Company, including the Core Company, can be found here.
Our Mission
American Players Theatre’s mission is to perform timeless, challenging, poetic texts, with Shakespeare at the center, to the broadest audience possible. We strive to share our understanding that great poetry and stories, both from our past and from the emerging voices of our future, can illuminate the ever-expanding experience of what it is to be human.
Spring Green, Wisconsin
There’s something just a little otherworldly about APT’s hometown. In part, it’s the land - known as the Driftless Area, it's replete with rolling hills and stony bluffs, artfully divided by the Wisconsin River. We can thank the glaciers for all of this. Or rather, we can thank them for gliding strategically around our little slice of the heartland, leaving Spring Green and the surrounding area completely unique in the region. Winding through it all, the Wisconsin River, providing kayaking, fishing and more. In fact, lovers of the outdoors will be spellbound by biking, hiking and paddling the Driftless.
But it’s not just the earth beneath our feet that makes this place what it is. It’s the atmosphere; the subtle thrill of being part of a perfect summer day. It’s the people; the eclectic mix of arty and earthy that runs through the folks that call this place home. Creative people like Frank Lloyd Wright, who chose to make Spring Green not just his home, but the home of his architecture school, Taliesin, located just up the road from APT.
Sure, it’s a bit off the beaten path. A tad shy of the typical mint-on-the-pillow amenities you might find in more cosmopolitan areas. But what Spring Green has to offer is a lot harder to find, and impossible to forget once you've experienced it.
APT in the Press
Read up on some recent coverage of APT in regional and national media.
An Unexpected Bright Spot in Theater? Look to Wisconsin. Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times
For an Unconventional Fall Adventure, Head to this Quirky Corner of Wisconsin Jacqueline Kehoe, The Wall Street Journal
Best Outdoor Theater Performance Newsweek
More to Discover
We hope the following information will acquaint you with this surprising theater in the woods. For more video content, please visit the APT YouTube channel.
Get in Touch!
Interested in learning more about APT? For additional information, electronic images or to schedule artist interviews, please contact: Erin Milleville, Communications and Education Coordinator | emilleville@americanplayers.org | (608) 588-0355 Jess Amend, Marketing Director | jamend@americanplayers.org | (608) 588-9240