Mischa: I certainly love to see a story revolving around a garden.

Kitty: This story created my expectations for what a garden should be: an enchanted place unlocked by a hidden key with a kind local who does most of the work for me and charms bushels of roses into magically growing while I hold a small spade and talk to birds.

With the solo show by former Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander described by The News' Cheryl Allen as "an artful mix of both seriousness and fun," Coop, a Story of An Amish Conscientious Objector enjoys a pair of area performances this spring, this little-known story of Mennonite men from Kalona, Iowa enjoying presentations at Davenport's German American Heritage Center on April 19 and Muscatine Community College on April 21.

With the Richmond Times-Dispatch insisting that while the title "might suggest another church lady play ... the charitable sisters are more like the women of Steel Magnolias, with a few unexpected twists," author Bo Wilson's The Charitable Sisterhood of the Second Trinity Victory Church opens the 2026 season at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre with an area-debut April 16 through 26 run.

Mischa: Together, these performers were unstoppable. Well … individually they were pretty unstoppable, too!

Kitty: I feel about this show kind of like I felt about Glee. I wasn’t in it for the plot, but I was hooked by the music.