It’s been an especially long, hard road to reopening live theater for Geneseo’s Richmond Hill Players and company veteran Jennifer Kingry. She last directed at RHP for “The 39 Steps” in August 2019 and was in the midst of rehearsing the comedy “Becky’s New Car” in March 2020, when Covid-19 shut everything down. The Barn Theatre is finally opening their long-awaited 2021 season with John Patrick Shanley’s 2014 romantic comedy, “Outside Mullingar” – directed by Kingry – with performances Thursdays through Sundays, Aug. 5-15, in Richmond Hill Park, Geneseo, within a week of... Read More

Effective Monday, Aug. 2, Sarah Stevens has been named interim CEO of The Project of the Quad Cities. After nearly five years with the organization, outgoing CEO Andrea Meirick has accepted a new opportunity in Cincinnati, Ohio. “I am so sad to be leaving The Project and all its wonderful employees and clients,” Meirick said Monday in a Facebook post. “But I am certain the organization will continue to thrive as it adopts a health care model focused on eliminating the health inequities faced by the folks we serve.” Since 1986, The Project has served people living with HIV/AIDS with remarkable... Read More

It’s hard to go wrong with “Disney’s Newsies: The Musical.” But that doesn’t mean at all that it’s easy to get right. The glorious, massive show – given an expert, exhilarating production by Countryside Community Theatre – is a classic “underdog vs. topdog” battle. Scrappy, poor, relentlessly tenacious newspaper carriers (the newsies) go on strike after the cold, conniving, egomaniacal publishing titan Joseph Pulitzer hikes the cost they must pay to sell copies – in a bid to boost his bottom line. In the pre-broadcasting days, circa 1899, newspapers were THE king of communication... Read More

On Tuesday, Aug. 3rd, Cambridge’s College Square Park will be the site of a summer theater performance of Craig Sodaro’s “Tom ‘n’ Huck,” starting at 7:30 p.m. The play is the first performance of a summer community theater program, thanks to the support of the summer AIM Program through the Henry Stark Bureau Regional Office of Education. The AIM Program has been a part of Cambridge Schools for over five years, but this is the first public play. Admission is free to the public. The story revolves around the irrepressible Tom Sawyer, his best buddy Huck Finn, and many other beloved... Read More

Nearly 60 years after first launching the vocal duo that made history, Bill Medley will bring a new Righteous Brothers to play the Adler Theatre in Davenport on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. Reserved seat tickets will go on sale Friday, Aug. 6 at 10 a.m. in person at the Adler Theatre Box Office (136 E. 3rd St.) and online at Ticketmaster.com. Tickets are $50, $60, $70 and $90. With a string of No. 1 classics, including the “most played song in radio history,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (1964), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield... Read More

Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! Liz Beiderbecke-Hart lives 139 miles from Davenport (outside Springfield, Ill.), but makes the pilgrimage back every year in honor of the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival and her famous family. “Bix is a part of my soul, he’s a part of who I am,” she said recently, in advance of the 50th anniversary of the fest, Aug. 5-7 at Davenport’s Rhythm City Casino Event... Read More

One of the absolute thrilling joys of theater is not only how it brings fictional characters to life, but illuminates the intimately human struggles and triumphs of well-known, real-life icons. The Quad-Cities premiere of “The Mountaintop” – an emotional, haunting reimagining of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last night on earth – is an extraordinary example. The 90-minute, two-person Katori Hall play debuted Thursday night at the new Mockingbird on Main, a beautiful, 40-seat cabaret at 320 N. Main St., Davenport, created by Tristan Tapscott and Savannah Bay Strandin. The mood before... Read More

After seven years leading the Quad Cities Community Foundation, President and CEO Sherry Ristau will step down from her position at the end of August to make way for further organizational—and regional—transformation. “I am deeply grateful for all the relationships and opportunities this community has provided me since arriving in the Quad-Cities,” Ristau said in a Thursday announcement. “With the board of directors, we have spent the last seven years in pursuit of a new mission to transform the region through the generosity of donors, and I believe wholeheartedly that we have moved the... Read More

This year’s Art in the Garden is Saturday, Aug. 7 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Quad City Botanical Center, 2525 4th Ave., Rock Island. The 5th-annual event features local and regional artists — including potters, painters, sculptors, jewelry makers and others who are inspired by nature to create. Their works will be exhibited and sold at this outdoor show. The handcrafted works will be on display in tents throughout the gardens and a variety of art price points will be offered. Pieces to be sold include sculpture, jewelry, pottery, quilts, paintings and painted objects, charcoal and pastel... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: The 50th anniversary of the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, Aug. 5-7, will be live-streamed for the first time. There will be five 5-hour concerts over those three days – at Davenport’s Rhythm City Casino Event Center — and you can pay for one ($20 each) or all five through Eventbrite. This link (also on the Society’s website), https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bix-beiderbecke-50th-jazz-festival-tickets-164015884927, will easily walk you through the process. This year, there will be eight professional bands plus the Bix Youth Band performing. The festival venue will... Read More