Chatting with Ballet Quad Cities' artistic director Courtney Lyon about the professional dance company's The Scarlet Letter, a world-premiere adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's famed 1850 novel, I'm catching the choreographer early in the rehearsal process. How early? I wind up learning who'll be dancing the ballet's principal roles before the dancers do.

A regular at the world-famous Comedy Cellar in New York City admired for his playful personality, clever wit, and refreshingly PG-13 material, comedian Keith Alberstadt enjoys a two-night engagement at Rock Island's Bally's Quad Cities, the Aspen Laff Festival's executive director Gram Slaton praising the standup as "a genius" who performs "the toughest kind of humor to consistently pull off."

Delivered as the latest program in the German American Heritage Center's popular "Kaffee und Kuchen" series, the fascinating presentation The Brothers Bettendorf: Scandal, Death, & the Founding of a Legacy will take place at the Davenport venue on October 15, with author and historian John Brassard Jr. sharing an arresting narrative detailing the namesakes of a particular Quad City.

Developed in collaboration with the National Museum of American Indian and Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street, the Putnam Museum & Science Center's fascinating new traveling exhibit Legacy of the Land: Treaties and the Shaping of America will be on display through February 7, a special exhibition preview event scheduled for Friday, September 18.