Albany Park Theater Project Announces World-Premiere Of Latest Immersive Production, PORT OF ENTRY

The award-winning Albany Park Theater Project (APTP) announces the upcoming world premiere of Port of Entry, opening in July 2023.

The immersive performance will be staged in a 1929 warehouse building that has been transformed into a courtyard apartment building typical of Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood, one of the most diverse communities in North America. This unique production surrounds and engages audiences in the true stories of immigrants who have made Albany Park their first home in the United States over the past 100 years. Created in collaboration with New York-based Third Rail Projects, Port of Entry is presented in a three-story immersive performance space located at 3547 West Montrose Avenue.

Each performance of Port of Entry takes 28 audience members across the threshold and into the homes and lives of four immigrant families as they forge new lives on Chicago's Northwest Side. Participants travel through the three floors of the apartment building, stepping into a meticulously designed immersive world where the stories and lives of dozens of immigrants unfold. The production's multiple storylines are inspired by dozens of interviews with Albany Park residents and the lived experiences of APTP ensemble members. Augmented with choreographed movement, digital projections and sound installations, the journey through time and across cultures is led by the critically acclaimed APTP youth ensemble. Audiences will find themselves enveloped in the joys and struggles of multigenerational immigrant and refugee families from countries around the world: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Burma, the Philippines, Poland and more.

"As someone who grew up in Albany Park in an immigrant family, it's meaningful to see a building in our own community transformed into a space dedicated to telling the stories of people who look like me and who have stories like my parents and my community," said Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Co-Executive Director of Albany Park Theater Project and a Co-Director of Port of Entry. "Because of the investment of craft, imagination and spirit by the artists and storytellers, the stories of our community will be heard and honored right here in Albany Park."

The creative team for Port of Entry includes eight directors, five designers, 26 performers and more than 75 artists and craftspeople. The directing team and youth performers collaboratively devised the story lines and script from hundreds of pages of interviews conducted over the course of several years.

"Port of Entry is the most ambitious performance APTP has undertaken in its 26-year history," said APTP Co-Executive Director and Co-Director of Port of Entry, David Feiner. "Over the past five years, more than 150 artists, storytellers and craftspeople have invested their creativity and spirit in bringing Port of Entry to life. Their vision, imagination, skill, sensitivity, lived experience, and passion have transformed a vacant warehouse into a stunning immersive world where audiences will feel as though they have entered a family's home."

Port of Entry marks the second collaboration between APTP and experiential performance creators Third Rail Projects, best known for the acclaimed New York productions of Then She Fell and The Grand Paradise. The two companies previously co-created Learning Curve, an immersive theater performance that placed audiences within the walls of a Chicago public high school and in the shoes of its students. Learning Curve premiered in Chicago in July 2016 and was named one of the best shows of the year by nearly every Chicago theater critic and featured an ensemble of more than 30 high school students performing over the five-month run.

"Albany Park is a notable example of the power of community and its ability to nurture those that are seeking refuge and comfort," said Jennine Willett, Co-Artistic Director of Third Rail Projects and Co-Director of Port of Entry. "Port of Entry marks our second collaboration with APTP and celebrates our decade-long relationship. With APTP's incredible commitment to telling community stories with compassion and integrity and Third Rail Projects' expertise in designing intricate immersive experiences where audiences engage personally with these stories, Port of Entry will offer a deep and empathetic understanding of the rich diversity of people and places directly impacted by immigration."

Port of Entry will offer a pay-what-you-choose ticketing model, ranging from free to $70, with ticketholders at every price level enjoying the same experience. Tickets will go on sale starting Monday, June 12. To purchase tickets or learn more about Port of Entry visit portofentrychicago.com.

The Port of Entry performance venue is made possible thanks to an extraordinarily generous in-kind donation from the Reva & David Logan Foundation. Cornerstone supporters ($250,000 and up) include: Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, and a City of Chicago Community Development Grant. Additional generous support to the Campaign for Port of Entry comes from: Ken and Peggy Abt, Alphawood Foundation Chicago, Lucy and Peter Ascoli, Bayless Family Foundation, Janet Inskeep Benton, Michael D. and Jolynn Blair Family Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, ComEd Powering the Arts Grant Program, Crown Family Philanthropies, Roxanne Decyk and Lew Watts, Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation, Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation, Frederick and Vicki Feiner, Jack and Sandra Guthman, Lina Flores Hilko, Matt and Susie Hillman, Michael P.N.A. Hormel, Robert and Nancy Hoyt, Innovation 80, Landau Family Foundation, Beth Lange, Laurel Appell Lipkin, William A. Longbrake, Michael and Karyn Lutz Family Foundation, MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at Prince Charitable Trusts, MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, Network of Ensemble Theatres, Polk Bros. Foundation, Siragusa Foundation, and many generous individuals.

Albany Park Theater Project devises world-class theater that amplifies and illuminates the voices and experiences of immigrant and first-generation Americans. On stage and off, APTP creates transformative experiences that forge an inclusive community of youth artists, adult artists and audiences united in making the world more just, equitable and joyful. Since 1997, APTP has premiered two dozen original theater productions inspired by real-life stories of hundreds of people in Albany Park, the Chicago neighborhood where the company makes its home, and other immigrant communities in Chicago. APTP's teen ensemble has performed for more than 80,000 people, opened the Albany Park neighborhood's first performing arts space, and filmed two of its original performances for broadcast on Chicago's PBS affiliate. APTP has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, the inaugural Luis Valdez Award for Arts Activism from the Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists, the Midwest Human Rights Award from National Immigrant Justice Center, and the Coming Up Taller Award from the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. APTP is also known for its youth development and college access and persistence programs, through which its youth ensemble members prepare to lead civically engaged and choice-filled lives.

Third Rail Projects has been hailed as one of the foremost companies creating site-specific, immersive, and experiential performance. The company is led by Artistic Directors Zach Morris, Tom Pearson, and Jennine Willett and is dedicated to re-envisioning ways in which audiences engage with contemporary performance. Their award-winning immersive hit Then She Fell, named one of the "Top Ten Shows of 2012" by Ben Brantley of The New York Times, enjoyed a sold-out run for seven years until the pandemic closed its doors in 2020. The company has created large-scale immersive works in New York and nationally with projects including Ghost Light at Lincoln Center Theater, The Grand Paradise in Brooklyn, and Sweet & Lucky with Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as well as internationally through the Global Performance Studio (GPS). Third Rail Projects has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards; a Chita Rivera Award for Choreography; several fellowship awards including two CEC Artslink Back Apartment Residencies (Russia); a Theater Fellowship from the Bogliaco Foundation (Italy); and more. Third Rail Projects has also been recognized as part of the creative team of the Emmy Award-winning virtual reality adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Wolves in the Walls. In 2016, the artistic directors were named among the 100 most influential people in Brooklyn Culture by Brooklyn Magazine.

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