In the Lead

Offstage and out of costume, four of American Players Theatre’s leading women discuss the art of showcasing Shakespeare on stage, the place of feminism in classical theater, and life after the curtains close

Colleen Madden

With APT: As an actress for 11 seasons

Brenda DeVita

With APT: For 16 seasons, now as associate artistic director

Sarah Day

With APT: As an actress for 26 seasons

Tracy Michelle Arnold

APT: As an actress for 12 seasons

By Bill Bodden

Photographed by David King

I’m driving west on Highway 14, meandering through lush green hills and farm fields just outside of Madison. Cross Plains, Black Earth, Mazomanie and Arena straddle the path to my final destination: the wooded campus of American Players Theatre in Spring Green.

After the 40-mile excursion, I turn onto APT’s 100-plus acre home and look for a place to park that won’t be in anyone’s way. It’s June—just days before the start of their summer season—and there is a bustle of activity before the actors begin rehearsing each day from noon to midnight.

As I turn around in the gravel parking lot next to the administrative offices, a familiar face catches my eye. Sarah Day, the veteran APT actress, waves; she’s here to help. With a smile she points me to a spot, and I can’t help but think: Where else but in Wisconsin would a seasoned actor in a renowned theatre company help me, a total stranger, park my car?

That’s just the APT way. From the actors and directors, set designers and costume creators to the office staff, you can sense the friendliness as soon as you arrive. It may be the summer-camp atmosphere that develops when hundreds of workers descend upon Spring Green prior to the season, or it may be the relationships that naturally evolve at a uniquely run organization in a welcoming Midwestern town. Whatever the case, it’s this kind of warmth—and decades of high-caliber theater—that make visiting APT a magical experience.

A 33-year-old theater company that has grown into a powerhouse on the arts scene—described as “one of the finest classical repertory companies in the country” by Theatre in Chicago—APT relies on a simple mission: “To perform the classics, especially the works of Shakespeare, outside, under the sun, moon and stars.” To accomplish the task of bringing classical theater to life in the great outdoors, APT is one of the few theater companies nationwide to employ a “core company” of actors. Each with a long-term commitment to the organization, they work together throughout the season’s run, building a camaraderie and understanding of each other rarely found elsewhere.

Deeply involved in the family of actors are a unique group of women who have matured with the company through various stages of its growth. Actress Day, embarking on her 26th year with APT, could be considered the group’s matriarch. Actress Colleen Madden is in her 11th season while actress Tracy Michelle Arnold is embarking on her 12th. And Brenda DeVita, on her 16th season with the group, is a former professional actress who now plays a leading role behind the scenes as associate artistic director.

A group of women with an overwhelming wealth of creativity, knowledge and experience, they joined me during a brief moment of down time to discuss living the artistic life.

Bill Bodden: You have each been with APT for more than a decade. How has the environment changed since you started?

Sarah Day: They were very rustic beginnings. When I started in 1985, our dressing rooms were literally a shack. When the weather
got chilly they would nail up plastic, trying to keep us warm. Our shower was a hose hanging from a tree. We had Porta-Potties. Imagine struggling into a Porta-Potty wearing a gorgeous, elaborate costume with a big skirt. We also used to do Shakespeare completely uncut. Those were very long evenings for everyone.

Tracy Arnold: In the decade since I started, the quality of work here has continued to improve at all levels. There’s a real hunger to be better and not just get by.

BB: The theater is understood to be a highly competitive environment. Do you still find that when auditioning for roles?

Colleen Madden: As core company members, we don’t have to audition against each other. I think some people thrive and do their best work in a competitive atmosphere; I personally don’t. At this theater and with these actors, we get to do our work without having to squabble for it. I don’t think you can say that anywhere else.

SD: One of the legacies from Randy Kim [Randall Duk Kim, co-founder of APT] is that we’ve stayed a little actor-centric, which is an anomaly. Originally, Randy didn’t have directors; the idea was that—like in Shakespeare’s day—the actors were creating these roles, and they would figure out how to do the play among themselves. It wasn’t the most successful model, but it was exciting.

