Artistic Director Search

First and foremost, the Artistic Director sets and fulfills the artistic vision in a manner in keeping with APT’s mission and values.

Artistic Planning and Programming
The Artistic Director plans and stewards the APT season – play selection, choosing directors, putting together design teams, casting, and nurturing each production from planning through rehearsal and performance.

In addition, the Artistic Director is responsible for other peripheral artistic programming including The Language Project, the apprentice program, the Winter Words reading series, among others.

Managing Artistic Standards and Aesthetics
The Artistic Director sets high artistic standards and determines and ensures aesthetic values. This includes cultivating relationships with artists who currently work at APT or are prospects for future projects. The Artistic Director, along with the Associate Artistic Director and Artistic Associates, manage directors, actors, designers, voice & text coaches, and other artistic specialists to ensure the quality of both the artistic product and their work experience. All told, the Artistic Director directly manages 30 staff members and co-manages or indirectly manages 60.

Key Artist
Typically, the Artistic Director directs one production each season. If they are a designer, actor, or other practicing theater artist, they could serve in their preferred area in lieu of directing.

Company Culture 
At APT, how we work is as important as the work itself. The Artistic Director is one of the primary stewards of a collaborative and inclusive culture – the values, practices and relationships that define how it feels and what it means to work at APT.

This includes cultivating authentic relationships with and developing/coaching the Core Company actors who serve as leaders and mentors within the acting company; developing emerging artists and creating conditions for continuous growth at every level; ensuring the production and rehearsal process is characterized by rigor, trust, and genuine creative partnership; and modeling the communication practices – honesty, directness, vulnerability, respect – that APT’s culture requires.

In addition, the Artistic Director will play a key role in leading APT’s never-ending journey of equity and belonging. This includes advancing the practices APT has adopted, and continuing the work grounded in the tenets laid out in APT’s Equity and Belonging Plan, including:

• Expanding the range of perspectives, identities, and cultures that make up APT.
• Addressing the structures, obstacles, and systemic forces that have excluded artists, artisans, and audiences alike.
• Inviting a diverse audience.
• Holding ourselves and each other in an accountable relationship.
• Investing the necessary resources to make this work possible.

Organizational Leadership
The Artistic Director collaborates with the Managing Director in a co-leadership relationship. Artistic ambition and operational sustainability must be held in genuine balance, and the Artistic Director must be as interested in the budget and other administrative functions as the Managing Director is in the work on stage. This balance depends on a high-functioning, open, and trusting relationship between the two roles.

Likewise, the Artistic Director and Managing Director work together in partnership with the Board of Directors. They understand governance not as a constraint on artistic leadership but as a responsibility that comes with institutional authority. They communicate with the Board with transparency and regularity – sharing outcomes as well as reasoning, and successes as well as challenges.

The Artistic Director is required to engage substantively in the annual budgeting process to ensure that artistic decisions fit within the framework of the organizational financial picture. They also co-lead the Leadership Team, a small group of senior administrative, artistic, and production staff who collaborate on matters of concern/consequence across the organization. In addition, in keeping with the company culture, the Artistic Director is available, transparent, accountable, and welcoming with colleagues at every level throughout the organization.

External Relations & Community Stewardship
The Artistic Director is APT’s most visible public representative. They speak compellingly about the mission, artistic work, and culture to donors, press, peers, and the broader community, with the same authenticity they bring to every other dimension of their leadership.

They will especially be called upon by the development staff to participate in building relationships with funders and potential funders. They are genuinely embedded in the community, which includes the APT community (staff and audience) and the Spring Green/River Valley community, understanding that APT’s relationship with its neighbors is part of its identity. They also engage with peer organizations as needed to both gather information, and to be a resource.

There are no required credentials such as years of experience or educational degrees to be considered for this position. This is intentional, in order to be equitable and open to a wide range of candidates. However, the screening committee will consider the following experiences and skills to identify candidates for the role.

