This week, Scottish Play Scotty is on vacation and the long-retired Stage Door Jonny has been called into action to fill this column space with tales of the great outdoors.
For those subject to an academic schedule (students, parents, teachers), the vacation season may seem all but over, and good riddance some will say after our record-breaking overheated summer. But now that temperatures are moderating at last, conditions are much better for enjoying theater in the great outdoors. Several local outdoor theaters already have completed their seasons, but other regional options keep playing into early autumn, making them the perfect locus for a late-summer getaway weekend.
Perhaps the best of the bunch is American Players Theatre (APT), nestled in the rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin on the banks of the Wisconsin River about 40 miles west of Madison. You can drive there in under four hours to explore the considerable pleasures of this beautiful region, among which are canoeing or kayaking on the river (hey, there's a nude beach), visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, succumbing to the tourist lures of the House on the Rock, hiking in several verdant state parks and enjoying the artists' colony of historic Mineral Point. There's excellent locally sourced and sustainably grown cuisine everywhere, and accommodations range from the luxury House on the Rock Resort to bed-and-breakfasts to the basic comforts of several local motels and campsites.
But the main deal is American Players Theatre itself, now 33 years old and boasting the intimate indoor Touchstone Theatre in addition to its nearly 1,200-seat Up-the-Hill outdoor theater, built into a natural amphitheater. Between the two playhouses, one can see six plays in three days, or take it easy and see only two or three. I saw three on a recent two-day visit, representing a broad range of classical and contemporary work typical of what the classically inspired American Players Theatre (APT) now does.
The first night I saw The Royal Family at the Up-the-Hill Theatre. Written in 1928 by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, this famous comedy with a bittersweet ending is a thinly veiled portrait of the Barrymore family (the grandparents and great-grandparents of Drew Barrymore), who were considered the royal family of U.S. theater. The play is one of the great valentines to theater but wisely is not so much a backstage story as a family story, which is what gives it plenty of heart. More specifically, The Royal Family focuses on three generations of women, an emphasis typical of much of Ferber's work.
The lavish production with elegant costumes compares favorably with the outstanding staging at Steppenwolf Theatre 10 years ago, directed by Frank Galati. However, if you've never seen The Royal Family, comparisons don't matter, and you will have a fine time with this spiffy period piece that successfully balances raucous comedy and intimate moments as directed by Laura Gordon.
The next afternoon I escaped a steamy day for 100 minutes in the air-conditioned comfort of the Touchstone Theatre, where James Bohnen (former artistic director of Remy Bumppo Theatre here in Chicago) directed the French play Heroes (in a Tom Stoppard English adaptation), about three World War I vets planning an escape from the veterans' home in which they live, circa 1959. If not a heavyweight play, it certainly is a charmer as performed by three veterans of APT ensemble, all well-known to regular APT audiences.
That night, as temperatures cooled into the comfy upper 60s (although humid), I once more climbed Up-the-Hill for one of Shakespeare's great historic pageants, Richard III (or "Dick da' Shit" as my father called it because the title character is "Richard da' Turd"). Other than the beautiful World War I-era costumes, this was a straightforward interpretation of this complicated political story, with the title role vigorously and ably performed by veteran APT leading man James Ridge, as directed by longtime APT stalwart James DeVita.
All three of these plays continue at APT through the last weekend of September, as do several other productions in the rotating repertory, among them Shakespeare's dark comedy Troilus and Cressida, as directed by well-known Chicago-based directed William Brown. (Some of us remember, too, how very good he was when he still was acting and wish we could see him onstage again.) In addition, a handful of APT actors have made inroads at Chicago's theaters and will be familiar to frequent local aficionados; among said actors are Marcus Truschinski and Tracy Michelle Arnold, both of whom are performing leading roles in The Royal Family.
For a slew of more familiar Chicago faces, travel to Door County, where the classic summer-stock operation, the Peninsula Players, continues through Oct. 14 in its 500-seat weather-protected pavilion on the shores of Green Bay. There might be a few at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Mich., which continues through Sept. 2 with Spamalot and then an original musical called Raunch and Roll.
Among the seasonal summer theaters going soon or already gone are the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in Bloomington/Normal (ended Aug. 11), the Chicago Park District's Theater on the Lake (ended Aug. 5), First Folio Theatre in Oakbrook (The Merchant of Venice closes Aug. 19) and the Oak Park Festival Theatre (Richard III ends Aug. 25).