Albany Park Theater Project is one of this city’s great treasures — a company of teenage actors that creates highly imaginative original productions produced on both its home stage in an Albany Park area field house, as well as on the stage of the Goodman Theatre, where its audience has expanded greatly in recent years.
Now, “Feast,” one of the company’s most engaging and widely acclaimed productions — which looks at the role of food and all its related rituals as experienced in the many different Chicago neighborhoods — will be aired on WTTW-Channel 11 in a one-hour production taped during its run at the Goodman Theatre last summer. The show (edited down from its full 90 minutes) premieres at 10 p.m. May 12 and will repeat on WTTW’s Prime channel at 4 p.m. May 13.
In a prepared statement, WTTW producer Daniel Andries noted: “Collaborating with Albany Park Theater Project to preserve the brilliant moments they create on stage has been a satisfying and humbling process for the past decade we’ve worked together. WTTW’s decision to share ‘Feast’ with the wider community is a great endorsement of the profound work of a teen theater ensemble that is wise and gifted beyond their years.”
David Feiner, APTP’s producing artistic director said “Feast” is “a theatrical love letter to Chicago’s diverse food culture and joyful cooking traditions, featuring heartwarming stories harvested from Chicago’s kitchens, street corners, butchers, bodegas, farmers and fishermen. The 60-minute television production is a collection of tales, touching on heirloom recipes, entrepreneurship, migration and heritage, all celebrating the nourishment and delight that come from good food, lovingly prepared. And as with all of APTP’s works, it was created by our youth ensemble, based on interviews they conducted in communities throughout Chicago. … At a time when our city and state keep making negative headlines, working together with love and intimacy, demonstrating resilience and optimism, and creating an original work of art that showcases Chicago teens envisions a more just and beautiful world.”
Robert Falls, the Goodman’s artistic director observed in the official announcement, “We are thrilled that the delightfully uplifting and moving ‘Feast’ will now have life beyond the stage.”