What is Immersive Theater?
“What is Immersive Theater?” This video made by the American Theater Wing introduces you to some of the most talked-about immersive theater projects in recent years, including Then She Fell by Third Rail Projects.
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“What is Immersive Theater?” This video made by the American Theater Wing introduces you to some of the most talked-about immersive theater projects in recent years, including Then She Fell by Third Rail Projects.
Albany Park Theater Project (APTP), Chicago’s award-winning, multiethnic, youth theater ensemble, announces the launch of the company’s first-ever immersive theater project. The two-year project is expected to culminate in 2016 with APTP’s premiere of a large-scale, immersive theater performance, created and performed by youth ensemble members, exploring the theme of education, and taking place throughout the classrooms, hallways, offices, bathrooms, gymnasium, locker rooms, lunchroom – and, yes, even the theater – of a school. To kick off the project this summer, APTP will bring to Chicago the award-winning and widely acclaimed Third Rail Projects (TRP), creators of the long-running Then She Fell in New York. During a weeklong residency at APTP this August, TRP will train teen artists in the fundamentals of site-specific, immersive performance.
Albany Park Theater Project is seeking to expand our community of creative collaborators. We are looking for performing artists to come play with our youth ensemble this summer, to teach us new skills, deepen the skills we already have, and to broaden our sense of what is possible in performance.
Dwight Conquergood was a pathbreaking performance studies scholar and activist who became a dear friend to Albany Park Theater Project and many ensemble members. On the 10th anniversary of Professor Conquergood’s death, David Feiner, APTP’s producing artistic director, had the privilege to speak at “Cultural Struggles: A Symposium Honoring the Scholarship and Activism of Dwight Conquergood.” The Symposium took place at Northwestern University, where Professor Conquergood was on faculty for much of his career. David’s presentation shares some of the profound impact that Dwight had on APTP – and also details the making of APTP’s acclaimed production, Home/Land.
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.
The commitment and sincerity you see on the APTP stage reflects months of rehearsal, but represents only a fraction of how ensemble members invest their time while at APTP. By joining the APTP community, our young artists also dedicate themselves to discovering their own success through education. For most teens, the culmination of their APTP journey is our free college counseling program, through which more than 90% become the first in their families to go to college.