Milwaukee Actor Earns Honor at American Players Theatre

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Photo by Liz Lauren

Josh Krause as the Fool in American Players Theatre's ‘King Lear’

Josh Krause as Cliton in ‘The Liar’, 2023

Earlier this year, American Players Theatre (APT) in Spring Green announced four new members to its elite core company. According to the theater institution’s archives, the core company was established in 1998 “to assemble a group of talented, skilled artists to be leaders of the acting company.” Furthermore, it stated that APT would become the members’ “artistic home,” as they were expected to return each season to perform in upcoming productions.

The newest group of four core company members includes Josh Krause, 35, a Milwaukee Lutheran High School graduate and frequent performer on Milwaukee stages. Krause, who grew up in Milwaukee close to the city’s western border with Wauwatosa, now lives in the area with his wife, Rachel, and their infant son. This is Krause’s seventh year at APT (including the pandemic season when no plays were produced). 

Krause said he is excited and honored to be recognized as a core company member. He joins the ranks of such well-known APT actors as Marcus Truschinski, Colleen Madden, Brian Robert Mani (who plays the lead in Shakespeare’s King Lear), Jim DeVita, Gavin Lawrence and Kelsey Brennan. All of these names (and many more) are familiar to APT regulars. A number of these actors appear often in Milwaukee stage productions.

The core company represents only 13 of the 49 actors who will appear on APT stages this season.  Also among its members are retired “emeritus” members such as Mark Corkins and Jonathan Smoots. In addition to Krause, the other “new” members include: Phoebe Gonzalez (Chicago), Samantha Newcomb (Spring Green) and Laura Rook (Chicago). Gonzalez studied at Northwestern University, while Newcomb studied at DePaul University and Rook studied at Roosevelt University (all Chicago-area schools).

More than anything, the APT recognition provides core company actors with the one thing they rarely find: job security. “It’s great to know that I am going to be here in 2025, and beyond,” Krause said. That security has a special meaning for him as an actor, and a parent. “I can breathe a bit easier, knowing that I will be able to support my family,” he says. It’s also meaningful in a way that perhaps only other professional actors can appreciate. “The acting profession sees a lot more people fail than succeed,” he says. “I am so glad I kept working on my craft, performing in different roles, building my confidence (over time).” 

APT Summer Season is Packed with Shows Both Indoors and Outdoors

At the moment, APT is in the full swing of its summer season, which began in early June and continues through November 10. The theater complex includes two stages (indoors and outdoors) and attracts about 100,000 theatergoers a year to its leafy surroundings in rural Spring Green.

This season, Krause is scheduled to play a couple of fools (what are the odds of that?). He plays the Fool in The Virgin Queen Entertains her Fool, a world premiere now playing in the indoor Touchstone theater. He’ll also play the Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear, which opens Friday, August 9 in the outdoor Hill Theatre. For a complete list of what’s playing at APT, click on americanplayers.org.

Krause had a rather inauspicious start to his acting career. His first role was as a campfire in a first-grade school production. He recalls that he had a costume, but no lines. His next theater experience came a few years later, when he played Mr. Smee (a sidekick to Captain Hook) in a production of Peter Pan. It wasn’t until he was in high school, playing in the Neil Simon comedy Rumors, that Krause chose to become an actor. 

Even now, Krause says he still prefers comedies (to tragedies). “It’s always a good thing for (us to) laugh,” he says.

This season at APT, he’ll get an opportunity to play in both. Virgin Queenis played as a comedy, while King Lear is considered one of the greatest tragedies ever written. Interestingly, Krause will spend some days playing both characters: one at the matinee performance, and the other in the evening. 

Krause’s Path from School to Professional Stage

In preparation for his theater career, Krause earned an undergraduate degree at the former Cardinal Stritch University, then a master of fine arts degree at Indiana University. But, as with most jobs, Krause says he has learned the most from his “on-the-job” training, particularly at APT. For instance, Krause says he has sometimes been asked to audition for APT parts that he never considered playing. And during a recent production of APT’s Love’s Labour's Lost, he says he was able to imbue a minor character with some distinctive personality traits. This type of knowledge can only be gained by hours of intense study with the script, listening to a show’s director and interacting with other cast members, he says. 

In preparing for his role in the upcoming King Lear, Krause says he “didn’t fully understand what the character was about” until he got the part at APT. According to Krause, the Fool “holds up a mirror of truth” to the king, telling him things in an offhand way (sometimes by singing) that others in the court dare not discuss. In King Lear, the Fool provides both distraction and insight. And despite the Fool’s occasionally goofy and lighthearted demeanor, audiences may realize that the Fool is among the wisest characters in the play. 

Once the APT season concludes, Krause is scheduled to return to Milwaukee and Madison stages. In January 2025, he will join the cast of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of A Doll’s House. The Henrik Ibsen classic has been reinterpreted in this version, which also will include Milwaukee actor Libby Amato (and others). 

In late March, Krause will be “hitting the boards” again in Forward Theater Company’s production of Samuel D. Hunter’s A Case for the Existence of God. Forward Theater Co. is known as Madison’s most prestigious theater company.

In addition to being an actor, Krause believes one of his most important “roles” is to be a good father. Their six-month-old son has been a source of delight for his parents, although he currently sees more of his mother than his dad. Krause lives in Spring Green during the summer (with the family cat), while Rachel cares for their son in Milwaukee. Not surprisingly, Krause says he misses his family, although he notes that his fellow APT actors and production team members are also a type of “family.”  

Reflecting on his role as a dad, Krause says he has great hopes for his son. Who knows? One day, the lad may grow up to play a campfire.