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Block Club Chicago // Leen Yassine: Performed across 12,000 square feet, the immersive youth-led production at Albany Park Theater Project is based on the real-life stories of Albany Park neighbors.
I started my journey with APTP in 2015 in an after-school program at Albany Park Multicultural Academy. My friend dragged me in, telling me it was going to be so much fun. I wasn’t so sure. I was always the shy kid in my class who didn’t like talking in front of others let alone sharing personal stories about myself. I went, just to make sure my friend didn’t feel lonely.
Graduating high school and leaving APTP was a bittersweet moment for me. With all the college mentorship I received at APTP I was so excited for the changes to come as I started my first year at Knox College. I felt prepared to problem solve and to speak up when college proved difficult, something I struggled with a lot before APTP.
American Theatre Magazine // Emily McClanathan: “Albany Park Theater Project partnered with Third Rail Projects to create a new immersive production that invites audiences into apartments in one of Chicago’s most diverse neighborhoods.”
Nygel D. Robinson, the Music Director for HOMECOMING, zaps APTP with his multidisciplinary, generative, and generous spirit.
Albany Park Theater Project turned 25 on April 1, 2022. To celebrate we announced a year-long season that features our teen ensemble’s return to live performance, an immersive-theater-in-an-envelope experience that brings APTP to your mailbox, expanded programs for students in our neighborhood schools – and the premiere of an immersive performance that will be the most ambitious production in our 25-year history.
Wherever you are in the world, APTP’s 25th anniversary season offers ways for you to experience the stories of our community and the power and beauty of our teen artists.
Our immersive theater experience in an envelope experience, Yours Truly, recently concluded its second run. One highlight of Yours Truly is original music by APTP teen artists. In this interview, Gabrielle (Gabie) Reyes, a junior at Von Steuben High School, talks with APTP Resident Director Devika Ranjan about serving as co-music director for Yours Truly.
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.