Project Description

The Albany Park Theater Project (APTP) is a multiethnic ensemble of Chicago teenagers who create and perform original plays inspired by real-life stories told by local community members. They gather material from their neighbors living in Albany Park, who are generally all immigrant, working-class families. Saffron is their latest show, based on true stories told by the owners, staff, and customers of Noon-O-Kabab, a Persian restaurant.

Albany Park, 10 miles from downtown Chicago, is a neighborhood of working poor. Fifty-five percent of the 50,000 residents are foreign born, a fact clearly illustrated by the jumble of Arabic, Cambodian, Korean, Romanian, Spanish, and Tagalog signs on Lawrence Avenue. According to the 2000 census, half the population is Hispanic, 19 percent Asian, four percent black and 23 percent "other." In 1996, David Feiner and his wife, Laura Wiley—both graduates of the Yale Drama School—founded the first and only performing arts company in the area, the Albany Park Theater Project (APTP). Their goal was to meld their artistic and activist ambitions with the motto, "Real teenagers, real community, real theater, real stories." What has emerged, alongside a series of critically acclaimed original shows available for the affordable cost of $10 a ticket, is a family-like support group of about 35 teenagers that coaxes unknown talent out of many shy ortroubled youths.

Saffron chronicles past and present generations of Albany Park immigrants, from 19th-century German settlers to the day laborers who hustle on the street corner near the theater today. Scenes in the play include "Prairie, 1853," inspired by a photograph of Jacob Kunz’s farm that students found at the historical society; and "Amor de Lejos," or "Love From Afar," which grew out of interviews that ensemble members conducted with the jornaleros—or day laborers—around the corner. In this second scene, actors choreographed mimes of shoveling, sweeping, painting, scraping, and lifting to bring the harsh realities of being a day laborer to life. The finale, "Nine Digits," is adapted from the experiences of an unnamed company member who arrived at O'Hare International Airport from Colombia at six-years-old and still lacks a Social Security card. The scene follows him through the humiliation of not having a driver's license, the question of whether to marry for love or citizenship, the frustration of turning down an internship with a dance company in Washington, DC, and, ultimately, the admission to others in the troupe that he is here illegally. "The war in Iraq began the same week we started rehearsals for this show," said a character in Saffron, played by Michael Nguyen, who describes two soldiers killed in Iraq granted citizenship posthumously. One "was from Mexico and, like me, did not choose to come to the U.S.," Mr. Nguyen adds. "But was brought here as a child by his parents so he could have a better life."

Civic Engagement/Dialogue Activities

To kick off the opening of Saffron, audience members were invited to eat a preshow dinner catered by the Noon-O-Kabab Restaurant. After the performance, the cast and crew met the audience, sharing desert and saffron tea. There was also a panel discussion scheduled during the show’s run, called "Real Iranians, Real Stories." The panel members were all Iranian Chicagoans who had immigrated to the United States for a variety of reasons. The discussion included a sharing of the panel members’ experiences of living in a diaspora, as well as talk about Iranian issues—from the Shah to the hostage crisis, to the "axis of evil." Another event was a Persian cooking class, a benefit for Saffron taught by Noon-O-Kabab chef Mir Naghavi. After the class, cast and crew from the show served participants a dinner of the food they had made.

To create each performance, the group starts by sharing stories. They spend months together talking about each story; exploring possible staging strategies; and improvising text, movement, and music ideas. Through this development process, the ensemble reaches a consensus about how to bring a particular story to life on stage, and they create a wealth of raw material: video tapes of improvised scenes and movement ideas, recordings of fragments of original music and songs, photographs of human sculptures and image work, journals filled with writing exercises, drawings of possible scenic designs, and more. From this material, the students build the finished scripts, choreography, and scores. Once performance works are conceptually developed, they assemble scripts, cast ensemble members into roles, and rehearse for two months before premiering new works at their theater at Eugene Field Cultural Center.

Their next show, God's Work, will tell the story of a girl whose childhood is split between two different households, one a place of horror and the other of love. It will be performed at the Chicago Humanities Festival, and will address issues concerning family, the nature of evil, the use and misuse of religion, and the sometimes incredible human capacity for resilience. They have also recently launched a long-term project, which will be based on local and global stories related to freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. by the First Amendment, particularly the freedom of expression. The questions the cast members are exploring are: What do we mean by freedom? What is it like to live in a place where there is no freedom of speech, how do we enjoy the freedom we have? How is the first amendment essential to democracy? In 2006, after a year of collecting stories and transforming them into performance, the First Amendment Project will premiere in Chicago and then tour to Washington D.C.