Augustana College is offering a virtual performance of the children’s play “Dragons Love Tacos,” directed by Jackie McCall, on Saturday, April 17. Based on the popular children’s book, this colorful, dance filled romp is equal parts silly and sensational; all the ingredients you need to whip up a fantastic time for the whole family. “We hope our audience members, young and old, will recognize parts from Adam Rubin’s well-known children’s book and fall in love with playwright Ernie Nolan’s wacky new additions to the story.” McCall said in a recent release. The performance... Read More

The Quad-Cities theater company Genesius Guild was wearing masks in performance for decades before it was fashionable or medically recommended. After it had to cancel its 2020 summer season at Rock Island’s Lincoln Park Classic Theatre due to Covid, Genesius will be back this summer, with three scaled-back productions in June and July, including an ancient Greek tragedy in mask to close the abbreviated season – ensuring it will all be safe for cast, crew and audiences. The 2021 season will consist of: June 19, 20, 26 and 27: William Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure,” adapted and abridged... Read More

Due to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker relaxing Covid-19 restrictions for indoor theaters, Quad City Music Guild will return to in-person audiences for its musicals starting in July with “Mamma Mia!” In its online Covid update at www.qcmusicguild.com, the Moline-based nonprofit theater said that “Mamma Mia” and “Matilda” will return to the Prospect Park theater (1584 34th Ave.) as scheduled for July and August. The state of Illinois is allowing indoor theaters with over 200 seats to have 25-percent capacity audiences, meaning a maximum of 133 people per performance at Music Guild. Theaters... Read More

Playcrafters Barn Theatre is still searching for its happy ending. The 107-year-old former dairy barn (4950 35th Ave., Moline), used as a theater since 1960, has been shuttered for a year now due to Covid-19. Plans for a 2021 reopening were thrown out of whack with a Valentine’s Day disaster, as pipes froze and a valve ruptured during February’s spell of bitterly cold temperatures, flooding the entire first floor of the building and causing about $35,000 in property damage. “My wife and I were going out to late lunch, and I got a text from a board member,” Playcrafters board president Bruce... Read More

In the moving play, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” audiences get inside the mind of a 15-year-old gifted autistic boy. Augustana College will present a recorded live performance of their production online at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The 2012 stage adaption of British novelist Mark Haddon’s 2003 international best-seller originally was scheduled to be performed last December, but was postponed due to the pandemic. Student tickets are free, but must be purchased by first requesting a complimentary code. Faculty and staff... Read More

The beloved Stephen Sondheim musical “Into the Woods” – done at Augustana College this past weekend for very limited, campus-only audiences – was a cathartic, unprecedented experience for its young performers. The emotional 1987 musical, combining classic fairy tales and an original story about a baker and his wife, is full of longing, doubt, adventure, danger, hope, grief and perseverance in normal times. But of course, these aren’t normal times, and in the first partnership among Augie’s musical theater, opera and orchestral programs, the student actors found the fantastical tale... Read More

Eighteen months after staging their last full production, Quad City Music Guild will return in June, to perform a filmed version of “Monty Python’s Spamalot” with no in-person audience, to be streamed online three times. Originally scheduled for June 2020 (and postponed with the entire season due to Covid), the original Music Guild cast and crew will return to record the fully-staged version, and stream it June 11-12, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. and June 13 at 2 p.m. Ticket prices are yet to be determined; Guild already had sold over 500 tickets for last June’s show, including many season-ticket... Read More

It’s been a long process, but this Friday, theater students from Davenport Central High School will present a filmed version of Clue: High School Edition. The play will be shown for free on the Broadway on Demand streaming platform, at 7 p.m., Feb. 26. Clue: High School Edition is based on the 1985 Paramount mystery/comedy Clue, which in turn was inspired by the classic Hasbro board game of the same name. The tale begins at a remote mansion – here filmed at Davenport’s Renwick Mansion — where six mysterious guests assemble for a dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu.... Read More

Can we ever get out of the rabbit hole? That eternal question is more relevant today than ever, as Davenport Junior Theatre (DJT) continues its 69th season with its second virtual production, “Alice in Wonderland,” directed by local theater artist Bobby Becher. Based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865) and adapted by Daniel DP Sheridan, “Wonderland” is a timely story that speaks directly to the viral Wonderland we’ve all found ourselves in over the last year. “Alice in Wonderland” involves 24 students from around the Q-C area. The kids range from ages... Read More

After a fairly hellish 2020, Shelley Cooper is back in musical heaven as the first half of 2021 is shaping up to be very busy and fulfilling. The enthusiastic Augustana College assistant professor of theater arts recently filmed two special performances for Circa ’21; she’s directing a new college production of “Into the Woods” this month; choreographing the next Circa mainstage show in March, and directing the Circa musical after that; performing a one-woman original show at the Black Box Theatre in late March, and then going to Orlando, Fla., to do the same show by June. Plus, you know,... Read More