Menu
Elia Ayala (APTP Class of 2003) hadn’t thought of herself as a performer. In grammar school, she was a self-described shy girl with a loud and infectious laugh. As she transitioned into high school, she knew that she wanted to grow in her capacity to be more spontaneous and to take up more space in a room. Enter APTP.
After 15 months of online workshops, APTP finally reunited in-person in July 2021. In celebration of our newfound vaccination, appreciation of nature, and excitement to be together, I led a small group of APTPians in a creative process devoted to the Chicago River. Like the River’s movement, the ethos of the River Project was to be intentional, but not rushed. Over four months, the ensemble members and I co-created a process at Ronan and River Parks to observe the natural and urban confluence, gather stories, and create art based on the environment of the River.
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: