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David Feiner met his future wife Laura Wiley at Yale School of Drama. They were drawn together by a shared desire to create meaningful art through community theater.
“We wanted to transcend the boundaries you often find in theater and the arts in general; boundaries between life and art, audiences and artists, boundaries that too often keep us apart like race, ethnicity, religion, class and age,” says Feiner.
Sixteen year-old Kyra Mae Robinson makes an astonishing transformation to play the mother of 18 children in God’s Work. Kyra and APTP’s artistic director, David Feiner, recently appeared on Chicago Public Radio’s “Afternoon Shift” to talk with host Niala Boodhoo about God’s Work, running at Goodman Theatre from April 4 – 19, 2014. Listen to the story, and enjoy this photos of Kyra off stage and on.
Three teenage boys leap, roll off each other’s backs and clap hands in the air as they kill unseen bees, tallying up their respective body counts with shouts of glee.
“Caleb! Three bees.”
“Jeremiah! Two bees.”
“Luke. Four bees!”
Their joy is infectious, but with a dark undertone. These actors are rehearsing “God’s Work” — a devised piece originally created and performed by the youth-oriented, multiethnic Albany Park Theater Project in 2006, and now running in a re-imagined version at the Goodman’s Owen Theatre.
God’s Work began in a storytelling circle at our theater on Chicago’s northwest side, a space that is equal parts creative laboratory and second home for APTP’s youth ensemble members and adult artists alike.
A short video blog produced by APTP teen ensemble members during rehearsals for God’s Work, beginning 4/4/14 at Goodman Theatre.
God’s Work features a multiethnic cast that ranges in age from 14 to 18 and will surely be one of the most diverse ensembles on any Chicago stage this spring.
You blink twice to make sure you’re not seeing things—the little toes and dimpled chin, youthful curiosity and playful humor. You begin to see how an object can be given life and personality. This isn’t an actor, but it is much more than a prop. In God’s Work, APTP is discovering the world of puppetry, and in the process, Baby Rachel—both the character and the puppet—has been born.