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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.
Marta Popadiak, APTP Class of 2003, has made a career out of the passion for social justice that she developed at APTP. We interviewed Marta about her blossoming career as an organizer around progressive political issues and candidates in Minnesota.
We bid a bittersweet farewell this fall to APTP’s Class of 2013 as they embarked on their college careers: Jancillin Chacko to Coe College, Randy Dang to Northeastern Illinois University, Lilia Escobar to St. Olaf College, JP Marquez to Beloit College, Nichole Martinez to Wittenberg University, Stephany Perez to Kalamazoo College, and Raul Rico to Middlebury College. Most were APTP ensemble members for five years, since 8th grade.
Albany Park Theater Project visited The College of Wooster in Ohio as artists in residence for a long weekend in Fall 2013. As part of the College’s fall forum, “Facing Race,” APTP youth ensemble members performed select works from APTP’s repertoire for an audience of 300 students and faculty.
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.
Paloma Morales joined APTP when she was thirteen years old, four years and three plays ago. Audiences will remember her as the young Ahlam selling her treasured dolls to audience members in Home/Land, and as the young heroine who loses her childhood home in I Will Kiss These Walls. Paloma took a break from rehearsals to reflect on APTP’s new play, God’s Work, and her four years with the company.