`Stones'

Bailiwick Repertory

Through May 14

At the Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont

Tickets, $22-$25. (773) 883-1090

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Musical-theater collaborators Julie Shannon and John Reeger have agift for condensing mammoth events into intimate stories aboutordinary people. In "Stones," now receiving its local premiere atBailiwick Repertory, they use the Chicago race riots of 1919 as abackdrop for the turmoil faced by an African-American family in theBronzeville neighborhood.

Like their "Christmas Schooner," which has become a Bailiwickholiday musical tradition, Shannon and Reeger's "Stones" examines thefortitude of individuals who persevere …