GO
PHOTOGRAPH: BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE120 CHICAGO | SEPTEMBER 2019
This Lagos-based singer has steadily built a
g loba l bu z z: He popped up on D r a ke’s 2 017 More
Life album and won for best international act at
this year’s BET Awards. Check out last year’s
underrated Outside to get a sense of Burna Boy’s
warm, wavy vibe.
Details Near North Side. House of Blues. 8 p.m.
$35–$75. ticketmaster.com
THROUGH SEPT. 8 | DANCE
Doing Fine
QChoreographer Joanna Furnans relies on a
formal approach in her group work, but her
solos are more evocative — the most recent of
which she performed with a dildo dangling
from her breast pocket. For the culmination
of her time as a Chicago Dancemakers Forum
Lab grantee, Furnans channels her personal
experiences by improvising the adaptations
made necessary to her dancing by a chronic
disk injury. More broadly, the piece is about
the politics of a woman displaying her body
onstage (sans dildo, this time).
Details North Center. Grey Space. $20 (RSVP
required). joannafurnans.com
SEPT. 9 | NEW MUSIC
The Bell Ringers
QThird Coast Percussion spearheads a large-
scale, community-inclusive world premiere
along the lines of the countercultural In C
and nature-revering Inuksuit. Written for a
multitudinous ensemble of musicians, the
piece centers on a 300-pound bell set in the
middle of the lawn at Pritzker Pavilion. You can
roam around the pavilion while performers,
from novices to professionals, play their own
instruments, guided by the four members of
TCP. Those interested in participating should
sign up to attend a rehearsal.
Details Loop. Jay Pritzker Pavilion. 6 p.m. Free.
thirdcoastpercussion.com
SEPT. 12 | NEW MUSIC
Considering Matthew Shepard
QTo wrap up this summer’s classical music
season, Ravinia brings back one of its most
critically successful concerts from last: a
powerful oratorio about the 1998 murder of
gay college student Matthew Shepard. The
composer, Craig Hella Johnson, leads the
choir Conspirare through a quilt of choral
styles, creating a modern Passion play that uses
Shepard’s diaries as source material.
Details Highland Park. Ravinia. 7:30 p.m.
$10–$65. ravinia.org
SEPT. 12–OCT. 13 | THEATER
King Hedley II
QCourt Theatre and director Ron OJ Parson
continue their commitment to staging August
YOU SHOULD KNOW ...Bri Sudia
The local actress is so in demand
that she competes against herself:
At the 2017 Jeff Awards, she was
nominated twice for best actress
in a musical (for her lead roles in
Wonderful Town at the Goodman and
Sweeney Todd at the Paramount).
Sudia is trained in classical the-
ater, but she performs in plenty of
contemporary productions. Catch
her in the latter when she stars as
a Norwegian diplomat in TimeLine
Theatre Company’s Oslo, running
September 10 to October 20 at the
Broadway Playhouse. — KRIS VIREQOn her unusual start
“I was going to be a sign language
interpreter for the deaf — that’s my
undergrad degree. Then I started
interpreting for shows, and I was real-
ly jealous of the actors onstage. So I
applied to study abroad in a classical
Shakespeare program in London.”QOn meeting her idol
“The first show I saw as a kid that
made a real impact on me was
Mary Zimmerman’s The Odyssey,
in New Jersey. I had the poster of
her Broadway play Metamorphoses
on my wall for my entire childhood.
So when I met her years later doing
Wonderful Town, I was so nervous .”QOn the appeal of Chicago theater
“Growing up seeing Broadway shows,
I never really imagined that you could
do a show for fewer than 800 people.
Watching actors give the perfor-
mance of a lifetime five feet from me
made Chicago seem like the place
where you could figure out what kind
of actor you wanted to be.”Wilson’s full 10-play cycle about black life in
the 20th century with this 1980s-set entry.
Revisiting some characters from Wilson’s
earlier Seven Guitars, King Hedley II takes a dim
view of how the Reagan era’s economic policies
trickled down into historically impoverished
neighborhoods like Pittsburgh’s Hill District.
Details Hyde Park. Court Theatre. $20–$84.
courttheatre.orgSEPT. 13 | NEW MUSICFanm d’Ayiti
QThe musician Nathalie Joachim arranged
and composed the concert-length Fanm d’Ayiti
(Women of Haiti) to project a kaleidoscope of
sonic impressions of powerful Haitian women
in the arts and activism. Best known locally
as the flutist in the sextet Eighth Blackbird (at
least until she leaves the position at the end
of the year), Joachim scored the work for flute
and voice (both performed by her), electronics,
and string quartet (courtesy of the impressive
Spektral Quartet).
Details Ravenswood. Black Ensemble Theater.
7:30 p.m. $25–$75. blackensembletheater.orgSEPT. 13 | POPHot Chip
QThis British synth-pop band helped make
disco cool again in the early 2000s. Nearly
two decades later, Hot Chip is still kicking
out tender dance-f loor anthems that plug
straight into your serotonin receptors. The
group’s latest, the warm and sublime A Bath
Full of Ecstasy, was coproduced by the late, great
Philippe Zdar, the Dionysian studio wizard who
helped pioneer French house.
Details Uptown. Riviera Theatre. 7:30 p.m. $35.
ticketfly.comSEPT. 13–15 | FESTIVALRiot Fest
QBreak out your chain wallets and your scuffed
pair of Vans for this annual showcase of music
you’d hear at the mall during the ’90s and
2000s. (There are some exceptions, especially
on Sunday, when both Patti Smith and the
V i l la ge People d rop by.) H ig h l ig ht s i nclude r iot-
grrrl pioneers Bikini Kill, the last local show for
thrash-metal heroes Slayer, and multiple acts
per for m i n g t hei r a lbu m s i n f u l l, s uch a s snot t y
pop-punkers Blink-182 running through its
commercial breakthrough Enema of the State.
Details Lawndale. Douglas Park. $50–$1,500.
riotfest.orgSEPT. 13–NOV. 2 | ARTOrkideh Torabi
QInspired by Persian miniatures, this Iranian
painter creates dyed-cotton portraits of
men. But her dudes are comical caricatures,