• Artistic Leadership at a scale and complexity comparable to APT or the tools and experience to adapt to it.
• Familiarity with the operational realities of a professional theater.
• A service-driven leadership orientation.
• Aesthetic acumen, able to recognize and strive for excellence in the work on stage and
• Expertise in classical and poetic text, especially but not limited to Shakespeare. This includes an understanding of how it works, what it demands of the actors, and how to create conditions in which it can land with clarity and power.
• Proven ability to build and sustain ensemble culture: authentic relationships with artists and staff, high standards of craft, and other practices consistent with APT’s values.
• Evidence of exceptional authentic communication across many groups of stakeholders.
• Experience working in genuine partnership with a managing leader, artistic team, and other staff.
• Deep understanding and belief in institutional fiscal health and sustainability.
• Demonstrated commitment to equity in casting, hiring, dramaturgy, and institutional experiences.
• A practicing artist, especially a director, is preferred but not required.
• Proven ability for strategic thinking, skilled at balancing competing priorities.
• Able to be self-sufficient in administrative functions with minimal assistance.

APT's Essence Document is explicit: how we do our work is as important as the work we do. This section outlines personal and leadership traits that the Artistic Director will need to accomplish this goal.

Rooted in Mission, Rigor, and a Commitment to Getting Better: The Artistic Director should be in service to the APT staff, audience, and community. They have institutional humility: they are genuinely curious, they listen, and they measure their success by the health and vitality of the organization, the people who work for it, and the people it serves. They honor APT’s legacy by understanding it deeply enough to evolve it responsibly rather than simply replicating it.

At the same time, they hold themselves and the people around them to a high standard of craft, skill, and effort. They are not satisfied with “good enough,” and they create a culture where continuous improvement is encouraged, expected, and celebrated.

Purpose-Driven Artistic Vision: Animated by a purpose larger than themselves — one clear and compelling enough to orient an entire organization and magnetize the people around it. This is different from having a strong artistic point of view, though it includes that. It is understanding what theater is fundamentally for, what it provides to a human life, what it makes possible in a community. The Artistic Director articulates these ideas without jargon or performance – people in the room feel it rather than simply hear it. This purpose must encompass APT’s own mission and the Artistic Director must live inside it. The woods, the language, the community, the audience making a deliberate pilgrimage to this specific place are not context for their leadership. They nare the reason for it.

Authentic Presence, Integrity, and Empathy: Has a strong sense of self, and one that is consistent across constituencies. They are secure enough to be uncertain, to say what is true, to engage in uncomfortable conversations with bravery and respect, to not harbor frustration, and to be vulnerably honest. They must be able to deliver difficult truths with care and receive difficult truths with genuine openness rather than defensiveness. People feel seen, challenged, and safe in equal measure. The standard is high and the environment is human.

Personal Accountability: Has confidence and self-awareness to remain stable through criticism and difficult conversations without internalizing it as a verdict on their worth. They own mistakes and outcomes and avoid defensiveness and blame-shifting that erodes trust over time.
 
Leading Through Complexity: Navigates tension between legacy and evolution, artistic ambition and financial responsibility, and established expertise and emerging talent. They do not resolve these tensions by choosing one side. They lead through them — naming them honestly, bringing the relevant stakeholders into productive dialogue, and making decisions that honor the full complexity of what APT is and aspires to be.

Introduction 
American Players Theatre (APT) occupies a singular place in American theater. Located near rural Spring Green, WI, APT has spent decades building something that is genuinely difficult to name but impossible to mistake when you experience it — a convergence of language, landscape, community, and trust that creates not only extraordinary theater experiences but also an environment of belonging for artists and audiences alike.

Mission 
APT’s mission is to perform timeless, challenging poetic plays — with Shakespeare at the center — to as broad an audience as 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. 
 

Location, Venue and Scale
APT is located on 110 wooded acres four miles south of Spring Green, Wisconsin, a small village (population 1,566) 40 miles west of Madison. From June through October, APT produces approximately 200 performances of eight plays in rotating repertory. Five productions are staged in the outdoor Hill Theatre, APT’s flagship 1,000-seat amphitheater. Three productions take place in the 200-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre. A ninth production closes out the season in the Touchstone Theatre in October and November.

Read more about APT’s Rotating Repertory schedule, including advantages and challenges.

