It definitely takes a village to raise your spirits. For this unusual Valentine’s season of love, Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse has organized a special musical theater love letter – marrying several Quad-Cities venues to produce the video compilation, “Let’s Fall in Love.” A virtual celebration of love and the arts, the 75-minute program will debut Saturday, Feb. 13 at 5 p.m., featuring performers not only from Circa, but the Black Box Theatre, Center for Living Arts, Countryside Community Theatre, Davenport Junior Theatre, Double Threat Studios, Mississippi Bend Players/Augustana, QC... Read More

2021 is the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Descent of Man. The Humanist Association of Ireland’s 2021 Darwin Day lecture will examine how the work holds up in the light of today’s knowledge of genetics and human evolution. It will take place on Zoom on #darwinday2021 This year, we are delighted that our speaker will be Professor Aoife McLysaght. Aoife is Head of the Genetics Department at Trinity College Dublin, where she has led a research group focusing on Molecular Evolution since 2003. She was a member of the international consortium that published the first draft of... Read More

Just 15 lucky audience members were able to see a new Augustana College theater production, per performance, late last month. That suspenseful, dramatic play – Andrew Bovell’s “Speaking in Tongues” – was filmed and will be shown online one night only, Friday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. A summary of the four-actor play (in which each plays more than one role) says: “Nine parallel lives, four interlocked infidelities, one missing person, and a mysterious stiletto are all woven together in this electrifying psychological thriller.” Directed by Augie senior James Wheeler (in his directorial... Read More

Waxahatchee was originally slated to play Codfish Hollow, but she had to cancel her show due to covid. However, fans of her music can still check out her show this week in a special live performance going online! Watch here: https://www.bandsintown.com/…/102447850-waxahatchee-at… Online Event Starts: Thursday, February 11, 2021 9:00:00 PM EST  Read More

In its first complete mainstage production in a whole year, the Spotlight Theatre, 1800 7th Ave., Moline, will perform the madcap “Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)” on March 19 to March 28. “This abridged cast of Jeremy Mahr, Amelia Fischer, and Brent Tubbs are sure to give the audiences a much needed laugh,” the Spotlight posted on its Facebook page, noting its first full production was from the Reduced Shakespeare Company “abridged” repertoire in 2018, so “we thought this would be the perfect show to bring us back.” The rapid-fire Shakespeare riffs on all 37 of... Read More

The Bureau of Cultural Affairs (BCA) at Western Illinois University will offer a series of five free, virtual shows for the Spring 2021 semester as part of “On the Couch – Virtual Arts Series.” The production company, BiCoastal Productions, is offering free shows to presenters like BCA during the COVID-19 pandemic to continue to offer exposure to the arts to audiences. Each show begins at 7 p.m. on a series of Wednesdays. The schedule includes: • Feb. 10 – “The Red Hot Chilli Pipers” – Bagpipers who Rock – is the band AC/DC meets poet Robert Burns, with rock anthems sitting “comfortably... Read More

The ’80s were a magical era of fun songs, creative videos and plenty of one-hit-wonders. But it was pretty rare that a one-hit-wonder was written by a guy who would go on to have another hit that would be thought of as his own one-hit-wonder, but not have a hit with the original song that was covered by the first one-hit-wonder. You follow? No? Ok. Have a second cup of coffee, and come along with me into the world of “Der Kommissar”… The song was originally written by the Austrian artist Falco in 1981, and covered a year later by After the Fire. The Falco version would become... Read More

Saturday In The Arts is a comprehensive weekly feature looking at a trend, personality, or major subject involving the Quad-Cities arts and entertainment scene. Harriet Beecher Stowe was a small, quiet woman who wielded a towering, thunderous literary voice that helped change the conscience and course of a nation. Barely five feet tall, Stowe (1811-1896) is just 23 in the award-winning docudrama “Sons & Daughters of Thunder (2019) by Moline-based filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films. A half-hour companion documentary, “Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe,” premiered last... Read More

Feeling like some sweet music this weekend? Saturday sees the debut of Circa ’21’s bluegrass musical BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN! If you’re a fan of the film   O’ Brother Where Art Thou   and   the Circa ‘21 favorite   Southern Crossroads,   you’re going to love this show. A merry band of misfits sneak into a theatre hoping to stay out of trouble, but instead find themselves front and center in this story about the power of music and seconds chances. Add a down on her luck theatre owner and her wacky assistant, a clueless town mayor, his scheming wife and bumbling sheriff and... Read More

For Black History Month, Rock Island native Jonathan Burnett wants to educate people about a jazz legend from the Q-C whose son went on to become the first African-American governor of Massachusetts. On Monday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m., the first cut of the short documentary, “The Strangeness: The Pat Patrick Story,” will be shown free on Facebook, through Azubuike African American Council of the Arts. Much information has been documented on legendary white musicians from the Quad-Cities. However, less is known about the contributions made by African-Americans, Burnett said recently. “We know Bix... Read More