Artists in Conversation is a weekly column running Wednesdays on QuadCities.com. It features a conversation with a local creator or creators going into their artistic process, projects and more. Get to know your local arts scene and local creators better on QuadCities.com with Artists In Conversation! If you’re a local creator and would like to be featured, please email us at Sean@QuadCities.com or Tristan@QuadCities.com! This week our Artists in Conversation from QuadCities.com features Khalil Hacker and Melissa Conway. Khalil Hacker is a filmmaker and Melissa Conway is a writer/poet and together... Read More

Artists in Conversation is a weekly column running Wednesdays on QuadCities.com. It features a conversation with a local creator going into their artistic process, projects and more. Get to know your local arts scene and local creators better on QuadCities.com with Artists In Conversation! If you’re a local creator and would like to be featured, please email us at Sean@QuadCities.com or Tristan@QuadCities.com! THIS WEEK: Tristan Tapscott and Savannah Bay Strandin, talking about The Mockingbird on Main. The Mockingbird on Main burst onto the scene earlier this month with NEW BEGINNINGS,  a... Read More

Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Rock Island, is seeking online submissions for upcoming shows. First, the theater is looking for two dancer/singer/actors for its summer production of “Saturday Night Fever.” Production dates, including rehearsal, are July 1 – Sept. 11, 2021. Online submissions are being accepted until May 15 to fill the following roles: Cesar/Ensemble: Male; Plays 19. Latinx. A Spanish dancer at the Odyssey 2001 Night Club; excellent dancer, with strong partnering skills and lift experience, who sings well and plays various ensemble characters. Maria/Ensemble: Plays... Read More

When your dreams disappear, sometimes you’ve got to create your own. That seems to be the inspiring, organizing principle behind Mockingbird on Main, a planned theater/cabaret space taking shape at 320 Main St., Davenport. “New Beginnings” – a tantalizing teaser online cabaret – was released this past weekend to give us a glimpse behind that dream, led by Quad-Cities actor Tristan Tapscott and his girlfriend, Savannah Bay Strandin. Fittingly, they close out the wonderfully entertaining 76-minte video by singing “A Million Dreams” (from “The Greatest Showman”) and sharing scenes... Read More

EXCLUSIVE: A new theater experience, The Mockingbird On Main is coming to 320 N. Main St., in downtown Davenport! The new performance venue will kick off its existence with NEW BEGINNINGS, a virtual cabaret, on Saturday, April 10 at 7 p.m. This virtual cabaret will feature well known performers from the Quad Cities and performers from across the United States. Tune in to find out the who, the what, the when and the where and hear some of the finest performers from across the country. Here are the details: NEW BEGINNINGS A Virtual Cabaret Saturday, April 10 – 7pm On Facebook – Follow... Read More

Returning with the venue’s first mainstage production since area theaters closed in November, Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse is ready to bring audiences lots of deserved laughs and warmth in the local debut of The Church Basement Ladies in “You Smell Barn.” Running through May 15, the latest encounter with everyone’s favorite group of singing and joking Minnesotans is sure to put a smile on your face and a song in your heart. With all shows at the beloved Rock Island dinner theatre, this new musical comedy is being presented by an outstanding company of professional actors. The Church Basement... Read More

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! Two days after Broadway theaters shut down last March, Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse held the last performance of the colorful, high-energy “Kinky Boots,” on March 14, 2020. It would be the last mainstage musical there until next week’s “Church Basement Ladies in You Smell Barn” – opening in previews Wednesday, March 17. It’s been a long, frustrating road, with... Read More

It definitely takes a village to raise your spirits. For this unusual Valentine’s season of love, Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse has organized a special musical theater love letter – marrying several Quad-Cities venues to produce the video compilation, “Let’s Fall in Love.” A virtual celebration of love and the arts, the 75-minute program will debut Saturday, Feb. 13 at 5 p.m., featuring performers not only from Circa, but the Black Box Theatre, Center for Living Arts, Countryside Community Theatre, Davenport Junior Theatre, Double Threat Studios, Mississippi Bend Players/Augustana, QC... Read More

At one point in the original bluegrass musical “Big Rock Candy Mountain,”the witchy, bitchy character Velda decries the Depression-era theater in which the story takes place as “frivolous nonsense.” Well, in the midst of what seems like a greater 21st-century Depression (see: Covid, unemployment, racial injustice, political division and endless quarantine), I think a little mindless, frivolous nonsense is just what we need right now. Filmed recently at the Circa ’21 Speakeasy (featuring eight mask-less cast members), the 2014 musical – affectionately written and directed by Tristan... 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