TA: We do face competition when we audition outside of APT. There you don’t have the great support system we have here. At APT I can make a crazy fool of myself in rehearsal, and I’m not risking not ever working in theater again because an actor saw me do something wild. Here my brothers and sisters say, ‘Good for you—you tried it!’ even if it doesn’t work. Being able to [take] risks on a daily basis broadens your confidence and your abilities. You don’t get that growth going from job to job dealing with strangers each time.

Brenda DeVita: No one’s getting famous or rich here, but the fact that you can … work with the quality of actors here means everything. That’s ‘sunshine pay’; it’s like taking a job in California where they can’t pay much, but there’s lots of sunshine.

BB: Speaking of ‘sunshine pay,’ very few artistic careers are financially rewarding. What do you find personally rewarding about being here at APT?

CM: I came here from New York. [At the time] I didn’t want to come. … I remember thinking, ‘Wisconsin? What’s in the Midwest?’ But I went, and the first night I remember looking up and seeing [a] crazy number of stars. It’s so beautiful here.

BDV: [Not all actors] want to do this—which is understandable. [But] I always feel a little sad for them that this place doesn’t affect them in that way. [Actor] John Lang said, ‘It’s like walking through fire when you work at APT; you must surrender to the idea that you’ll be spending time with yourself—your best self and your worst self.’

TA: That may be one of the big reasons why some people don’t stick; they don’t stay because there’s nothing else to contemplate. You have to face your own ugliness and listen to the words that come out of your mouth.

BB: APT was founded to produce the classic works, particularly the works of Shakespeare. Many people find Shakespeare intimidating or inaccessible. How do you convince them to give it a chance?

TA: I was listening to the radio and a woman called in saying, ‘I’ve never been to APT. I’d like to bring my 13-year-old daughter. How should I prepare?’ Please let us do the work. We arrive weeks in advance to prepare so you can come here and enjoy yourself. Don’t come with anxiety that ‘I’m not smart enough to understand Shakespeare.’ It’s just like going to a movie you haven’t seen. We want you to come up the hill with the same anticipation of having a story told to you.

CM: For my money, every idea in ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ is crystal clear. I tear up thinking there will be people dragged to this show by a spouse or a friend whose only experience [with Shakespeare] will have been a tortuous school semester somewhere. And they’ll come here and realize what they’ve been missing. It doesn’t sound so difficult when spoken; it doesn’t sound archaic. We don’t dumb down the language.

BDV: We hear this all the time: ‘How did you pick which words to change so I could understand it?’ They think we’ve rewritten it.

SD: That’s high praise. Shakespeare is too often only read; it was meant to be seen and heard.

BDV: [And this environment enhances that.] When Jim [Brenda’s husband and APT core company actor] is onstage talking about the ‘rough winds’ and wind blows through, it makes it so immediate and tactile. That’s what’s so important about theater in general—and Shakespeare in particular—that language is alive, and you shiver when you really get it.

BB: What kind of challenges does a woman face in the theater that a man might not?

SD: For an actor in a Shakespearian company, it’s frightening; there may be 35 characters, four of whom (at most) will be women. Men can start out being spear carriers and gradually move up. For women, getting in at all is the challenge.

CM: On the flip side, Shakespeare wrote astonishing roles for ingénues. Juliet is one of the most complex, beautiful roles ever written and she’s supposed to be 14. The chops it takes to do Juliet well—that’s hard to find.

BDV: Shakespeare’s plays are all about the energy of youth and about what’s possible. The forgiveness for how badly [the characters] behave and the decisions they make rests on the fact that they’re young. You don’t forgive a 35-year-old Juliet; she should know better.

CM: [The age thing,] that’s something that the media world has changed for all of us. It’s not as tough for men. There’s a wide stretch of what’s appealing in men, and it’s much narrower for women. Men that are older can play younger roles for a lot longer.

BDV: It’s starting to happen to men now, too. When Jimmy played Hamlet here he was 42—he probably looked 35—and people commented that he looked a little long in the tooth. It’s an interesting dilemma for actors because more experience doesn’t mean more work. Even at the height of your earning potential in the corporate world at 40, you have a good 10 to 15 years of steady income ahead of you. For actresses, you’re limited by what roles are available to you. As you age, you’re the most skilled you’ve ever been, but you may not get the best roles.

