Director Aaron Baker-Loo created a memorable musical production – though, admittedly, I found the whole saga more depressing than I remembered. Luckily for the Spotlight, their presentation is also an enchanting spectacle that is more than enough to keep even the youngest viewer interested.

With Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman's play lauded by the Los Angeles Times as a work "that ratchets the suspense to Hitchcockian heights," the fairytale-themed thriller The Secret in the Wings enjoys its area-debut staging in St. Ambrose University's Studio Theatre from April 12 through 21, this exciting, unsettling stage piece inspiring the Chicago Reader to state, "It's tasteful and smart, and it respects the mystery at the heart of the tales it tells."

This spring, the student talents of Augustana College's OperX ensemble will treat audiences to alternating performances of both a full opera and excerpts from the operatic repertoire, with the gifted singers and director Patrick McNally staging composer Henry Purcell's Dido & Aeneas on April 19 and 21, and works by Mozart, Bernstein, Bizet, and Donizett in the vocal revue Set the Scenes on April 20.

A tale as old as time will be given a magical new stage presentation when the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center unveils the classic story of Beauty & the Beast on April 21, with the gifted members of the Panto Company USA bringing the beloved musical to life with flawless comic banter and lavish dance routines.