If you’re a regular theatergoer, you’ll be forgiven for thinking Chicago’s theater scene is a godless place. Which isn’t to say that theater makers are more inclined toward heathenism than any other subset of the city’s population. But in a community overflowing with playwrights eager to write about Big Issues—police violence, gender inequity, mental illness, cyber bullying, addiction, homelessness, trauma, Alzheimer’s, gentrification, and seemingly every nuance of identity politics—it’s the rare scribe who tackles faith, the issue that has overwhelmed, mystified, and tormented several millennia’s worth of great thinkers....

Michael Gibson/FX Cory Stoll is Ephraim Goodweather on The Strain The Strain, a vampire horror novel trilogy written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, tells the story of the rise of an ancient evil and the fall of humanity, the spread of an infection and the pursuit of a cure. Originally conceived for television, the trilogy’s been adapted (or returned to its rightful home, depending on how you look at it) for FX by del Toro and Carlton Cuse (Lost, The Bates Motel)....

Since the Field family gave up control of the Sun-Times in 1978 so young Teddy Field could take his share of the family fortune to Hollywood, the paper’s had an assortment of owners. The first was Rupert Murdoch. Another, much more recent, was Michael Ferro, the entrepreneurial mastermind (ask him) who tried out various new strategies that he’d eventually take to a much bigger fish, Tribune Publishing, which he renamed TRONC....

It’s that time of year again: the 54th Chicago International Film Festival starts tonight. Included in the lineup are many films made by Chicago-born or -based filmmakers or else set in our city. Here’s a quick and dirty guide about the films that really put ‘Chicago’ in the festival: The Feeling of Being Watched Chicago-based Algerian-American journalist and filmmaker Assia Boundaoui, declared one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film for 2018, explores FBI surveillance of Arab-Americans in Bridgeview....

As part of its usual community outreach, this year Pitchfork Music Festival is encouraging its fans to wear orange to join in the fight against gun violence for their initiative called #BeatsOverBullets. The festival is partnering with local group Mothers Against Senseless Killings (MASK) and Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country. More info here.

Last month veteran pop auteur Matthew Sweet dropped his first new album in six years with Tomorrow Forever (out on his own Honeycomb Hideout label), which was culled from sessions that produced more than twice as many songs as what ended up on the sprawling 17-track epic. In 2014 Sweet and his wife moved back to their native Nebraska following years away, setting up a home studio where the singer began to stockpile material with the help of trusted colleagues like drummer Ric Menck, bassist-guitarist Paul Chastain, and guitarist Jason Victor; on a few tracks he’s joined by veterans like Rod Argent (Zombies), Debbi Peterson (Bangles), and Gary Louris (Jayhawks)....

Much of the press surrounding Octo Octa has focused on her gender transition, as detailed in an expansive 2016 feature for Resident Advisor. Less noted, however, is the way Maya Bouldry-Morrison’s sound has spread its wings in the three years since her dimly lit minor masterpiece Between Two Selves (100% Silk). That record’s tracks are best identified through their reverb-heavy glaze, snippets of vocal samples, and the mournful undercurrent that slinks below Bouldry-Morrison’s deep house....

Chicago indie rocker Jason Balla divides his time between Britpop-inflected four-piece Ne-Hi, atmospheric postpunk three-piece Dehd, and reverb-drenched duo Earring, all of which have made prominent places for themselves in the local underground rock scene. I can’t imagine Balla has much time on his hands, so when he starts a new creative endeavor, it’s likely because he feels he must. So here we are with his soft-spoken solo endeavor, Accessory; the show tonight is a celebration of the project’s first cassette release, Blue Tape (ACX)....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, June 22, 2017. Rauner calls for unity on budget, asks legislature to “act for the people” Governor Bruce Rauner gave a televised speech calling for a “compromise budget plan” ten days ahead of the special budget session he’s convened after the Illinois General Assembly under his leadership once again failed to pass a budget before June 30, the end of the fiscal year....

