“This is what I hope my theater work does for people: it takes them inside worlds they're curious about but have no real access to; it bears witness to truths that many folks-both government leaders and lay people-try aggressively to distort or to ignore; it makes beauty and meaning out of sometimes ugly, sometimes confusing strands of human experience; it is a creative act that, while often standing in for a memory, can actually become a new memory, can become a new truth-that, while telling one story, can actually become a new story and inspire the creation of yet other stories.”
- Laura Wiley, APTP Co-Founder

Albany Park Theater Project is an ensemble of youth artists who collectively write, choreograph, compose, and stage original performance works based on people's real-life stories.

Since 1997, APTP has created more than 50 performance works integrating theater, music, and dance. We have performed for more than 25,000 people at our 90-seat home theater in Albany Park and at venues throughout Chicago and beyond. Our performances bring together one of the most truly diverse audiences in Chicago.

APTP brings to the stage an array of voices often not heard on other stages

Our theater comes from the real-life stories we gather from immigrant and working-class Americans. APTP brings to the stage an array of voices often not heard on other stages: our plays have shared the life experiences of Mexican indocumentados, Bosnian refugees, Bolivian revolutionaries, persecuted Ukrainian Jews, Palestinian-American Muslims, Persian Sufis, Polish domestics, Vietnamese refugees, and more. Telling the stories of our community means that we examine issues that are important to people in neighborhoods like Albany Park. APTP's plays have told the stories of people whose lives are impacted by immigration policy, globalization, war, inequalities in public education, poverty, child abuse and neglect, addiction, domestic violence, gang violence, the criminal justice system, prejudice and intolerance, gentrification, and more.

With a focus on storytelling always our artistic hallmark, APTP has become ever more stylistically adventurous and imaginative over our ten-year history, honing our play development process, our sociopolitical acumen, and our skills as actors, dancers, musicians, ethnographers, writers, and directors to tell the stories we collect with ever greater precision and power. Visit What's On to learn about upcoming performances, delve into our Production Archive, or read on to learn about our creative process.