A Tony Award just put this tiny Wisconsin town on the map

Jacqueline Kehoe, Yahoo!

A tiny Wisconsin town you've maybe never heard of just had its biggest moment on the national stage.

American Players Theatre (APT), an outdoor theater tucked into 110 wooded acres outside Spring Green, Wisconsin — population 1,573 — has been named the recipient of the 2026 Regional Theatre Tony Award, one of the most prestigious honors in American theater. It's the equivalent of a small-town restaurant earning a Michelin star: proof that world-class doesn't require a world-class zip code.

The award recognizes regional theater companies for outstanding artistic achievement, and APT has been quietly earning it for decades. Founded nearly 50 years ago, the company now draws nearly 100,000 visitors a year to performances held under open sky in its 1,075-seat outdoor amphitheater, as well as its intimate 201-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre. (Again, in a town of some 1,500!) Shakespeare anchors every season, but the bill also stretches to Chekhov, Ionesco, and contemporary works — nine productions running in rotating repertory from June through November.

This year's season opens June 6 with As You Like It, and also includes Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, Jen Silverman's Witch, and Nick Green's Casey and Diana, among others. Tickets are available at americanplayers.org.

Worth the drive: What to do in Spring Green

The Tony news makes Spring Green an even more compelling weekend getaway — and there's plenty to do beyond the theater. The town sits 40 miles west of Madison in Wisconsin's Driftless Region, a landscape of dramatic unglaciated bluffs and river valleys that looks like nowhere else in the Midwest.

APT's founders chose the site deliberately, and they had good taste: the theater sits less than two miles from the UNESCO-designated Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's legendary home and studio. Guided tours of the 800-acre estate run April through November, and they sell out — so definitely book ahead.

A short drive away, the House on the Rock draws visitors with its staggering, nearly hallucinatory collections and the Infinity Room, a cantilevered glass hallway with over 3,200 windows overlooking the valley. For outdoor time, Tower Hill State Park has 77 acres of hiking trails and a historic shot tower with sweeping views of the Wisconsin River bluffs. The Wisconsin River itself is perfect for tubing, kayaking, or canoeing, too.

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