Production shops begin building for the season in mid-April and rehearsal begins in late April/early May. Five plays (three on the Hill, two in the Touchstone) open in June, and three more (two on the Hill, one in the Touchstone) open in August.

In addition to the theaters, APT’s campus also houses all production facilities, including shops, storage, administrative offices, and rehearsal halls. Public areas include dozens of acres maintained for picnicking and nature hikes, and many patrons arrive well before the performance to enjoy the grounds. The Hill Theatre is a 10-minute walk on a wooded path from the picnic area, and shuttle buses are available for those who would rather ride. The Touchstone Theatre is a 5-minute walk from the picnic area through restored prairie land.

The theater has 38 year-round staff members, and seasonal staff which brings the total staff count to nearly 300. The annual budget is $10.7 million. 
 

Read more about APT’s budget here. 
Read more about APT’s campus and facilities here.

APT History
APT was founded by Charles Bright, Randall Duk Kim, and Anne Occhiogrosso who had a vision to create a center for classical theater. The founders searched throughout Wisconsin to find a location for their theater that was in proximity to potential audiences but outside an urban center. Their vision was to perform classics “complete and uncut” and to focus on craft, “to be guided and taught by the texts themselves and to bring into being a truly versatile team of men and women who are capable of skillful, intelligent, impassioned, and revealing stage work.”

The site on which APT settled was a farmstead located four miles outside Spring Green and less than two miles from the Wisconsin River and Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and school. The first performance was A Midsummer Night’s Dream on July 18, 1980. 

By the end of the first decade, the founders had moved on to pursue other endeavors. Sheldon Wilner was appointed Managing Director in 1988, and David Frank was appointed Artistic Director in 1991. APT’s second decade was one of significant growth, with the audience nearly doubling and major infrastructure projects improving conditions both for the audience and behind the scenes.

David Frank was appointed Producing Artistic Director in 2005 upon Wilner’s departure. During David Frank’s tenure, he developed the Core Acting Company and Apprentice Program. Also, in 2009, he led the effort to open the 200-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre which allowed APT to extend the season and expand the dramaturgy.

Brenda DeVita was appointed Artistic Director in 2014, as David Frank was transitioning into retirement. DeVita began at APT in 1995 as Company Manager and quickly rose through the ranks to become the Associate Artistic Director by 2004. She worked alongside David Frank to develop the Core Acting Company and the Acting Apprentice Program. As Artistic Director, Brenda DeVita developed APT’s Voice and Text Program, launched the Creating the Classics of Tomorrow new play development program, and the Language Project training program.

Read more about APT’s history here. 
 

What makes APT genuinely unusual is not its scale but its culture. Artists and staff describe it as a place where the work is rigorous, the relationships are real, and the values are put into practice every day. The rural Wisconsin countryside provides literal and metaphorical space for artists to recharge and concentrate on their craft. The result is an ensemble culture, a loyal and passionate audience, and an institutional identity built on authenticity.

APT is devoted to creating a unique and personal experience for the audience through clear and compelling storytelling inside of language-based, poetic plays. We believe that works widely regarded as classics are relevant and powerful today, but we are also uniquely positioned to seek out and explore work with potential to become classics for future generations. We also seek out classic stories from across the world to include in our repertory. Diversity and representation are important to our work, as evidenced by the fact that half of the acting company and one third of guest artists identify as people of color.

APT is dedicated to rigor and excellence in our work both individually and collectively. Furthermore, we believe how we create art is as important as the art we create. To that end, we dedicate ourselves to developing the organization based on shared values of trust, respect, and the joyful pursuit of constant improvement. As we have grown in these values, we have been fortunate to attract excellent guest artists to join in this pursuit. 

For more on how we work and the work we create, please see APT's Essence Document.

The plays in the Hill Theatre are expansive in production size as well as theme. The natural landscape plays a significant role, with the woods, stars, and environment combining to heighten the artistic experience. The productions in the Touchstone Theatre complement the work on the Hill, featuring plays better suited to an intimate, indoor experience. Typically, two of APT’s five Hill productions are by Shakespeare, with the balance chosen from other language-based works. APT’s dramaturgy continues to evolve. What was once a season built almost exclusively from the works of European playwrights now includes American classics and iconic plays from a broader demographic of artists. The audience has embraced the evolution, and together the artists and audience continue to explore the question, “what is a classic?”

