Go Behind the Scenes with APT's Portable Prologues
When Carol “Orange” Schroeder has an idea, she pursues it — especially one that promotes the performing arts. This season, Schroeder is marking her 10th year of hosting recorded interviews with the actors, directors and designers who create productions all summer long at American Players Theatre in Spring Green. These 15-20 minute discussions, originally called “Talkbacks to Go,” debuted in 2014 and were available for purchase or as donor gifts on CD. Now dubbed Portable Prologues, they can be downloaded as podcasts from Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podbean, or from the APT website (under the “news” dropdown).
The interviews are a behind-the-scenes discussion, a marketing tool, a director’s note in audio form, and an archive of APT’s plays from both the Touchstone and the Hill theaters for the past decade.
“One of the joys of the series is that people are so intrigued about the plays after they listen to Portable Prologues that they often decide to buy tickets,” says Schroeder. “Some of the shows are hard to describe in a little paragraph in the season brochure. But then people listen to the Prologues and think, I need to see that!”
The owner and proprietor of Monroe Street gift shop Orange Tree Imports for nearly five decades, Schroeder has enjoyed a lifelong love of theater and distinctly remembers reading about American Players Theatre opening for its first season in 1980. “I immediately signed up for tickets,” she says, “and I’ve seen every play the company has staged, since day one. Except Titus Andronicus,” she adds, which didn’t appeal to her due to the play's bloody and violent plot.
Occasionally Schroeder opted to stay for talkbacks after plays in those early days — conversations with the actors at the end of a performance about the story, themes and stagecraft. But after several hours of Shakespeare or another classical work, she admits that the extra time spent on an audience discussion made for a very long night. “We always wanted to stay to learn more about the play, but we had a long drive ahead of us, back to Madison,” she says, “so often, we missed out.”
Concerned that other playgoers also wanted a fuller experience engaging with APT’s work, she approached the theater with an idea: create pre-recorded conversations that audiences could listen to either before the show, or on the way home in the car.
By the time Schroeder presented her brainchild to the APT staff, she was already a very familiar face around the office. In addition to being a devoted subscriber and donor, she had co-chaired a fundraising campaign to reopen the theater after a financial crisis in 1986. She had also headed up the company’s “friends” organization for many years.
Although the company was already producing occasional podcasts, APT was reluctant to expand the program without more staff and funds to devote to it. Undeterred, Schroeder volunteered to underwrite the activity and serve as the program’s host. She then approached her friend Buzz Kemper, co-owner of the Madison recording and audio production company Audio for the Arts, for help producing the artist interviews. “He told me, ‘If it’s for APT I’ll do it for free,’” says Schroeder. “That’s how we became partners — him doing the recording and editing and me doing the talking. It’s been a wonderful partnership.”
Kemper recalls the beginning of their collaboration much the same way. As a self-proclaimed “music guy” who frequently works with orchestras, jazz combos, rock bands and folk artists, the theater world was largely foreign to him, although he enjoyed attending plays occasionally.
When Schroeder asked him to work with her in creating these podcasts, he eagerly agreed. “Now I have favorite playwrights as well as favorite plays,” he says. “I am so delighted to join Orange in sharing the wonders of APT with the world.”
The small, year-round staff at American Players has also been delighted with Schroeder’s project, and think it’s a great fit for their fans. “I’ve said time and again, APT has the best, most engaged, most game audience,” says the theater’s managing director, Sara Young. “They are eager to soak up everything they can about the plays, the process and the artists.”
To lead the interviews for each production, Schroeder first researches each play and composes questions for the artists, who take a short break during their rehearsal period to record the show. She and Kemper complete all of the Portable Prologues for the first half of the season in late May, so they are available several weeks before the first opening night. The rest of the episodes are completed in late summer.
The group gathered in the same room for the conversation until the COVID-19 pandemic made being together in a small space unsafe. Now the interviews are often conducted remotely, which has led to some technical challenges. But, says Schroeder, “we still try to make it sound like we’re having a casual conversation.”
Schroeder admits that she does get nervous before recording sessions, but feels that after 10 years of sharing her passion for APT’s work, Portable Prologues is more important than ever. “We try to help orient the audience to the world they are going to enter when they attend a show,” she says. “It helps explain APT’s unique approach to each play, and in a world of shrinking media coverage for the arts, it’s important that this information is available in other places.”