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Kalamazoo College joined the list of campuses where APTP has performed when 5 ensemble members helped open the college’s WITH/OUT Borders Conference. The performance also gave our APTPians the opportunity for a college visit.
Less than a mile from Albany Park Theater Project’s doors, Albany Park Multicultural Academy (APMA) is buzzing with students and anticipation. Barbara Dillon’s 7th and 8th grade students are about to present their theater piece, devised by the students under the guidance of APTP directors Maggie Popadiak and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, at the CPS middle school’s end-of-the-year assembly.
This summer, APTP launched a two-year project to create Learning Curve, our first immersive theater production, in collaboration with Third Rail Projects, one of the foremost creators of immersive performance.
Already in less than 72 hours, APTP’s home theater and ensemble has transformed—school desks fill the building, furniture is dispersed across the theater, APTP teens interact with rooms and objects as though they are fellow actors, and the entire Eugene Field Park field house (which houses APTP) is evolving into a multi-floor, multi-room performance space. This week, APTP hosts New York’s Third Rail Projects to learn the art of immersive theater. By Saturday (less than 72 hours from now), APTP and Third Rail will reveal the original 40-minute performance experience they have co-created in just five days.
Bob Hoyt’s kindheartedness didn’t hit me right away. I was too busy letting myself be intimidated by his political opinions and his business savvy. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve been aware of his generosity since he and his wife invited me to live in their home for the duration of my APTP internship this summer. But it wasn’t until I heard him speaking in baby voice to his dog—as we shared a tub of mini peanut-butter cups—that I understood why he and Albany Park Theater Project were a perfect match.
Update: APTP alumna Stephanie Castrejon and her cast-mates from College of Wooster have been selected by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) to perform “Women of Ciudad Juarez” at the annual Region III competition this January.
“I come from a river that starts downtown and ends up in Albany Park, a neighborhood that exposes me to the world.” In a circle, young teens tell each other where and what they come from, confiding in one another origins founded in laughter, pain, fear, and joy. Every statement is unique. Some are poetic, others more straightforward, but all are impressive and sincere. Seeing teenagers who were strangers to each other just a day ago find this level of trust is breathtaking. But this “I Come From” circle is just one example of the beauty of Albany Park Theater Project, a place of taking risks and not being afraid.
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.