Albany Park Theater Project celebrated our 21^st birthday with the world premiere of Ofrenda, a a new play about creating home in turbulent times, performed by an ensemble of 32 teens in our home theater in one of the most diverse immigrant neighborhoods in the country.

In Ecuador, a girl coats herself with chicken feathers so she can fly across borders in search of her father. In Chicago, a boy hears his family dream of the day they can go “back home” and wonders where is home if not here? In Damascus, a teen teaches herself English as the bombs and gunfire of civil war creep ever closer. At a Chicago University, years before “undocumented and unafraid” or DACA, a new student hangs La Virgencita in her dorm room, telling no one the secret of her status. At an American Embassy, a young woman interviewing for a visa denies the culture burning fervidly in her heart. In front of ICE headquarters in the Chicago Loop, young people learn resistance as they join a grandmother fighting a deportation order.

Inspired by real-life stories, Ofrenda explores how  we turn here into home in the wake of social, political and personal upheaval.

OFRENDA PRODUCTION CREDITS