APT creates productions that are challenging, yet accessible; classical, yet piercingly relevant. One of the most important hallmarks of APT is a focus on voice and text, and the conviction that poetic text is not just a style choice but a way to transform the audience experience: to heighten emotion, challenge beliefs, and hold a mirror up to our common experience. To achieve excellence in this area, APT has a dedicated full-time Voice and Text Coach on each production, and they are essential to the creative team and work with the actors in individual coaching sessions and in rehearsal.

APT actors and artists value skill in their craft and couple it with intention, bravery, and honesty. The Core Acting Company, 18 actors who comprise a subset of the 45-member company, have devoted their careers to pursuing excellence, to making text transformative and elevating. Their skill and deep experience are fundamental to APT’s success. They are leaders within the acting company and APT is their artistic home. The audience ardently follows their careers, invests in their success and cheers them on as they mature.
 

Read more about the Core Acting Company here.

This depth of experience and artistry in the Core Acting Company is also abundant in the production shops; the Core Production Staff is made up of 19 artisans who are leaders across all areas of the 100-member production staff. They create, construct, and ensure the quality of all aspects of production with the same care and rigor as their colleagues in the acting company. 

See APT’s Values, Land Acknowledgement and Equity and Belonging Statement here. 
 

See more information about APT's staff and audience here.

The Village of Spring Green is located in the Driftless Region of Southwest Wisconsin, a few miles from the Wisconsin River. It is named the “Driftless Region” because it was bypassed by the glaciers in the last ice age, leaving a beautiful landscape of dramatic limestone bluffs, forested hills and ridges, and deep river valleys.

Spring Green is part of what is referred to as the River Valley and is the largest community in the River Valley School District, which also includes the communities of Plain, Lone Rock and Arena, as well as several townships, including the Town of Wyoming where the APT campus is located. The area is a fascinating combination of a small rural town and a vibrant arts haven, where people know their neighbors and get involved in the community. 
 
The median age skews higher than the Wisconsin average, likely due to the many people who either age in place or retire to the area. 95% of Spring Green’s population identifies as white. The per capita income and the median household income are about 10% higher than that of Wisconsin overall. The median value of owner-occupied homes is $258,600.

The River Valley area has an active arts scene to complement APT, especially considering the size of the community. Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and school, is located two miles from APT and attracts tens of thousands of visitors annually. In addition, dozens of artists and musicians live and work in the River Valley. The House on the Rock, an eclectic museum and nationally known roadside attraction, is also in the area.

Thousands of tourists visit the area annually, mainly during the summer months. This part of the year is dotted with music, art events and festivals, including a Bob Dylan Festival (BobFest), a classical music series hosted by Rural Musicians Forum, the Spring Green Arts and Crafts Fair, weekly concerts at the Sh*tty Barn, BeatleFest, and the Fall Art Tour.

APT is proud to be an active part of the River Valley community with many staff participating in civic organizations. APT is also a major economic driver for the area, supporting over $45 million in economic impact annually. 

See more details on APT’s effect on the River Valley economy here.

Residency
The demands of the Artistic Director position require personal connection to the APT community, including with artists, staff and other stakeholders. The Artistic Director will need to be in person at APT a great deal, both during the season and off-season. For these reasons, it is highly preferable that once hired, they live full time in close proximity to APT.

Compensation
The salary range for this position is $135,000 - $175,000.

Benefits include medical, dental and vision and life insurance, HSA/FSA, generous paid time off and seasonal schedule flexibility and 403(b) with employer match.

Applications will remain open at least through January 31, 2027, with initial screenings to take place in the first quarter of 2027. APT expects to make a hiring decision in the 4th quarter of 2027 with the new Artistic Director starting on site in early 2028.

APT has allowed for generous overlap time between the Artistic Director Designate and current Artistic Director Brenda DeVita to allow for knowledge transfer. A specific transition plan and timeline will be developed in conjunction with all parties when an offer is made.