Preview: Tony-Award-Winning American Players Theatre Prepares Season of Classic and Contemporary Plays in Wisconsin

Anne Siegel, Third Coast Review

On June 7, American Players Theatre administrators will accept the 2026 Tony Award’s Regional Theatre Tony, which comes with an official, gleaming statuette and a $25,000 prize. According to APT’s communications director, the company is “over the moon” about this recognition.

It comes at a particularly welcome time, when many live theaters nationwide are still struggling to fill seats after the pandemic.

The 79th Annual 2026 Regional Tony Award is expected to be presented June 7 during a televised, pre-show event on the same night as the mainstream Tony Awards show. That sounds confusing (and it is). Check your local TV programming for Tony Awards coverage on national television and streaming services.

This is the first Regional Tony Award win for a Wisconsin-based theater company. Six Chicago theater companies have won Regional Tony Awards over the years. The recipients of the award are Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Victory Gardens Theater. The Regional Tony Award is considered highly prestigious for the handful of theaters that have won it. The award, presented annually since 1976, recognizes “a regional theatre company that has displayed a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally,” according to a press release.

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