Quick Chat: Pam Miles

APT: Hi, Pam! Welcome to Quick Chats! How are you feeling as we approach the end of the 2025 season?
MILES: 2025 has certainly been a wild whirlwind of a year that brought with it many changes. I am super stoked to still be living in Spring Green with my partner, Kevin, and our three cats. We are happily members of the most caring community I have ever had the privilege of being a part of. And I am very grateful to continue to work with American Players Theatre in this new capacity. Leaving behind my career as a scenic artist to become APT’s new Associate Production Manager is definitely bittersweet, but I’m very excited to take on all the new challenges that come with this job.

APT: Absolutely. For folks who may not know about your background with APT, would you mind sharing about your journey in the Paint Shop and beyond?
MILES: Absolutely! I began my journey at APT in the old scene shop in 2008, working side by side with the carpenters and welders, sometimes just feet apart. The scene shop was where maintenance and props storage are currently located. It was close quarters and very hot as we didn’t have AC in that part of the building. I was just a baby painter at 22 years old. APT was my first professional theatre job and I fell in love right away with the theatre and the community. It was all so magical!

The following season in 2009 we moved into the newly constructed “Alpha” building. The wonderfully large climate-controlled paint shop was separated from the scene shop by a wall and it had natural light fluorescents and windows. It was such a massive improvement I thought, “Well, now this is sustainable!”.

I continued to paint for APT as the Assistant Charge Artist until the end of the 2014 season. I then had a job opportunity to be the Charge Artist at a theatre in Arizona, so I moved out there for a year and a half and tried to make it work. But, alas, it didn’t work out. Arizona just wasn’t my style of community and I did not like being so far from my family. So I asked for my job back at APT, moved back to Wisconsin in 2016, and returned to my beloved paint shop that season. I refer to the 2015 season as “The Lost Season”.

In 2017, I was asked to become the Charge Artist, which was a complete honor. I had the best team of painters I could have ever asked for; they were, and still are, so talented and supportive. They’ve kept me sane over the years and I will truly miss working with them this coming season.

APT: That's amazing. What first brought you to APT in 2008? And what have you enjoyed most over your time here?
MILES: My sister, Katie, was a First Hand in the APT costume shop for many years and had told me and my family so many stories about how fun APT was to work for and how amazing the people were. Our parents and I would come up from Indiana to see shows that she had worked on and we were blown away by the production quality.

When I graduated college and was looking for work, a scenic painting position opened up at APT and she urged me to apply. I knew I had the skill but felt under-qualified. Luckily, Tina, the Charge Artist at the time, took a chance on me and the rest is history. Thanks, Tina!

I have honestly enjoyed it all so much! But truly, it is the people that have kept me coming back year after year. APT attracts a certain kind of person to work here. These people are all so kind, supportive, and friendly. It draws in just the coolest bunch of individuals with such a wide variety of backgrounds. You learn something new every day just by speaking with people.

APT: And speaking of something new, congratulations on becoming the new Associate Production Manager! Talk a little about this new position! Are you excited to be involved with building productions in a different way here at APT?
MILES: Thank you! I’m very excited to be taking on the Associate Production Manager mantle. APM’s generally have their fingers in everything. Contracts, schedules, meetings, technical rehearsals, coordinating the Design Conference pre-season, updating databases with seasonal information, supporting the Production Manager with daily tasks, and, new to this year, an IT deputy!

I love to be of assistance, and this position is exactly that. My job is to help facilitate everyone’s work during the season and to set them up for success before the season starts.

It is certainly different from managing a paint shop, but I have been with APT for 17 seasons and have so much institutional knowledge that carries through to the APM position. I already feel like I have such a great leg up! I have spent so many years as an arm of the company in the paint shop and now I get to work with it from within, laying the groundwork for the shops to be able to hit the ground running in April and May. It’s pretty cool.

APT: Thinking back to the 2025 season, is there a specific project you and your shop feel particularly fond or proud of?
MILES: This season was very large for us. I’m most proud of how we pulled together as a shop and made it through it in one piece. But as for a specific project - I’m very proud of our work on Anna in the Tropics. The paint shop does faux naturalistic treatments very well, and Anna let us stretch our muscles a little. The whole set looked weathered and lived in and grounded, like it had stood on the Hill for decades.

Anna in the Tropics. Scenic Design by Josafath Reynoso. Photo by Micheal Brosilow.

APT: What are you looking forward to this winter? Any other projects in the works folks should know about?
MILES: I’m mainly looking forward to learning about my new job every day. There is so much to learn!

I am also planning on doing another mural in Spring Green. But, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to talk about it yet. Come see a show at APT and see if you can spot it. It should be finished by mid-May!

My other mural in town is the Jazz Musicians on the side of the Slowpoke Lounge & Cabaret.

Mural by Pam Miles. Photo provided by Slowpoke Lounge & Cabaret.

APT: A cliffhanger! I love it. Outside of making true theater magic, what are some of your other passions and interests?
MILES: I like to knit and crochet. When I was painting, knitting helped keep my hand strength and dexterity up between freelancing jobs. Sometimes I would have up to a month between jobs, so it came in very handy.

I love to cook and bake. I love watching cooking and baking competition shows and learning new techniques. Food is definitely one of my love languages.

And I just love being outside. I try to go camping for a week every year and we take our cats with us. I also try to canoe/float down the Wisconsin River as many times as I can in the summer. Nature is just so cool.

I am also an amateur ghost hunter. Becky Scott, APT’s Director of Wigs and Makeup, and I love to go on ghost hunts in our spare time each summer. We have hunted the Sheboygan Falls Asylum, Slowpoke Lounge & Cabaret, and APT’s Hill Theatre stage, to name a few. If you have any APT ghost stories, I would love to hear them!

APT: You are so cool, Pam. Okay, one more question before we finish up. You have brought life to so many sets and stages over your time in the Paint Shop here at APT. Looking back, what are your top 5 APT productions you've been a part of from a design perspective?

MILES:

APT: What an impressive list! Is there anything else you would like to share?
MILES: American Players Theatre is one of a kind. I am beyond grateful to be a part of this magical theatre. And thank you for welcoming me as the Associate Production Manager!