SPRING GREEN — Brenda DeVita will step down as artistic director of American Players Theatre at the end of 2029, beginning a carefully planned leadership transition at one of Wisconsin’s largest professional theater companies. DeVita has spent 31 years with APT, including the past 12 leading its artistic programming and operations. A search committee made up of board members, core acting company members and year-round staff has already begun looking for her successor. The change follows a milestone year for the classical repertory company. In June, APT received the 2026 Regional Theatre Tony Award, bringing national attention to the organization and its work in the rural community of Spring Green. “This is such a unique operation,” DeVita said, citing APT’s outdoor stages, repertory format and resident company. “Just putting a season together is mind-blowing. There are so many considerations.” APT operates with an annual budget of about $10.2 million. It employs 35 people year-round and about 300 workers during the theater season, which runs from June through early October. Five plays rotate through the 1,175-seat outdoor Hill Theatre, while three productions are staged in the 200-seat Touchstone Theatre, which seats 200. The company also presents a shorter late-fall season. This year, Jen Silverman’s “Witch” opens Oct. 22 at Touchstone Theatre, with tickets nearly sold out. About 100 summer production workers and 45 to 50 actors make up the seasonal operation. More than half of APT’s audience comes from Madison, and annual attendance has settled near 95,000 since the pandemic, below the more than 113,000 visitors the theater drew before 2020. DeVita said changing expectations around compensation, working hours and professional commitments helped shape the decision to provide an unusually long transition period. She trained for roughly four years before succeeding founding artistic director David Frank in 2014, although no formal search was conducted at that time. “Having two seasons of support is very different than hiring somebody who’s going to come in and the previous director is going to be available to be consulted with,” DeVita said, noting that overlapping directors can create a complicated dynamic. DeVita joined APT in 1995 with her husband, James DeVita, a core company actor, director and literary manager. She first worked as company manager and casting director, then became associate artistic director in 2004 before taking the top artistic role. Her tenure included overseeing the major 2017 renovation of the Hill Theatre and helping build APT’s core acting company and apprentice program. She also expanded the theater’s interpretation of “classic” drama to include works by more recent and living playwrights, including August Wilson and Nilo Cruz. Other initiatives associated with DeVita include Winter Words, an off-season play-reading series, and The Language Project, a two-week program for emerging actors. She has also directed regularly at the Hill Theatre; this season, she directed a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” Managing Director Sara Young credited DeVita with shaping the company’s workplace culture and supporting its fundraising efforts. Young said DeVita’s collaborative approach can require more time and effort, but has become central to how APT operates. DeVita said colleagues, donors and friends have urged her to stay, but she believes the timing is right. She plans to continue directing, including a production of “Dancing at Lughnasa” next February at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She also is preparing to become a grandmother in November. “I feel accomplished,” DeVita said. “I want to be able to be confident enough to let go. I feel good about my work, about this place, about what we have built, and I feel good about being able to help someone else do it.” She said the artistic director’s role should be understood as serving the artists, audience and stories presented by the theater. That definition, she said, will help APT identify a successor who understands the daily responsibility of leading the company and working with its staff.