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Quad Cities USA - Guide to Davenport & Bettendorf Iowa and Rock Island & Moline Illinois
 

REVIEW: Playcrafters Presents Affecting, Soulful “Six Dance Lessons” as Study in Contrasts

October 5th, 2021
REVIEW: Playcrafters Presents Affecting, Soulful “Six Dance Lessons” as Study in Contrasts

The outstanding “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” at Playcrafters shows us the essence of excellent live theater. Just two actors – with lots of costume changes, a varied musical soundtrack and dance styles – responsible for drawing and holding our attention for an entire story of two very different, colorful, strong-willed characters. With Playcrafters veterans Stephanie Naab and Adam Cerny playing (respectively) Lily, an aging but formidable retiree, and Michael, an acerbic and blunt dance instructor, we’re in the best possible hands. And with the meticulous, energetic dances choreographed... Read More

REVIEW: Thought-Provoking New “Enemy” a Friend to Quad-Cities Theater at Mockingbird

October 3rd, 2021
REVIEW: Thought-Provoking New “Enemy” a Friend to Quad-Cities Theater at Mockingbird

When I heard that the prolific, amazing Alex Richardson was updating the 1882 Henrik Ibsen play “An Enemy of the People” to a tighter, slimmer, modern version – addressing science, disease, truth, corruption, adultery and journalism – I briefly wondered if there would be a spin on one of Donald Trump’s endlessly repeated lies, the press as the real enemy of the people. That phrase is surprisingly not uttered in the utterly absorbing, thought-provoking “Enemy of the People” at the new Mockingbird on Main in downtown Davenport, but Richardson has made the taut drama (with good doses... Read More

World-Renowned Pianist Has Special Place in His Heart for Quad City Symphony

October 2nd, 2021
World-Renowned Pianist Has Special Place in His Heart for Quad City Symphony

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! I am listening to pianist Garrick Ohlsson’s magisterial, towering 2005 transversal of the immortal 24 Preludes by the iconic Romantic composer Frederic Chopin, and the masterful miniatures are unspooled with inspiring tenderness and care, thundering, breathtaking virtuosity, achingly beautiful lyricism, crystalline precision and profound emotion. It’s no wonder that Ohlsson... Read More

Quad City Symphony Orchestra Returns To Welcome A Full Audience This Weekend

October 1st, 2021
Quad City Symphony Orchestra Returns To Welcome A Full Audience This Weekend

It’s fitting that the last Quad City Symphony Orchestra performance before the Covid shutdown was Verdi’s Requiem, a piece written in memory of a dear friend. The first Masterworks program to welcome a full-capacity audience since then (Oct. 2-3, 2021) will feature the classic Dvorak “New World” Symphony. It’s a whole new world for sure, as the pandemic lingers on. This weekend’s concerts – featuring world-renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson performing Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto – will also include a Sunday afternoon in Centennial Hall (at Augustana College in Rock Island)... Read More

Mockingbird in Davenport Returns With Modern Spin on Ibsen’s “Enemy”

September 29th, 2021
Mockingbird in Davenport Returns With Modern Spin on Ibsen’s “Enemy”

For the second fully staged production at Mockingbird on Main, 320 N. Main St., Davenport, Q-C playwright Alexander Richardson has taken a sprawling 19th-century play by Henrik Ibsen, slimmed it down and modernized it. The 27-year-old East Moliner – who’s been writing plays for almost a decade – slashed the 1882 “An Enemy of the People” from five acts and 30 characters (stretched across three hours), to just five characters and one act, across about 80 minutes. In the story, a doctor realizes that the new expansion for his town’s factory is releasing toxins into the town’s... Read More

Suicide Prevention Advocate Kevin Hines Headlining Rock Island Conference Thursday

September 28th, 2021
Suicide Prevention Advocate Kevin Hines Headlining Rock Island Conference Thursday

Kevin Hines, one of the world’s leading suicide-prevention advocates, will be the keynote speaker for “Can’t Replace You” – a conference Thursday, Sept. 30 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Ballroom, 226 17th St., Rock Island, presented by Foster’s Voice and The Gray Matters Collective. Foster’s Voice, Inc., is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping others with depression and advocating for suicide awareness and prevention. It’s named for Foster Atwood, a 19-year-old United Township grad struggling with depression who took his life on July 21, 2017. The Gray Matters,... Read More

“Little Shop” a Big, Boisterous, Beautiful Hit at Moline’s Spotlight Theatre

September 27th, 2021
“Little Shop” a Big, Boisterous, Beautiful Hit at Moline’s Spotlight Theatre

Before composer Alan Menken (now 72 and an eight-time Oscar winner) became a Disney juggernaut (penning such scores as “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” Aladdin,” “Newsies,” “Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Enchanted”), he wrote the downright delightful, infectious music for “Little Shop of Horrors,” which opened in 1982 and became the highest-grossing Off-Broadway show of all time. Not only did the little musical that could get made into a popular 1986 film and launch Menken’s dazzling career, the riotous show has become a community-theater staple (done in... Read More

Playcrafters Barn Theatre in Moline Announces 2022 Season

September 26th, 2021
Playcrafters Barn Theatre in Moline Announces 2022 Season

Playcrafters Barn Theatre (4950 35th Ave., Moline) has some well-known titles planned for both its Mainstage and Barn Owl season for 2022. The Mainstage season is as follows: “The Odd Couple” by Neil Simon, performing in February. “Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced” by Leslie Darbon, performing in May. “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, performing in July (pending approval from Concord Theatricals). “Sylvia” by A.R. Gurney, performing in October. “12 Angry Jurors” by Sherman Sergel, performing in November. The 2022 Barn Owl season (emphasizing more alternative,... Read More

REVIEW: Circa ’21 Shows More Girl Power With Fun, Raunchy, Entertaining “Disenchanted”

September 25th, 2021
REVIEW: Circa ’21 Shows More Girl Power With Fun, Raunchy, Entertaining “Disenchanted”

“Disenchanted” is the name of an upcoming 2022 Disney+ live-action/animated musical fantasy film, a sequel to the 2007 “Enchanted,” with Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Idina Menzel reprising their roles. But that title was taken years before, first in a 2009 New York workshop (in its own way a sequel), as Dennis T. Giacino wrote the snarky book, lyrics and music to “Disenchanted!” – which pops a good-natured (and often bitingly accurate) pin in the inflated, unrealistic images of 10 Disney princesses. The fun-filled, energetic musical revue is given its winningly... Read More

Local Civic Groups Are Working to Make The Quad-Cities an Even More Special Place

September 25th, 2021
Local Civic Groups Are Working to Make The Quad-Cities an Even More Special Place

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! Kyle Carter and Geoff Manis are two of the biggest cheerleaders for the Quad-Cities, and within two days of each other this month, they sang the praises on social media of placemaking – the long, arduous, gratifying task of creating and sustaining a unique, impressive, growing community. Carter, executive director of the Downtown Davenport Partnership, posted on Facebook... Read More