The Venue will host Chinese musician Seraphenix Huan Zhang, who will play the Qin, a seven-string traditional Chinese acoustic ?instrument.
“It’s a very active instrument,” Venue owner David Colman said. “There’s a lot of motion.”
The event is a preview of the theatre department’s production of “M Butterfly,” which opens Oct. 24.
“M Butterfly” tells the story of a civil servant working at the French embassy in China.
The plot takes off when he falls in love with Chinese opera star Song Liling.
Tickets for the IU Theatre performance are available at the IU Theatre box office or online on the department’s website.
Student tickets are $15 and general admission is $25.
The Venue met with the Theatre department’s Director of Marketing and Communications Amy Osajima to plan tonight’s event.
The Venue has partnered with IU Department of Theater, Drama and Contemporary Dance before when they did a similar preview before its performance of the “Twelfth Night.”
Zhang’s performance will also be heard opening night before the IU Theatre performance begins but can be previewed tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the Venue.
The Theatre preview is part of Bloomington Unplugged, which the Venue hosts the first Tuesday of each month.
The idea for Bloomington Unplugged came from community members who wanted the chance to have a local place to perform acoustically.
In other venues, they always had to perform with amplifiers, and they found that sometimes their music was too loud and ?overpowering.
The Venue started the monthly concert to allow community members the opportunity to literally perform completely unplugged, Colman said.
Tonight’s performance will be accompanied by the Venue’s regular selection of art and open galleries.
The event is free and open to the public.
Alison Graham
