Each week QuadCities.com contributor Tristan Tapscott will release a series of photos from cities in and around the Quad Cities.  When people ask me what my childhood was like I immediately refer to Mark Twain and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Wildly adventurous, borderline redneck, extremely comfortable and oddly serene. That was life in Sherrard, Illinois, my hometown. I grew up in a small hamlet of under 700 people in the middle of nowhere Illinois just outside the Quad Cities metro area. It was roughly 25 (or more) minutes from everywhere, a place where nobody locked their doors, darkness... Read More

Are you truly ready to experience “Saturday Night Cribs?” Oh, I know you might THINK you’re ready, but are you? Ok, ok, you’ve been warned. Circa ’21’s cast for the Rock Island theater’s “Saturday Night Fever” is going live on Facebook at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the first episode of CRIBS: Circa ‘21 Quarantine Edition. Some members of the cast are still in town and ready to give you a tour of the cast house, discuss life in quarantine, and take your questions. They hope to see you right here on the Circa Facebook on Wednesday night!  Read More

DAVENPORT, IOWA — In one of the most incendiary, perverse, and controversial masterpieces of performance art over at least the past eight days on the Quad-Cities social isolation scene, Khalil Hacker, a.k.a. Khalil Antonio, a.k.a. “you know, Khalil, from Circa,” ate donuts live on Facebook Monday night. The provocative and unsettling live feed began at 7 p.m. when Hacker, dressed mysteriously in a rakish black fedora, black suitcoat, white shirt and gray tie, but wearing no pants, stared into the camera in defiant fashion, brandished an unnamed silver sleeve, dispensed what appeared... Read More

On this day – National Theatre Day – I’m taking it back to September 11, 2001. I know, I know… but stay with me. I was involved with Tom and Shelley Walljasper’s studio and we were set to preview  a new musical version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on that fateful day and open the next day. I thought for sure we were going to close the show, or at the very least postpone the preview, but Tom made it very clear that what we are doing is an escape from what is happening outside. It was our job to do the show as planned, and let the 30, 40 people that were there get away from... Read More

The nominations are thundering in for local filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle and their latest feature, “Sons And Daughters of Thunder!” Kelly has received another nomination from the Iowa Motion Picture Association, this time for “Best Direction–Long Form” on the film. According to Tammy’s facebook, “I am so pleased for him in receiving this recognition for his hard work on this narrative film project. Congratulations again, honey! I’m beaming!” In addition, “Sons And Daughters Of Thunder” has been nominated by the Iowa Motion... Read More

“Hey, have you ever heard the one . . .” And that’s how it would usually begin. With a mischievous grin, a conspiratorial wink, and then that little aside, voiced down as if imparting some ribald secret, which, let’s face it, he usually was. That’s how Ed “Jonesy” Jones would greet me pretty much every time I walked in to Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse in downtown Rock Island. Jonesy shuffled off to that spotlight in the sky on Tuesday, at age 92. He’d been retired from Circa for a few years, since 2014, although he was sorely missed. Jonesy was always one of my favorite elements... Read More

Need a little Sunshine in your life? Tomorrow night, you can cut through the gloom with some great pop songs and performance as Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse is thrilled to be hosting an all-ages pop music cabaret on Thursday, Feb. 20 called A NIGHT OF SUNSHINE, featuring one of the theatre’s most popular performers, Sunshine Ramsey. A long-time Bootlegger, performer and member of our ticket office staff, Ramsey is thrilled to finally be back on the Circa ’21 stage with an-all new cabaret! This will be the fifth time that Sunshine has hosted her own show at the theatre. Each of the previous... Read More

Kinky Boots Through March 14 Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, 1726 3rd Ave., Rock Island (309) 786-7733, ext. 2 www.circa21.com   We’re barely past two weeks into 2020 and already we’ve got a strong contender for best show of the year. Circa ‘21’s “Kinky Boots” is indeed that good, a fantastic staging of a fabulous show, featuring a number of touching, buoyant moments, wonderful performances and terrific material. It’s such a magical, uplifting evening of entertainment, one of pure joy and spirit, with a positive message that doesn’t feel preachy, but rather, common sense. Wonderfully... Read More

For the theatre’s first family musical of the 2019-20 season, Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse brings a famous yuletide figure and many other Charles Dickens’ characters to life in the area premiere of MR. SCROOGE: A MUSICAL CHRISTMAS CAROL. Running Nov. 29 through Dec. 28, this family-friendly adaptation of Dickens’ holiday classic A Christmas Carol boasts a wonderful score and an enchanting story and is being brought to life by a sensational cast of professional talents. Circa ’21 will present show-only performances of MR. SCROOGE: A MUSICAL CHRISTMAS CAROL on Nov. 30... Read More

Circa ‘21’s “Elf” is a cute, fun holiday concoction, and was eaten up and greeted with smiles like Christmas cookies the night I saw it. With a fun live take on the blockbuster holiday film, a fantastic cast, wonderful sets and costumes and a terrific star giving it the perfect tone of goofiness and levity, it’s excellent holiday fare. There are flaws to the show, to be sure, but “Elf” is like winter’s first snowflake – you greet it with a smile, it reminds you of Christmas cheer, and you don’t want to put too much thought into it or it’ll ruin the moment. Sure, there are... Read More