Joedy Cook, founder and CEO of Ballet Quad Cities in Rock Island, discusses the company's operations during this period of social distancing. We spoke on Wednesday, March 25.
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This feature collects articles published online by Quad Cities-area media outlets and by CapitolFax.com and the state-politics sections of the Des Moines Register and the State Journal-Register.
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An original exhibition created specifically for the Davenport venue, the Putnam Museum & Science Center's Liberated Voices/Changed Lives will, from April 1 through September 7, celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote through displays, video presentations, and more, allowing visitors to travel back in time and investigate the roots of the women's-suffrage movement from the perspectives of local women and men from 1900 to 1920.
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Presented in conjunction with scientists at the global bio-pharmaceutical company AbbVie, the interactive children's exhibit Science + You enjoys a stay at Bettendorf's Family Museum April 8 through 19, demonstrating the role that science plays in keeping the body healthy through fun and fascinating scientific experiments and a child-sized laboratory appropriate for young visitors.
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Its enduring legacy including 28 seasons on ABC, 448 episodes, and the receiving of 16 Primetime Emmy Awards, the TV-competition smash Dancing with the Stars comes to Davenport's Adler Theatre on March 12 in a thrilling live show boasting nine professional dancers from the recently completed 28th season and a special guest in model Sailor Brinkley-Cook, the daughter of legendary supermodel Christie Brinkley.
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Whenever single-topic messaging, such as COVID-19, is endlessly reported by corporate media to the exclusion of all other news, my reaction is to research legitimate controversies to media's 24/7 highly scripted narratives. After 27 years of providing such alternative analysis, why stop now?
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Without fanfare last week, Governor JB Pritzker issued a sweeping executive order (2020-19) granting many health-care providers immunity from civil liability during the COVID-19 crisis.
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Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has followed up on his Dec. 2019 Justice Department report on abuses under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that occurred in 2016, where the Justice Department and intelligence agencies ordered spying on the Trump campaign and Republicans, the opposition party, in an election year on false allegations they were Russian agents.
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This is a story about two very different state legislators, representing very different districts with the same strong belief in hope during a time of anguish.
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"We know now, just the fact of community spread says that at least one percent, at the very least one percent of our population, is carrying this virus in Ohio today."
That was Ohio Department of Health Director Doctor Amy Acton speaking on March 12, when Ohio had only five confirmed COVID-19 cases. One percent of Ohio's population would be about 117,000 cases. "Community spread" means that the virus was transmitted by someone from inside the community, not someone who brought it in from outside.
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Brent Tubbs, co-founder and -owner of The Spotlight Theatre in Moline, discusses the venue's operations during this period of social distancing. We spoke on Wednesday, March 25.
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Described by Broadway World as “a fast and fun night of musical theatre” that's “brimming with so many 'wow' moments,” the disco sensation Saturday Night Fever makes its Quad Cities debut at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse April 11 through May 16, the musical based on the Oscar-nominated 1977 film smash that catapulted the Bee Gees to international fame and made a household name of star John Travolta.
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The Playcrafters Barn Theatre's Their Town is this season's first production in the venue's Barn Owl series of newer (or debuting) plays, and this year, all four “Barn Owls” are by local authors. Playwright Alexander Richardson has not only kicked off the 2020 series with a strong script, but has also, along with his and director Elizabeth Melville's cast and crew, given the upcoming presentations much to live up to.
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With a rather evocative title such as Kinky Boots, you may find yourself a tad wary of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's latest production. But bring that wariness in and let director M. Seth Reines and his talented cast broaden your scope. Kinky Boots, you see, is an exciting, engaging story for everyone and about everyone.
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Writing about the iconic stage presentation The Vagina Monologues in a 2018 article, the New York Times stated, “No recent hour of theatre has had a greater impact worldwide.” And Augustana College patrons will no doubt understand why when Eve Ensler's revered work is staged in a February 28 through March 1 production, with 90 percent of the proceeds benefiting women in the Quad Cities who are survivors of rape, sexual assault, and abuse.