CM: That’s true; as we get better in our craft, the roles appropriate for our age disappear.

SD: I’m 52, and I imagine people look at me and think, ‘Oh, I kinda look a bit like her,’ or, ‘I know someone who looks like her.’ My hips are too big but a lot of people’s hips are too big. It’s ridiculous for me to pretend I’m still 40—I can’t be real on stage if I don’t think, ‘This is who I am; I bet I’m a lot like you.’ There are people who want to see themselves as opposed to an ideal. It’s more about seeing a story they can relate to than getting to a fantasy world.

BB: At times, the theater world—and Shakespeare in particular—has been criticized for its portrayals of women. Does the idea of feminism have any meaning in your lives?

SD: Theater has always had its own feminism. In theater, women get jobs because that’s what the script requires.

CM: I remember feminists talking about Shakespeare being misogynist. In college I realized he’d written these incredibly complex, profound women who are very different from each other, and often smarter than the men—Viola [from ‘Twelfth Night’] and Rosalind [from ‘As You Like It’], for example. Some of them will literally kill to get ahead—like Margaret [from ‘Henry VI’ and ‘Richard III’]. And some will only do what’s right and are very noble. There’s a vast array of women that he wrote.

It’s not saying men and women should be the same; they are biologically and emotionally different. That’s where feminism got a bad rap; at some point people thought feminism stood for ‘the same in every way.’

BDV: Other actresses might say, ‘That role is demeaning to women.’ Feminism [to me] is about having choices. If that role is something I want to do—because I like the play or I like the role—that’s my choice. I was given grief at a Shakespeare conference by a woman who was doing very avant-garde, feminist work with Shakespeare. She called me out. It was really public, and I was taken aback. My response was that I haven’t made it my mission to be a feminist that tells you what your work should say.

You can’t find people more willing to talk about what’s fair than in the theater. True misogynists are looked down upon, and don’t tend to survive in this business.

BB: Outside of your APT lives you have other artistic projects, but you also have families. How do you balance this type of
career and your personal lives?

TA: In the theater you’re auditioning for shows all over the country, so you’re never really in one place for long. It’s hard to have long-term relationships. If you have a child ... moving from state to state with your kid is really hard. At least here, for five or six months of the year we get to be in one place.

BDV: I came [here] as an actor. I hadn’t done a lot of classical work, but Jimmy got hired here and we found out I was pregnant. We didn’t know if he would be here for more than a year, so I decided to get a ‘real’ job. After having my son I unconsciously decided not to act anymore, and did a lot of soul-searching on how to still have a fulfilling life. When Jimmy joined the company, and I started to do different, more creative work, we [chose] to be in a place where we could raise a family. That was unusual then.

[To do that, you have to] build community, because you’re not going to be able to build up a bank book. Building community means you take care of each other; that’s the security that I think we’ve built [here at APT].

TA: I love that my kids are surrounded by colorful personalities and artists. They get to have all these diverse men and women—gay, straight, African-American, Caucasian—in their lives. It’s extraordinary.

CM: I grew up with very little money in my family. My parents were both in college getting their degrees, but we had this great community of interesting academics. That’s what I remember of being a kid—how much fun that was. I hope I’m giving my kids that.

BB: As you look back on your careers and lives thus far, what advice would you offer young actors?

BDV: There are so many phenomenal opportunities: lighting, sound or costume design, stage manager, director. There are many ways to have a life in theater that don’t involve acting. But it’s a hard life being an artist; you have to accept sometimes that you’re not going to have the career you thought you would.

CM: Don’t find yourself in it because you didn’t explore other things. If you’re going to school for it, especially as an undergrad, take history classes and read all sorts of literature. You’ll be a better actor, director or costume designer if you have context in which to view everything.

BDV: Assess what makes you happy. I think people are attracted to the challenge of being an artist but don’t love the art. It’s about deciding how you want to spend your life.

TA: You don’t necessarily make a great living doing this, but you can make a great life doing this.

With that, the women were off to another day of rehearsals. Today, you can catch the APT season in full swing. As crowds climb the hill to enjoy a magical evening and reviews fill newspapers and blogs locally and afar—all that’s left for these four talented women to do is take a bow.

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