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 one of the three shows in the 2021 season (which only ran for one weekend apiece) will have a virtual encore, “Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing.” “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 pays homage to two of the great muses... Read More

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

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

It’s Sunday, and QuadCities.com proudly presents Fun10, a list of the top 10 things to do in the Quad Cities this week, and every week! Every Sunday, we drop a new Fun10, to give you a head start on your week and a heads up on what’s going on over the coming seven days. Check out Fun10 every Sunday for the details on ten awesome events happening around town. It’s a cool read, and a great way to get started planning your entertainment for the week. FUN10 — ten ways for you to have fun in the Quad-Cities, this week and every week, running every Sunday, only on your site for fun, free, local... Read More

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

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 Thursday 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... Read More

You know when they say film versions of stage plays often “open them up” with exterior settings or other visual changes that are not possible or feasible in a theater? Well, two already remarkable stage shows at this month’s Mississippi Bend Players – the top-notch professional summer stock at Augustana College – have benefitted from that approach, both without leaving an indoor theater. Just a week after its first 2021 production, “Red” (which premiered in 2012 at QC Theatre Workshop), MBP again transformed the Brunner Theatre Center into a spacious, sophisticated cabaret with Shelley... Read More

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

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

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