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Marc Zyla, Director of Education and Community Engagement and principal horn musician for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO), discusses the organization's operations during this period of social distancing. We spoke on Friday, April 3.
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Two recently released marquee pop albums by The Weeknd and Dua Lipa each represent an artistic and commercial peak for the artists, and both happen to fully inhabit sonic palettes sourced from bygone eras of production.
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Is it possible for us to escape to anywhere right now? For many of us cooped up at home, binge-watching TV shows and plugging into live-streams fill the time and take us to places we literally can’t access at the moment. But music remains the greatest escape available to us.
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With little preamble, Bob Dylan released a track titled “Murder Most Foul” that uses the assassination of John F. Kennedy as a jumping point to weave a rambling tale of 20th-century history, musical lineage, and the confluence of art and culture writ large as glimpsed through decades of hindsight.
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Tyson Danner, Executive Director of the River Music Experience (RME) in Davenport, discusses the live-music and music-education venue's operations during this period of social distancing. We spoke on Monday, March 23.
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I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was seventeen. Jesus, does anyone?
The film-savvy among you will recognize that as a slight bastardization of Richard Dreyfuss' concluding sentiment as he types those words – with “twelve” replacing “seventeen” – on a now-ancient PC at the end of Stand by Me. But in the summer of that film's release, right before I left Crystal Lake, Illinois, to begin my freshman year at Rock Island's Augustana College, I felt I did indeed have the best friends imaginable … partly because I saw most of them, nearly every day, at the best job imaginable.
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I think all of us could benefit from a healthy dose of Hollywood-induced pleasure-pain, and the following five titles are favorites that set off the waterworks like nobody's business every time – and there have been many times – I've watched them. Be forewarned that mild, hopefully not-detrimental spoilers abound … and because the most recent included title is 27 years old, I'm feeling little guilt about including them.
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The only reviews I wish I could truly erase from existence are the pans of movies that I wound up loving down the line. Thankfully, there aren't many of them, partly because I feel, as I've written before, that life is too short to sit through crap movies twice. But the following five titles are all works that I was initially leaning on the fence about and chose to diss, those first opinions – having had at most two days, at the time of their composition, to mull over the experiences – not being opinions I currently hold in the slightest.
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Like many of you, I've been missing going to the movies, and I've been missing going to the theatre. But there's reason to rejoice, my fellow film and stage junkies: Tom Hooper's Cats will be available for rental in less than two weeks!
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It takes a truly special work of comedic art to keep me cackling more than two decades after the initial surprise of their jokes. Here are five home-viewing options that, through their promise of always delivering sustained vocal pleasure, have routinely kept me from, ya know, reading War & Peace or something … .
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Each spring, Quad City Arts shows works from top Quad City high school visual artists and their art teachers. The exhibit fills the walls of the venue's downtown Rock Island gallery, with the opening ceremony attended by hundreds of Quad Citians supporting young artistic talent, and students receive thousands of dollars in awards from exhibition sponsors. This year, due to Illinois' stay-at-home order, the 43rd Annual High School Art Invitational is getting an unexpected update to the traditional gallery exhibit, with works viewable to the public through Quad City Arts' Web site through Thursday, April 30.
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We may presently be spending most of our time indoors, but Bettendorf's Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy is giving everyone a chance to revel in the great beauty of the venue's home state with the online pastel exhibition Tom Christopher: Reflections of the Iowa Landscape, a collection of richly colored works viewable from April 3 through 30 and boasting an online video reception and artist demonstrations on Friday, April 3.
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Dawn Wohlford-Metallo, Visual Arts Director for Quad City Arts, discusses the organization's operations at the Quad City Arts Center in Rock Island and the Quad City International Airport in Moline during this period of social distancing. We spoke on Monday, March 30.
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Admirers of the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy can soon enjoy vacation stops the world over without ever leaving the comforts of their homes, with the Bettendorf venue, through April 30, showcasing works in the online exhibit The Art of Travel that celebrate their artists' travel experiences through a variety of chosen mediums.
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Michelle Hargrave, CEO and Executive Director of the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, discusses the venue's operations during this period of social distancing. We spoke on Friday, March 27.
