Chicago’s Albany Park Theater Project, a young people’s theater company renowned for its original works with hard-hitting subjects (such as poverty and immigration), said Monday that Miguel Angel Rodriguez will become executive artistic director and the organization’s sole chief executive. For the last five years, Rodriguez shared leadership duties with APTP co-founder David Feiner.
Feiner is not leaving entirely; he remains a full-time employee and will take on a newly created title as “founder and director of innovation and advancement.” Albany Park Theater Project dates back to 1997 and has used its teenage casts to stage such critically acclaimed, site-specific shows as “Learning Curve” and “Port of Entry,” both in collaboration with Third Rail Projects.
Feiner told the Tribune that he wants to “focus on scouting and launching partnerships,” including a new collaboration with Kaimera Productions that will culminate next year in “Spaces Albany Park,” billed as a storytelling-centered promenade experience that leads audiences on a journey through the titular neighborhood. APTP’s next show will be “The American Project,” running July 17 to Aug. 8.
Kokandy Productions has announced the cast for director Derek Van Barham’s summer production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George,” opening Aug. 29 in the Chopin Downstairs Studio, 1543 W. Division St. Kevin Webb leads the show as George with Missy Wise Vanderzee playing Dot/Marie. The rest of the cast includes Nick Arceo, Danny Andrew Bennett, Rachel Carreras, Ella Carson, Emily Holland, Lauren Miller, Z Moore, Samantha Ringor, KyraJo Petit-Walla, Nathe Rowbotham, Jack Saunders and Abraham Shaw. This will be the first professional Chicago production of the piece in some 15 years. Kokandy also has a new production of “Hair” on its summer docket and a remount of “Jekyll and Hyde” in the fall, in collaboration with Broadway in Chicago.
The career of Jasmine Amy Rogers, the star of “Boop! The Musical,” who saw her career explode after starring in the Broadway musical during the Chicago tryout, will play Maria in the Lincoln Center Theatre revival of “The Sound of Music” on Broadway, it was announced Wednesday.
Comedian Ilana Glazer will appear at the Chicago Theatre on Sept. 22. The national tour of “Water for Elephants” begins its Chicago engagement Tuesday night at the Nederlander Theatre on Randolph.
The Fine Arts Building, home of the Studebaker Theatre, is getting a new coffeehouse open to both patrons and the public. Groundswell Coffee Roasters cafe will open at on the ground floor of the historic building on July 13.
Finally, Chicago theater patrons and artists will gather at 6 p.m. June 29 at the Broadway Playhouse (175 E. Chestnut Ave.) to celebrate the life of Bill Pullinsi, co-founder of the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, the godfather of dinner theater and a major figure in Chicago entertainment history.
Chris Jones Recommends
“Theater of the Mind” in an open run by the Goodman at the Reid Murdoch Building; “Job” through July 3 at Writers Theatre; “Octet” through June 28 at Raven Theatre; “Pandemonium, Please Hold” in an open run on the Second City Mainstage; “An Enemy of the People” through June 27 at TimeLine Theatre; “Damn Yankees” through July 5 at Theo Ubique Theatre; “Leopoldstadt” through Aug. 16 at Writers Theatre; “Untitled Vampire Play” through July 12 by Lookingglass Theatre in Water Tower Water Works; “Champions of Magic” through Aug. 23 at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
