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

Countryside in Eldridge Shows Power of Community, Art in “Newsies!”

July 28th, 2021
Countryside in Eldridge Shows Power of Community, Art in “Newsies!”

There’s big news at the big auditorium at North Scott High School, Eldridge, as a big cast and crew have come together to break out their new production of the big, boisterous musical “Disney’s Newsies.” The Countryside Community Theatre performances – by a predominantly young cast of 33, led by director and choreographer Ashley Becher – will be this weekend and next, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. “Newsies” was done in early 2019 at Circa ’21 and just this past May by Double Threat Studios, and is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader... Read More

Davenport’s Mockingbird Debuts With Critically-Acclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Story, ‘The Mountaintop’

July 28th, 2021
Davenport's Mockingbird Debuts With Critically-Acclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Story, 'The Mountaintop'

Downtown Davenport’s The Mockingbird On Main will present their inaugural production – Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop” July 29 through August 7. What happened inside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis the night before the assassination of Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King, JR. is a mystery. In “The Mountaintop,” Hall imagines what may have transpired in the overnight hours between the legendary civil rights leader and a seemingly inconsequential motel maid. Hours after King’s famed final speech, punctuated by the immortal line “I’ve been to the mountaintop,”... Read More

Thriller ‘Murder In Green Meadows’ Stalking Into Moline’s Black Box Theatre

July 26th, 2021
Thriller 'Murder In Green Meadows' Stalking Into Moline's Black Box Theatre

Opening August 19th at Moline’s Black Box Theatre is the psychological thriller “Murder in Green Meadows” by Douglas Post. The original production received six Emmy Award nominations when presented on TV with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. The Black Box production stars James Driscoll, Jenny Winn, Jonathan Grafft and Lora Adams and directed by Jacqueline Isaacson. Set design by Adams with construction by Michael Kopriva. The production will run from August 19th through August 28. Reviewers called “Murder in Green Meadows”  “A thoroughly satisfying thriller on all points.... Read More

Rock Island’s Genesius Guild Closing Season With ‘Hippolytus’ This Weekend

July 23rd, 2021
Rock Island's Genesius Guild Closing Season With 'Hippolytus' This Weekend

The Genesius Guild will close the 2021 season by going back to their roots with a Greek tragedy. Euripides’ Hippolytus will be staged July 24, and 25. All performances begin at 7:00 PM and will be held at the Don Wooten Stage in Lincoln Park, Rock Island. Admission is free.   This performance continues a longstanding tradition. The Genesius Guild’s first performance in Lincoln Park was Antigone by Sophocles, and the group has continued to perform a Greek tragedy, in mask, each season. Genesius Guild is the only theater in the United States to make Greek tragedy in mask an annual... Read More

Moline’s Playcrafters Presents ‘The Piano Lesson’ This Weekend

July 22nd, 2021
Moline's Playcrafters Presents 'The Piano Lesson' This Weekend

Playcrafters Barn Theatre, 4950 35th Ave., Moline, presents the Pulitzer-winning “The Piano Lesson” this weekend. The play, by August Wilson (1945-2005) is set in the 1930s of The Great Depression. Its discordant, clashing notes resolve in peaceful harmony that carry forceful lessons for our fractious times today. Directed by Kermit Thomas of Moline, part of Wilson’s epic “American Century Cycle,” in “The Piano Lesson,” it’s 1936, and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down... Read More

‘I And You’ Dramedy Featured At Moline’s Black Box Theatre Through Saturday

July 22nd, 2021
"I and You" at Black Box Theatre features Adrienne Jane and Michael Alexander.

The Black Box Theatre in downtown Moline presents the dramedy “I and You” by Laura Gunderson through Saturday. The plot: One afternoon, Anthony (Michael Alexander) arrives unexpectedly at classmate Caroline’s (Adrienne Jane) door bearing a beat-up copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, an urgent assignment from their English teacher. Homebound due to illness, Caroline hasn’t been to school in months, but she is as quick and sardonic as Anthony is athletic, sensitive, and popular. As these two let down their guards and share their secrets, this seemingly mundane poetry project unlocks... Read More

Davenport’s First Presbyterian Resurrects Live Musicals With New “Guys and Dolls”

July 21st, 2021
Davenport’s First Presbyterian Resurrects Live Musicals With New “Guys and Dolls”

Live theatre makes a triumphant return to First Presbyterian Church (1702 Iowa St., Davenport) with a long-awaited production of Frank Loesser’s classic musical “Guys and Dolls” on Friday, July 23 and Saturday, July 24. This production was originally scheduled for March 2020 and postponed as Covid-19 entered the Midwest just two weeks prior to opening night. After a series of further postponements, the church’s Performing Arts Series is pleased to produce the fully-staged musical with its original cast, crew and an orchestra. The cast relaunched rehearsals in June under strict mitigation... Read More

Richmond Hill Players to Hold Auditions This Weekend in Geneseo

July 20th, 2021
Richmond Hill Players to Hold Auditions This Weekend in Geneseo

Richmond Hill Players will hold auditions for the last two shows of the 2021 season on Saturday, July 24 and Sunday, July 25 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Barn Theatre in Geneseo. The plays holding auditions are Clue: Onstage by Jonathan Lynn, directed by Dana Skiles, with the show running in mid-October; and Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) by John K. Alvarez, Michael Carleton and James FitzGerald, directed by Mike Skiles, with the show running in early December. Roles are available for up to 9-11 males and 6-8 females, ages ranging from 20’s to 60’s. Both directors note... Read More

REVIEW: Playcrafters’ “The Piano Lesson” Has Strong, Charismatic Cast, But Doesn’t Quite Hit The Right Notes

July 19th, 2021
REVIEW: Playcrafters' “The Piano Lesson” Has Strong, Charismatic Cast, But Doesn’t Quite Hit The Right Notes

I wanted to like the African-American drama “The Piano Lesson” at Playcrafters Barn Theatre much more than I did. It truly has all the ingredients to make something special, but Saturday night’s version appeared undercooked and not quite ready to serve as a fully satisfying meal. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play by August Wilson (1945-2005), who died of liver cancer at age 60, is part of the playwright’s epic “American Century Cycle” that documents the Black experience. Each of the 10 works reflects a different decade of the 20th century, and “The Piano Lesson” is set in 1936, as... Read More

Quad-Cities Theater Couple Works Hard To Birth a Mockingbird

July 17th, 2021
Quad-Cities Theater Couple Works Hard To Birth a Mockingbird

Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! I close my eyes and I can see The world that’s waiting up for me That I call my own Through the dark, through the door Through where no one’s been before But it feels like home They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy They can say, they can say I’ve lost my mind I don’t care, I don’t care, so call me crazy We can live in a world that we... Read More