The Genesius Guild is wrapping up its 70th anniversary season with two weekends of an updated Greek comedy by Aristophanes. Performances of Women’s Festival (previously staged under its Greek name Thesmophoriazusae) are July 25 & 26 and August 1 & 2. The productions start at 7 p.m., in Lincoln Park, 1120 40^th St., Rock Island, and admission is free.

Women’s Festival continues the Genesius Guild’s tradition of closing each season on a lighthearted note with a rewritten Greek comedy. The production is loosely based on Aristophanes’ original storyline, in which women of Athens, meeting once a year in the Thesmorphorion to pass laws, attempt to put Euripides to death for maligning women in his plays, according to a troupe release.

Since Aristophanes’ plays rely heavily on social and political references from its original timeframe in 411 BC, the script has been extensively updated. This year’s script was assembled by Michael Callahan, who also directs the production alongside Alaina Pascarella.

The Genesius Guild is a community theatre organization in the Quad Cities specializing in free classical drama. Founded in 1956, the group performs Greek drama, Greek comedy, the works of Shakespeare, and other classical authors for eight weekends each summer. For more information about the Guild, visit www.genesius.org.

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Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner -- who has called the Quad Cities home since 1995 -- has decades of experience as a professional journalist and pianist. His experience writing for daily newspapers, public radio and local TV encompasses a wide range of subjects, including the arts, politics, education, economic development, historic preservation, business, and tourism.

Jonathan most loves writing about music and the arts (which he now does as a freelancer for the River Cities Reader and Visit Quad Cities). He has a passion for accompanying musicals, singers, choirs and instrumentalists, including playing for QC Music Guild's 2023 productions of RENT and SWEENEY TODD. He is assistant music director and accompanist for the spring 2025 Music Guild show, ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. He wrote an original musical based on The Book of Job, which premiered at Playcrafters in 2010. Jonathan penned a 175-page history book about downtown Davenport, that was published by The History Press in 2016, and a travel guide about the QC published by Reedy Press in 2022.