Quinn Mei Lysaght majored in musical theater at Pittsburgh’s Point Park University, but she had the misfortune to graduate in spring 2020, when the world shut down due to Covid-19. Luckily, the world’s turned around – she took Manhattan by moving there Aug. 1, and Lysaght is making her regional theater debut in Circa ‘21’s new production of the wacky, naughty musical, “Disenchanted!” – based on some very well-known Disney heroines. She is literally living a dream playing three roles: Hua Mulan, Pocahontas, and Princess Badroulbadour, thrilled to be part of the Q-C premiere of what... Read More

Playcrafters Barn Theatre continues its Barn Owl season with The Whistleblower’s Dilemma, an original dramedy written by Jim Sederquist, Bettendorf. The show will be presented Aug. 13th through Aug. 22nd at the Barn Theatre, 4950 35th Ave., Moline. Joe loves his community and the factory that his grandfather helped build from scratch. When Joe discovers the factory’s current owner is embezzling millions of dollars from the state, and setting Joe up to take the blame, Joe decides to take an unusual route: he makes the fraud bigger. Jackie is a star fraud investigator but frustrated with... Read More

In a dark, uncertain time, Circa ’21 offers light and unadulterated joy in its latest online entertainment, the fun bluegrass musical “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” Fans of the film “O Brother Where Art Thou” and the Circa ’21 favorite “Southern Crossroads” should love this original musical – written and directed by Tristan Tapscott — that features such classic hits as “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” “House of the Rising Sun,” “Keep on the Sunny Side of Life” and many more. In the story set in 1932, a merry band of misfits sneaks into a theater hoping to stay out of... Read More

David Burke is the former Entertainment Editor for the Quad City Times, and generously offered to review ‘Lonely Planet’ for Anthony Natarelli, and allow us to publish his review as an Arts And Entertainment Correspondent for QuadCities.com. You can check out his most recent work as an arts writer for the Wichita Eagle here. My seat for the theater was my comfy recliner in Kansas. The proscenium was the size of my Kindle. Theater, like many other aspects of life in 2020, is slowly emerging from its pandemic-contained cocoon. It’s forced those who already creative in their vocation... Read More

With so many people working from home and so many artists left to scramble during this interminable pandemic, it makes perfect sense that Rock Island-based actor Anthony Natarelli would do a play from home. Presented under his three-year-old $1 Producer Project, the irrepressible 26-year-old is offering the haunting, elegiac “Lonely Planet” (1993) by Steven Dietz, from his apartment above the Circa ’21 Speakeasy, livestreamed in three performances this weekend. The play’s content is also depressingly appropriate for our times. And though Natarelli has directed and co-stars in the intimate... Read More