Electra Garrigó When Virgilio Piñera’s brazen, bewildering adaptation of Sophocles’s tragedy premiered in Havana in 1948, the literary establishment responded with contempt and disgust—and Cuban modernism was born. Restaged in 1958, its focus on princess Electra’s struggles against her unreasonable tyrant father, Agamemnon, bolstered pro-Castro sentiments (ironically, Castro would later jail Piñera for being queer). While Piñera fell into obscurity by the end of his life, director Kathi Kaity resurrects this seminal work in a Right Brain Project production that may provoke its own share of contempt....

Mood Indigo Looking for something to do today? Agenda‘s got you covered. For more on these events and others, check out the Reader‘s daily Agenda page.

Stephen Kahn Wu Man Looking for something to do today? Agenda‘s got you covered. For more on these events and others, check out the Reader‘s daily Agenda page.

Rhiannon Giddens challenges the perceived whiteness of American folk music You could be forgiven for thinking otherwise these days, but folk music isn’t actually just about bearded white dudes who, say, hole themselves up in cabins for months to get in their feels (not to name any names). Black folk artist Rhiannon Giddens, founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, is pushing back against that stereotype on her new solo album, and she has plenty of underrecognized folk history to back her up....

ARTIST: Ryan Duggan SHOW: Spektral Quartet at Constellation on Fri 5/12 MORE INFO: ryanduggan.com

Theater Oobleck turned 25 in 2013, and so did the Neo-Futurists’ signature show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Now Curious Theatre Branch’s Rhinoceros Theater Festival is celebrating its silver anniversary, too. Time for essays on the graying of the Chicago fringe? Well, it would be if Oobleck, TMLMTBGB, and Rhinofest hadn’t managed to pull younger artists—some of them much, much younger—into their unconventional orbits. None of the above companies were even so much as a gleam in the eye of the first Rhinofest....

In its 19th year, Chicago’s World Music Festival is as sprawling as ever—it lasts 17 days, from Friday, September 8, till Sunday, September 24—but because it’s abandoned booking concerts on Mondays and Tuesdays, overall it feels more modest. The WMF has long been less grueling than a typical music festival, both because it spreads out its lineup across so many days and because most of its shows are in cozy venues where you don’t have to compete for elbow room with tens of thousands of people....

Later this week, the Logan Theatre presents a screening of Hong King action filmmaker Lau Kar-leung’s late-period breakout Drunk Master II, released stateside asThe Drunken Master. Lau, who passed away from complications related to lymphoma a couple years ago, was a fight choreographer and later director at Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers Studio, helping create the look and tone of the popular kung-fu genre. He specialized in mixing traditional martial arts styles with old-school Hollywood showmanship and good-natured humor, and he experimented with staging, characterization, and genre, often bucking trends he helped create....

Local artist Alberto Aguilar often uses cognates—or as he describes them, “words that can be read in English and in Spanish simultaneously”—in his work. He knew he wanted to incorporate them when the National Museum of Mexican Art asked him to participate in its 30th anniversary exhibition, “Memoria Presente: An Artistic Journey.” One of his contributions is the first work visitors encounter, a window sign that reads PORTAL in bright red letters above the entrance....

As a member of virtuosic progressive bluegrass outfit the Punch Brothers, banjo whiz Noam Pikelny long ago established his technical chops, fitting superbly into the band’s ambitious arrangements and elaborate compositional gambits. He’s used his solo recordings to chronicle an interest in more traditional modes, whether essaying the music of Bill Monroe or veering into 70s-style newgrass turf. The brand-new Universal Favorite (Rounder) casts his playing in another new light, because unlike his previous solo records there’s no one complementing his fleet picking—though he does often step up as a low-key vocalist....

Jesanne Rechsteiner United Nations The brainchild of cartoonist and filmmaker Lyra Hill, Brain Frame ends its three-year run in style with a special 3rd Anniversary/Grand Finale show at Thalia Hall. The event kicks off with a tour of screen-printed posters from the series, which used music, puppetry, and performance to interpret comics and interactive art installations, and ends with a mega dance party. In between, the main event features seven new performances as well as new work from Hill....