Black Box Theater is holding auditions for the upcoming spring/summer season. Auditions will be held at the theatre located in downtown Moline at 1623 5th Avenue, Moline, IL on Saturday, May 15 from 10 am to noon. If you are unable to attend the audition, please contact the theatre at thebbtheatre@gmail.com and arrange for a video audition to be delivered no later than May 15th. Roles open include: Hate Mail – One male, one female. Late 20’s – early 30’s (these are readers roles and require nominal memorization.) Runs late May early June.  Directed by Lora Adams I and You – One male... Read More

Angela Rathman joins Susan Perrin-Sallak, Liz Coin, Joanna Mills, Kim Kurtenbach, and Kayla Jo Pulliam in Nora and Delia Ephron’s “Love, Loss and What I Wore” – a funny, sad, hopeful, truthful slice of clothing life, running through next weekend at Black Box Theater in Moline. Rathman and her friend Perrin-Sallak are making their third appearance in the series of monologues and ensemble pieces, again directed by Black Box co-founder Lora Adams. Performances at BBT will be 7:30 p.m. this Thursday to Saturday, and 2 p.m. this Sunday. Tickets are $13 for Thursday performances and $16 for all... Read More

The last time Angela Rathman performed on stage was over two years ago – in Prenzie Players’ “Macbeth,” in January 2019 – when she embodied a witch, a murderer, a thane and a doctor. The Prenzie veteran – who also co-starred in Genesius Guild’s “Taming of the Shrew” (as Kate) in 2011 – is making her debut at the four-year-old Black Box Theatre of the Quad Cities, 1623 5th Ave., Moline, in a familiar staged reading. Starting Thursday night, Rathman joins Susan Perrin-Sallak, Liz Coin, Joanna Mills, Kim Kurtenbach, and Kayla Jo Pulliam in Nora and Delia Ephron’s “Love, Loss... Read More

WQPT, PBS for the Quad Cities region is partnering with award-winning celebrity chef, author, and host of “Lidia’s Kitchen” Lidia Bastianich for its live virtual Taste of Fame culinary fundraising experience on May 21. More than 30 participating PBS stations will be part of the event, first launched by PBS station WCNY in Syracuse, N.Y. Taste of Fame and WQPT invites guests to be part of this live culinary journey from the comfort and safety of their homes. Participating PBS stations are happy to work with Sunbasket who will deliver meal kits to homes, so guests can cook along with Lidia,... Read More

WQPT, PBS for the Quad Cities region is partnering with award-winning celebrity chef, author, and host of “Lidia’s Kitchen” Lidia Bastianich for its live virtual Taste of Fame culinary fundraising experience on May 21. More than 30 participating PBS stations will be part of the event, first launched by PBS station WCNY in Syracuse, N.Y. Taste of Fame and WQPT invites guests to be part of this live culinary journey from the comfort and safety of their homes. Participating PBS stations are happy to work with Sunbasket who will deliver meal kits to homes, so guests can cook along with Lidia,... Read More

WQPT, the PBS station serving the Quad Cities and surrounding communities has often heard from viewers with issues related to receiving their signal. As a result, for the last several years WQPT has been involved in their Aspire Higher Capital Campaign. The first year was spent in the “silent” portion of the campaign and in January 2020 WQPT announced the public phase of the campaign. “This was only the second time in our 38 year history that we embarked on a capital campaign,” said Interim General Manager, Dawn Schmitt. The first being before WQPT went on the air for the start-up of the... Read More

Shelley Cooper is a great admirer of legendary opera singer Maria Callas (1923-1977), who truly had an epic, operatic life. The multi-talented, 35-year-old Augustana assistant professor of theatre arts is bringing her one-woman, one-hour tribute to Callas this weekend to Moline’s Black Box Theatre. “La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday, at 1623 5th Ave., Moline. Audiences will be limited to 30 patrons; temperatures checked at the door, and Cooper will wear a clear plastic face shield while performing. She credited... Read More

Former Quad City Times David Burke reporter once referred to the cast of my production of Company as being “the cool kids lunch table” and if he were still reviewing shows in this area, he’d say the same and MORE about this cast. This is the new “cool kids lunch table.” James Driscoll. Jenny Winn. Sara Wegener. Tom Vaccaro. Matt Walsh. Mark Ruebling. Doug Kutzli. It’s like producers Lora Adams and David Miller broke into my brain and picked one of my dream team casts and put them on stage for the new Black Box Theater production of “Dick Tracy.” Unfortunately, they... Read More

WQPT, Quad Cities PBS will air Stout Hearted: George Stout and the Guardians of Art. The documentary was directed by Kevin Kelley, and produced by Marie Wilkes of New Mile Media Arts, a non-profit organization based in Iowa City, Iowa on March 18 at 9:00 pm. The film tells the story of Iowa native George Stout. Stout was the leader of the Monuments Men during World War II and was responsible for recovering over five-million pieces of art from the Nazis. Stout’s life continues to have international impact on the fields of art conservation and monuments protection. The legacy of The Monuments Men... Read More

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. The poster for “Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe.” 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 February on WQPT-PBS, and will be presented online by the Bettendorf Public Library on Thursday, Feb. 18... Read More