Column: Fall at American Players Theatre brings sadness and hope

SPRING GREEN, WISCONSIN — I’d forgotten the verdant pleasures of southwest Wisconsin, a hilly part of the plain Midwest. And I’d similarly lost touch with the sensorial pleasure of Shakespeare surrounded by trees, Shakespeare under a moon, Shakespeare as the chill of the fall reminds you that nothing in our firmament lasts forever. But a September return to American Players Theatre in Spring Green, my first visit to an old haunt since before the pandemic, reminded me of all of that. And it all felt more precious for reasons that probably are more to do with me than the theater.

Director Shana Cooper’s truly gorgeous production of “The Winter’s Tale” is in many ways the consummate APT experience. The Bard’s plays were mostly written for an outdoor theater and Shakespeare was very much aw