APT is Out of the Woods and Into Your Living Room with Three Diverse "Classics"

American Players Theatre has once again partnered with PBS Wisconsin to present a new series of “Out of the Woods” play readings, performed and recorded live. Like the first set of readings available earlier this summer, the plays heavily feature members of APT’s Core Company and actors who have graced their stage in seasons past. This trio of stories focuses on “classic” plays by playwrights who are Black, Indigenous or People of Color, in collaboration with BIPOC directors and artists on the project. 

The play readings will debut on the first three Fridays in November at 7:00 pm. These performances will be available through the end of the year. Watch the series, free of charge, here. 

November 6

The Sins of Sor Juana
By Karen Zacarías
Directed by Jake Penner

Juana Inés de la Cruz is a brilliant and controversial poet making waves throughout the Mexican Viceroy’s court – particularly with his wife – in the 1600s by writing about love, feminism, religion and other topics not deemed “appropriate” for women of the time. The Vicereine is so taken with Juana that she arranges an engagement to keep her in court, while the Viceroy plots to ruin her reputation. Told by Juana from the perspective of two different worlds – the court and the convent – it’s the story of her battle for independence and intellectual freedom; weighty and funny and utterly relevant.

Featuring Melisa Pereyra as Juana, Janyce Caraballo as Novice, Triney Sandoval as Padre Núñez/Viceroy, Ronald Román-Meléndez as Silvio, Jeliannys Michelle as Madre Filothea/Xóchitl, Cher Álvarez as Sor Sara/Vicereine, Sebastian Arboleda as Pedro.

November 13

Nat Turner in Jerusalem
By Nathan Alan Davis
Directed by Gavin Lawrence

In 1831, Nat Turner led a slave revolt that acceleratws the onset of the Civil War. While he was in prison awaiting his execution, Turner dictated his story to attorney Thomas Gray, and it was published as “The Confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, VA.” In Nathan Alan Davis’s 2016 play Nat Turner in Jerusalem, Turner's final night in jail is reimagined as a meditation on past deeds and future repercussions. A critic from The New York Times called it “an earnest, gravely lyrical gloss on a document that will surely always evoke passionate and widely different responses.”

The play features La Shawn Banks as Nat Turner and Nate Burger as Thomas Gray, and other characters.

November 20

Smart People

By Lydia R. Diamond
Directed by Melisa Pereyra

Just before Obama’s first election, four of Harvard University's brightest — a surgeon, an actress, a psychologist and a neuropsychiatrist — struggle with a society that considers itself “post-racial,” and is all too often proven wrong. Jackson (Rasell Holt), Valerie (Cassia Thompson), Ginny (Amy Kim Waschke) and Brian (Jeb Burris) are all interested in different aspects of the brain, particularly in how it responds to race. But they’re also on a quest for love, success and identity in their own lives. It’s a talky, funny play about social and sexual politics.

Pour a glass of wine, have a picnic in your living room and tune in for these fascinating and varied offerings, Reviews of each play will appear here after it debuts.