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

Rock Island’s Mississippi Bend Players Offer Virtual Encore of Two Shows

July 27th, 2021
Rock Island's Mississippi Bend Players Offer Virtual Encore of Two Shows

Due to the abridged past summer season, there’s a good chance you may have missed the small, stellar offerings of Mississippi Bend Players, the professional regional theater at Augustana College, Rock Island. Well, you are in luck, as two of the three shows in the 2021 season (which only ran for one weekend apiece) will have virtual encores, with online screenings of “Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing” and “No Child…” “Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing” will stream through Aug. 8. Conceived and performed by Shelly Cooper with musical arrangements by Mason Moss, the show... Read More

BREAKING: Rock Island’s Augustana College First in Nation to Offer New “Income Insurance”

July 20th, 2021
BREAKING: Rock Island’s Augustana College First in Nation to Offer New “Income Insurance”

BREAKING NEWS: Augustana College is the first in the nation to partner with Degree Insurance and offer “income insurance” for new students who transfer to Augustana. This effort involves Degree Insurance’s flagship insurance product, American Dream Insurance (ADI), the private Rock Island school announced Tuesday. The Transfer Student Income Assurance Program is a pilot program in which 20 new transfer students are guaranteed the average income for their academic field for the first five years after graduating from Augustana. “This is yet another great reason for transfer students to... Read More

Last Chance To See Excellent ‘No Child…’ At Rock Island’s Brunner Theatre Today

July 11th, 2021
Last Chance To See Excellent 'No Child...' At Rock Island's Brunner Theatre Today

Sydney Chatman and Jalyn Greene know what it’s like to teach theater to minority, inner-city students. So the African-American women are a natural pair to direct and act, respectively, the one-woman show “No Child…,” which is the last Mississippi Bend Players production this summer. It runs through Sunday at Augustana College’s Brunner Theatre Center, 3750 7th Ave., Rock Island. “No Child…” (written and premiered in 2006 by Nilaja Sun) follows the story of Miss Sun, a visiting teacher who uses theatre as a means of connecting with students in the New York City public school system.... Read More

REVIEW: Mississippi Bend Presents Another Fantastic Show With New ‘No Child…’

July 10th, 2021
REVIEW: Mississippi Bend Presents Another Fantastic Show With New 'No Child...'

QuadCities.com apologizes for the previous version of this review which had a few glitches in it due to a technical error in translating the text between systems. The error has been fixed and here is the review in its entirety. Thank you. Mississippi Bend has managed to go three-for-three this season with stellar productions of Red and Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing preceding the incredible No Child…, which debuted this weekend. It’s hard to put into words what Jalyn Greene accomplishes in Mississippi Bend’s latest triumph, No Child… In the span of 65 minutes, Greene successfully... Read More

Quad-Cities Colleges Not Among Hundreds Nationwide to Require Covid Vaccination

June 30th, 2021
A greater portion of people in Scott County have been fully vaccinated than Rock Island County -- 58% compared to 50%.

On June 14, when “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” returned to live audiences at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New Work City, everyone attending had to prove they were fully vaccinated against Covid. Same when Bruce Springsteen returned to Broadway on June 26. More than 500 U.S. colleges and universities also are requiring proof of Covid vaccination for students to return to campus this fall, but that number does not include any school yet in the Quad-Cities. St. Ambrose University in Davenport is strongly recommending that all students, faculty, and staff be vaccinated for the Covid-19 virus,... Read More

Augustana Musical Theater Prof Brings “Mary and Ethel” to Mississippi Bend Players

June 22nd, 2021
Augustana Musical Theater Prof Brings “Mary and Ethel” to Mississippi Bend Players

Just a week after its first 2021 production, the Mississippi Bend Players, with Shelley Cooper, will be back this week with her original one-woman show, Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing. The show, which debuted at the Circa ‘21 Speakeasy in September 2020, contains musical numbers from musical theater Golden Age icons Mary Martin (1913-1990) and Ethel Merman (1908-1984). With musical arrangements and piano accompaniment by Quad-City music director Mason Moss, Cooper sings multiple medleys from Golden Age classics like Anything Goes!, Hello, Dolly!, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Annie... Read More

Mike Schulz — “Red”’s Rothko — Reflects on a Rare Feat, a Double Play

June 20th, 2021
Mike Schulz -- “Red”’s Rothko -- Reflects on a Rare Feat, a Double Play

Before the remarkable run of “Red” – the Mississippi Bend Players production that concluded earlier today, lead actor Mike Schulz reflected on getting to play the real-life abstract-expressionist artist Mark Rothko. Twice. Now 53, the thoughtful, passionate and intense Schulz reflected on his past nine years living with the play – done first with a tiny group at QC Theatre Workshop, running over three weekends, and recently with a crew of at least a dozen at MBP, with just four performances over one weekend. “John Logan’s script is so amazing, and so engaging and audience-friendly,... Read More

REVIEW: Schulz And Odenkirk Give Rock Star Performances In Fantastic ‘Red’

June 18th, 2021
REVIEW: Schulz And Odenkirk Give Rock Star Performances In Fantastic 'Red'

Imagine me sitting in a car like Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood giving finger guns to Mike Schulz and saying, “You’re Mike F-ing Schulz! Don’t you forget it.” He deserves this level of hype, this level of praise, this level of Lets-Put-An-Actor-On-An-Unecessary- Pedastal-ness for Mississippi Bend Players’ new “Red.” All. Of . It. Schulz is pretending at new and frightening heights giving a performance that I found myself simultaneously getting lost in AND studying so I could get bring even a small percentage of this bloke’s grace, believability and sheer... Read More

REVIEW: Electrifying, Literate “Red” Pulses With Emotion, Brilliance at Augustana

June 17th, 2021
REVIEW: Electrifying, Literate “Red” Pulses With Emotion, Brilliance at Augustana

Words and art are my business – as tools, objects of affection, contemplation and worship, ways to make sense and meaning of life – as they are for “Red,” the brilliant, caustic, literate John Logan play given a fantastic, thrilling new production by Mississippi Bend Players at Augustana College. Over an emotional 90-minute rollercoaster — in an action-packed, dialogue-dense one act, first-class director Cait Bodenbender and peerless actors Mike Schulz and Tristan Odenkirk grab your attention and never let go. It’s as riveting, passionate, thought-provoking – and deeply committed... Read More

Rock Island’s Augustana College Announces New Engineering Program

June 17th, 2021
Rock Island's Augustana College Announces New Engineering Program

For over a decade, students sitting for the Pre-SAT, high school sophomores and juniors, have reported an increased interest in the field of Engineering. In some specialties, a 67% increase was seen from 2012 to 2018. Augustana has answered the call from students across the globe and will launch an engineering program beginning this fall. “More and more, students are seeking an accredited engineering program to launch their careers full of natural curiosities and problem solving,” says Dr. Wendy Hilton-Morrow, provost at Augustana. “The opportunity to study engineering at a liberal arts... Read More