PORT OF ENTRY to End Final Season at Albany Park Theater Project

Albany Park Theater Project has announced that its immersive theater production, Port of Entry, will begin its final season Oct. 29, concluding a four-year run of sold-out performances. APTP created Port of Entry in collaboration with New York-based Third Rail Projects, and the production is performed by APTP's youth theater ensemble. The final season will run through Feb. 27 at 3547 W. Montrose Ave., inside a 1929 Albany Park warehouse meticulously transformed to replicate an iconic Chicago courtyard apartment building.

Since premiering in July 2023, Port of Entry has welcomed nearly 10,000 audience members, including visitors from more than 30 states and 10 countries. More than 400 artists and craftspeople have been employed through the creation and performance of Port of Entry, including more than $1 million in employment for youth artists, with additional employment for hundreds more arts workers.

“Port of Entry began with the vision that a youth ensemble could create world-class immersive theater, transform a 12,000 square-foot building into a fully dimensional world, and sustain that production over several years,” said Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Executive Artistic Director of Albany Park Theater Project and a co-director of Port of Entry. “What our young people, artists and community have created became so much more significant than we ever could have imagined. While it will be deeply emotional for all of us to say goodbye, this final season is a chance to celebrate the thousands of people who stepped through our doors, the hundreds of artists who built this world, and the Albany Park immigrant and refugee storytellers who trusted us to share their personal experiences.”

Port of Entry invites just 28 audience members at each performance to step inside the real-life stories of immigrants and refugees from around the world living side by side in a single Albany Park apartment building. Audiences journey through three floors of apartments, hallways, courtyards and intimate spaces as stories unfold around them through live performance, choreography, and sound, lighting, and projection design. The production lasts 2 hours and 10 minutes and is performed by APTP's youth ensemble.

The project began in 2018 with a one-week workshop and grew into the most ambitious production in APTP's history. Its intersecting stories, spanning generations and cultures, were created from extensive interviews with Albany Park residents, the lived experiences of APTP ensemble members, and years of collaborative development by youth and adult artists.