If you’ve ever met Don Faust you’d know he’s one of the nicest, funniest and most positive blokes on this planet. So it comes with some shock and awe that this not-quite-but-sort-of-autobiographical play dives into a not-so-cheery part of his life that under some circumstances would disavow a gleeful demeanor. Leave it to Faust to rise way, way above a troubled and rather tortured past to treat others the exact opposite. I think that’s why the play hit me the way it did. It was personal. On a few levels. I have known Don for … who knows … maybe close to 20 years now and though... Read More

While I had been inside Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse a few times over the past year (for interviews and an audition), I had not been back before Wednesday to see an actual stage show since January 2020. Like a certain Dorothy once said, “There’s no place like home.” And even with what seems like the final phase of Covid restrictions (patrons seated every other table, no buffet, servers wearing masks), Circa still dependably seems like a comforting, familiar home away from home for me. In the capable hands of Bootlegger Kathryn Calhoun, I was simply overjoyed to be back for a tasty dinner... Read More

Shelley Cooper came full circle last week at the prestigious Orlando Fringe Festival in Florida, and came home Tuesday with an unexpected award. The multi-talented, 35-year-old Augustana assistant professor of theatre arts earned the Fringe Critic’s Choice for Best Individual Performance, Drama, for her one-woman show, “La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas.” “I was completely shocked that I won,” Cooper said Wednesday. “I mean like to the point that I was waiting, maybe I would be nominated for solo show or this or that, and then when those got announced, I started walking... Read More

Outdoor music is back in a big way with Live at 5, Bass Street Landing concerts, live music at Pride Fest and more this weekend! There’s also a magic night, a couple of new theater shows, Viva Las Divas and more, all in this week’s Weekend in 2 Minutes! It’s our weekly podcast, hosted by Sean Leary, dropping every Thursday on QuadCities.com and you can hear it HERE.  Read More

Quad-City Music Guild’s first complete musical in a year and a half, “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” will be filmed from Moline’s Prospect Park theater Saturday and available to be streamed online June 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m., and June 13 at 2 p.m. Though the state of Illinois may lift all indoor capacity limits Friday, June 11 (compared to allowing theaters over 200 seats now to be at 25-percent capacity), the decision was made months ago for “Spamalot” not to have in-person performances. “I felt pretty heavily we needed to lock ourselves into one direction, because I was making choices... Read More

The Magic of Bill Blagg is appearing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 4 at the Adler Theatre, 136 E. 3rd St., Davenport! Experience mind-blowing MAGIC & ILLUSION live at the Adler Theatre! Tickets start at just $19! Order here: https://bit.ly/32eKyXp  Read More

Richmond Hill Players in Geneseo is holding auditions this weekend for its first play in 2021. The auditions, by appointment, will be Saturday, June 5, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 6, 3 to 4:30 p.m., at the Barn Theatre. The play, “Outside Mullingar,” is a 2014 romantic comedy about Anthony Reilly and Rosemary Muldoon, two introverted misfits entering middle age. Directed by Jennifer Kingry, the performance dates will be Aug. 5-8 and 12-15, 2021. In the John Patrick Shanley (“Doubt,” “Moonstruck”) play, Anthony has spent his entire life on his family’s cattle farm in... Read More

Happiness is…getting back to doing a major musical at the Spotlight Theatre after far too long. Nearly 16 months after staging its last musical, “The Wedding Singer,” the Spotlight (1800 7th Ave., Moline) will open the beloved “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” on Friday, June 4. It’s especially meaningful for Ian Sodawasser – who premiered in Spotlight’s first show, in October 2018, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and directed his first show with “Wedding Singer” in February 2020. “It’s a dream role,” he said Monday of playing Snoopy for the Peanuts musical, who... Read More

Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s first production in 15 months, the new drama “Princeton’s Rage,” is deeply personal for both its Quad-Cities playwright and director. In the Don Faust play (rated R for language and adult content), Princeton Yale left his hometown of Chicago over 30 years ago, turning his back on an abusive past at the hands of his high school classmates and never looking back. But through a series of happenstances, Princeton’s past comes to pay him a visit, in the form of one of his former tormentors, Reece “Rage” Johnson, and more than just talk about “the... Read More

The Black Box Theatre in downtown Moline will be presenting the comedy “Hate Mail” by Bill Corbett and Kira Obolensky from June 3 to 12. Performances begin at 7:30 pm except Sundays, which begin at 2:00 pm “Hate Mail” follows Preston Dennis, Jr. who writes a furious letter to a store demanding a refund for a broken snow globe. In his increasingly heated exchanges with the assistant manager Dahlia, who gives as good as she gets, he gets her fired – and finds a vengeful epistolary match. These two begin an epic, often acrimonious correspondence as their lives intertwine. ”Whether... Read More