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Coming in 2022/23, Port of Entry will invite audiences to step inside the stories of immigrants from all parts of the world as they forge new lives within the walls of a single apartment building in one of the country’s most diverse immigrant communities.
It’s a joy to introduce myself as a second-year teaching artist for APTP@School, our school-based program. Some of you may remember me as one of the performers who made a cow come to life on stage in Feast or as a high-school student trying to solve his father’s immigration problems in Learning Curve. These are both treasured roles of mine from my years as a teen ensemble member in APTP. Now nearly a decade after my APTP journey first began, I’m excited to once again be part of this wonderful team of humans!
Over the course of three weekends in Spring 2021, APTP gathered more than 50 Chicago students, teachers and artists together on zoom for Remote Learning Curve, a project envisioned by Associate Director Maggie Popadiak to memorialize through storytelling and performance the unique challenges of remote learning during the Covid pandemic.
Schantelle Alonzo is one of 10 members of the APTP Class of 2021 who started college this fall. This amazing class are now bringing their gifts to DePaul, Georgetown, Harold Washington, Pomona, School of Visual Arts-NYC, Stanford, UIC and Wright College. Here’s a reflection from Schantelle on her first months as an art student in the Big Apple.
Albany Park Theater Project is delighted to announce an expansion of our leadership team. Beginning in September, 2021, Miguel Rodriguez will join APTP as Co-Executive Director, a new role that Miguel will hold together with co-founder David Feiner. We’re also thrilled to announce Reena Bajowala as the new president of our Board of Directors and Jennifer Choi as a new member of the Board. Read on for a letter from David and remarks from Miguel and Reena.
This spring, APTP’s 32 youth ensemble members will premiere Ofrenda, a new play devised by APTP, written by Isaac Gomez and directed by Stephanie Paul and Maggie Popadiak. The 32 cast members, all of whom are co-creators of the devised work, range in age from 13 to 18 and have spent from one to five years as members of the APTP company. Get your tickets now!
We are thrilled to announce that our next original performance, Ofrenda, is being written by Chicago playwright Isaac Gomez and directed by longtime APTP artistic leaders Stephanie Paul and Maggie Popadiak. Ofrenda will be performed by APTP’s largest ever ensemble, 33 teens ranging in age from 13 to 18, all of whom are co-creators on the show. Ofrenda begins performances April 25 at our home theater in Albany Park.
Since early February, I have been co-teaching a theater and writing course at Stateville, a maximum-security prison located just outside Joliet, Illinois, through the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project. In this course, the dozen or so students explore voice, body, and spirit through many of the same exercises done with the teenaged ensemble at Albany Park Theater Project. During one session, students discussed the inability to create a visual and sonic record of the performance art they were creating. As one student said, “I wish we could camcord this.” Recording devices are not allowed in the prison. That same student then made the suggestion that each week a student ought to write down the events of the previous class to document not only the activities, but the impact it had on them and their peers. More than a journal entry, this writing would be the film, the photograph, the audio file, and the documentary they wished they had. These students do work and want the world to know it. Learn more about their work below in the words of students Devon Terrell and Darrell Fair:
This winter, APTP Resident Director Stephanie Paul and Resident Artist Mikhail Fiksel extend their collaboration with two productions of The Royale, a play by Marco Ramirez inspired by the true story of Jack Johnson, the first African American world heavyweight champion. The play is about one man’s quest for victory against all odds and personal demons.
Mikhail and Stephanie both made their APTP debut with Feast in 2010 and have worked on every APTP show since. Mikhail is an award-winning composer, sound designer, musician and DJ whose work can be heard at theaters throughout the country. Stephanie is a multi-disciplinary artist who creates work that lives at the intersection of dance, theater and live ensemble-based percussion.
Here, Mikhail and Stephanie offer APTP fans a look into the work they do beyond APTP.
This year I had the esteemed pleasure of launching a new, year-long program in my 8th grade classroom at Volta Elementary School with APTP’s Associate Director, Maggie Popadiak, as my teaching partner.