American Players Theatre is partnering once again with PBS Wisconsin to share a new series of “Out of the Woods” play readings, performed and recorded live.
This new series will kick off Nov. 6 with “The Sins of Sor Juana” by Karen Zacarías, and will be followed by Nathan Alan Davis’ “Nat Turner in Jerusalem” on Nov. 13 and Lydia R. Diamond’s “Smart People” on Nov. 20. The play readings will be posted at 7 p.m. Central Time on those dates, and will be available to stream for free on demand through Dec. 31 at pbswisconsin.org/apt. Each play will also stream in full at 7 p.m. CT on those dates on the PBS Wisconsin and APT Facebook pages for viewers to watch along together.
For the last few years, APT has been exploring the idea of just what makes “a classic.” In that vein, this reading series focuses on plays by playwrights who are Black, Indigenous or people of color, and are created in collaboration with BIPOC directors and artists.
Artistic Director Brenda DeVita said, “People who’ve been in our audience for a while will be very aware of our growing exploration of new voices; of new stories; of asking ourselves again and again what does it mean to be a classic? And we were blown away by the response from our audience … about the first ‘Out of the Woods’ play readings. And it was always our hope that we would be able to produce a second series of play readings written by BIPOC writers, and created by BIPOC artists. It feels vital in this moment to keep pushing ourselves to understand more deeply what it means to be human and to keep ourselves moving forward on our path toward a more equitable theater space, and a more equitable world.”