SPRING GREEN -- It makes sense that Matt Schwader looks like the boy next door. Because he is.

Although his studies and acting career have taken him around the country, Schwader, a three-year veteran of American Players Theatre who joined the core company this year, grew up in Kenosha. He cut his teeth on APT by coming to shows while still a renegade teen, a kid with talent and charm to burn, but with high school grades that rarely got good reviews.

"When I was a kid, the only ambition I really had was to be an actor, " says Schwader, now 31, "and the only goal I had was to work on the APT stage. To be a company member there was above and beyond even my dream. "

And vice versa. For APT, hiring Schwader was a chance to engage "a priceless rarity these days, " says APT producing director David Frank. "He has the charisma, charm, young leading-man qualities that would easily qualify him for a comfortable life in television -- but is dedicated to the Spartan rigors of classical theater. "

Ironically, by the time APT asked him to join its core troupe, Schwader 's career had already taken off, with regular roles at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Yet the idea of a long-term stint at APT "kept calling, " he says.

"You get to be an artist here, " Schwader explains. "In other theaters, you 're very often trying to enact one or two other people 's vision. At APT, it 's such a collaborative and talented group of people, that you 're constantly inspired to involve yourself more deeply.

"I think that 's what it comes down to: An ownership of the material. "

This summer Schwader plays three key roles in APT productions: Lysander in Shakespeare 's "A Midsummer Night 's Dream, " Harry Trench in George Bernard Shaw 's "Widowers ' Houses, " and the future Henry V, better known as Prince Hal, in Shakespeare 's "Henry IV: The Making of a King, " an adaptation that combines two of Shakespeare 's plays, "Henry IV, Parts One and Two. "

This third role lends a bridge to APT 's season next summer: In 2009, Schwader will play Hal grown up, as the older and wiser title character in "Henry V. "

Bawdy banter

In the current season, Prince Hal is still a very young man -- and full of the bawdy banter, bountiful boozing and prank-playing spunk that goes with that territory. Although full of the dark rivalries, historic rumblings and moral dilemmas of any Shakespearean drama, "Henry IV: The Making of a King " packs in a good deal of belly-shaking humor, much from the shenanigans between Hal and his overfed, under-regulated, wise and wisecracking sidekick Sir John Falstaff (terrifically played in the APT production by Brian Mani).

Meanwhile, Hal must struggle with the bitter disapproval of his father, Henry V (James Ridge), who did not directly inherit the crown, yet knows his eldest son -- in the king 's eyes, an irresponsible rascal -- will. In truth, while Hal is sowing wild oats he 's also learning about his kingdom from the ground up.

"You know every actor has a role they want to play, or they relate to the most, " says Schwader. "And there 's something about Hal that I just get. I was kind of a wild child when I was in my teens, and everybody couldn 't quite figure out how a bright young man could be wasting his life so much.

"But I also believed that I was doing what I needed to do to get where I needed to go, " he says. "And I think Hal is very much that. "

'An infinite thing'

Schwader, whose chiseled-blond good looks make him look like he could have stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad, was born in South Dakota and came to Wisconsin as a young teen.

"I had recently moved to Kenosha and my friend was going to take a summer Shakespeare class, " he says. "I thought he was ridiculous. But I didn 't have any other friends, so I signed up for it, too, and fell in love with it. "

Schwader credits the class ' teacher, Ron Parker, for showing a teen that Shakespeare is full of "fights and deaths and ghosts and sex and romance, " he says. "And once I began learning how to read the poetry, I realized it was kind of an infinite thing. A person could spend their whole life working on it, and never get to the very bottom of it. "

Right away, Parker had noticed something special about the eighth grader who wandered into his Summer Shakespeare Theatre and later would become one of his high school drama students.

"This kid was so amazingly gifted, " says Parker, now theater director at Appleton North High School. "In terms of acting, he had the instinct and the understanding of someone who 's been studying for years and years. "

Still, Schwader was never one for doing homework. "He was able to schmooze his way out of a lot of things, " Parker recalls. "His personality is such that he 'd skip a class and be called down to the office, and he 'd end up sitting down there for half an hour shooting the breeze with the assistant principal. "

After high school, Schwader was working in a shoe store and "kind of floundering, " Parker says. "I made a phone call to the head of the theater department at UW-Whitewater and said, I know that his grades don 't look good on paper, but if you let this kid in, you 'll be thanking me for the rest of your life. ' "

After a couple of years at UW-Whitewater, Schwader transferred to Columbia College in Chicago, until he realized "that I was paying to be on stage " when his talent could earn him a paycheck, he says. So Schwader dropped out, but later returned to school in a graduate theater program at the University of Delaware. "So I have a grad degree, " he says, "but no undergrad degree. "

At Delaware, Schwader met his future wife, UW-Madison grad Susan Shunk. The two will play opposite one another in APT 's "Widowers ' Houses " this summer.

Schwader is "one of the smartest people I know, and has such a worldly view and outlook beyond his years, " says his wife, who recalls family trips where Schwader would learn so much about their destination that he could recite facts like a tour guide. "He 's one of those guys who knows a little bit about everything, and when he 's interested in something, he delves into it so he becomes an expert on it. "

Most of the year the couple lives in Chicago, which makes APT "the perfect thing for me, " Schwader says.

"We 're very much into the outdoors, and we love to go hiking and boating and camping, " he says. But "I 'm madly in love with the city of Chicago. It 's great to be able to do winter theater in Chicago, and then enjoy my summers in the beautiful countryside of Wisconsin, which is like coming home. "

IF YOU GO

What: "Henry IV: The Making of a King," directed by James Bohnen

Where: American Players Theatre, Spring Green

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 3 p.m. Saturday; also July 8, 13, 19, 25; Aug. 3, 14, 22, 30; Sept. 7, 13, 16, 20.

Tickets: $36 to $58. Call 588-2361, or online at
www.playinthewoods.org