Theater on a midsummer night

Outdoor stages to visit across the state

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There is nothing like enjoying a play, musical or concert outdoors on a warm Wisconsin summer night. If you’re lucky, the moon and stars will come out on cue, and you’ll be joined in the audience by lightning bugs and a chorus of crickets. The crowd’s applause will be augmented by the sound of rustling leaves in nearby trees and whippoorwills calling, while the faint smell of citronella candles and campfires wafts through the air. While your first thought might be of American Players Theatre, there are a surprising number of other outdoor stages to consider, too.

Summit Players’ Shakespeare in the State Parks

June 9-Aug. 19

State parks throughout Wisconsin

Since the summer of 2014, Summit Players has been touring Wisconsin state parks with reduced versions of some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Using only six actors, a stage set and props that fit in a trunk, plus a few costume pieces appropriate for quick changes and the vagaries of Wisconsin summers, the troupe presents fast, funny and accessible Shakespeare in 75-minute productions. This year, the troupe is tackling the Scottish play — Macbeth. There are no tickets, no reservations, and no cost for the shows. Just bring your own lawn chair and bug repellent. School-aged Shakespeare fans are invited to come an hour and a half before showtime for interactive theater workshops.

American Players Theatre

June 17-Oct. 7 (outdoor season only)

Spring Green

Wisconsin’s most well known classical outdoor theater is nestled on a hillside in the woods of Spring Green. APT annually presents Shakespeare, the Greeks, Chekhov, and a host of new classics outdoors on the 1,075-seat Hill stage. This year the company will mount Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and Romeo and Juliet, a new adaptation of Corneille’s The Liar, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and Aaron Posner’s adaptation of Chekhov comedies Anton’s Shorts. Bring a picnic and your festive beverage of choice for dinner beforehand, then watch some of the country’s greatest classical actors perform these amazing tragedies and comedies in rotating rep.

Alley Stage

Mineral Point

Part of Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, Alley Stage is hosting its third season of staged readings this summer, featuring original plays from Midwestern writers. Performed outdoors in a rustic, 125-seat theater space, the series provides an opportunity for playwrights to share their works-in-progress and receive feedback from audiences in a talkback session afterwards. See Scott Strom’s And a Belle’s Merry Reign, Brian James Polak’s News for the Deaf Man or Nina Kissinger’s This is Government, then meet the playwright and cast at a post-reading cocktail reception on the Art Cafe patio. 

Door Shakespeare

June 29-Aug. 26

Baileys Harbor

Since 1999, Door Shakespeare has mounted 44 productions of classical theater on a rough-hewn wooden stage, outdoors underneath an enormous maple tree. Located on the 405-acre north campus for Lawrence University, performances take place on the shore of Lake Michigan in the garden of Björklunden (Swedish for “birch grove at the lake”). This season the company will perform Shakespeare’s As You Like It and The Old Man and The Old Moon, a musical tale of a man who has acted as the sole caretaker of the moon for as long as he or his wife can remember. 

Northern Sky Theater

June 14-Aug. 26

Peninsula State Park, Fish Creek

Northern Sky Theater has gone through several iterations — and several name changes — over its 53-year history. What began as a university class staging original musicals based on folklore evolved into a professional company with both indoor and outdoor spaces, where Wisconsin-centric musical comedies such as Guys on Ice, Muskie Love and Dad’s Season Tickets have originated. This summer Northern Sky welcomes the world premiere of The Fish Whisperer (part of the World Premiere Wisconsin festival of new work) and Cheeseheads! The Musical to the boards in the Outdoor Park Theater. These family-friendly, crowd-pleasing shows typically feature talented Milwaukee-based actors who come back year after year.

Optimist Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park

July 9-Aug. 13

Milwaukee area parks

Optimist Theatre is on the move again this summer, bringing one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known works, Cymbeline, to audiences all over the Milwaukee area. From the lawn at Alverno College, to a greenspace behind the Mitchell Park Domes, to Forest Home Cemetery and Arboretum, to the park adjacent the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, the company is looking forward to “speaking the speech, trippingly on the tongue” in front of their brand new portable set. Eight actors will take turns performing the roles of royalty, servants, ghosts, noblemen, jailers, messengers and more. Admission is free, but audiences are encouraged to arrive early to secure a good seat on the grass. Executive director Susan Fry describes the company’s 90-minute, condensed version as, “A rom-tragi-com — nearly soap opera-worthy.”

Madison Shakespeare Company

July 14-23

Madison Country Day School, Waunakee

This summer Madison Shakespeare Company will present a two-hour version of the Bard’s Twelfth Night, outdoors in the Madison Country Day School amphitheater. Light entertainment for a summer night, the Shakespeare comedy is filled with mistaken identity, unrequited love, siblings, stockings, swagger and shipwrecks. Bring your own blanket, cushion or chair.

Opera in the Park

Saturday, July 22 

Garner Park, Madison

Whether you’re a devoted opera lover or a complete novice, take the whole family to the Madison Opera’s annual free, outdoor concert. But bring your blankets and lawn chairs early if you want a good view of the stage — the event regularly attracts more than 15,000 spectators. This year the Madison Opera Chorus and Madison Symphony Orchestra perform music by Bernstein, Bologne, Gluck, Handel, Leoncavallo, Liverman, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Rodgers, Sondheim, and Verdi. Have your glow sticks ready — audience members are encouraged to conduct the orchestra along with maestro John DeMain.