Seasonal activities, song and dance performances, Christmas displays, and much more can be found at the Family Museum on December 8 when the venue hosts its annual celebration Winterfest, with this year's event-filled afternoon treating guests to displays, photos, and even visits from Santa, Mrs. Claus, and a real live reindeer.
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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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One of the Quad Cities' most adored holiday traditions returns to Davenport's Adler Theatre on December 14 and 15 when the professional talents of Ballet Quad Cities perform Tchaikovsky's holiday dance classic The Nutcracker, an event boasting new choreography and staging by Artistic Director Courtney Lyon and Artistic Associate Emily Kate Long, live musical accompaniment by Orchestra Iowa, and the return of Domingo Rubio, who danced the title role in the company's recent presentation of Dracula Unleashed!
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Patrons of Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center are invited to view fantastically ridiculous machines, and dream up some of their own, in the venue's Rube Goldberg: The World of Hilarious Invention!, the new traveling exhibition that opens on September 28 and showcases the legendary Rube Goldberg’s iconic contraptions, imaginative illustrations, and humorous storytelling.
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An eagerly awaited holiday tradition, the Butterworth Center's and Deere-Wiman House's 19th Century Christmas returns to the Quad Cities on December 1 with its litany of seasonal treats including live music performances, interactive tours, make-and-take activities, the display of Charles Wiman's original 1933 Lionel Train set, and, of course, a visit from Santa.
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Another relic of Tim Mapes' days as House Speaker Michael Madigan's chief of staff has passed into history.
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The Chicago Tribune recently reported that Mike McClain, the most prominent insider connected to House Speaker Michael Madigan, sent a blind-copied e-mail to what he called the "Most Trusted of the Trusted" asking for help raising money in the closing weeks of the 2018 campaign.
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Much will change at the Statehouse when Senate President John Cullerton retires in January, a year before his term expires.
Unlike his House counterpart, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Cullerton always wanted to find ways to get things done — and he got a lot done.
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Bribery is a Class 2 felony in Illinois. It's also a federal offense, punishable by up to ten years in prison. Neither of those laws stopped former State Representative Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) from allegedly attempting to bribe a state Senator, who turned out to be an FBI mole.
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Every thinking American knows on some level that his/her current political disposition is based almost entirely on emotions triggered by media manipulation like never before.
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Entering any theatre venue usually puts me in a good mood. A few places resonate especially deeply inside me. For instance, I love walking into Allaert Auditorium in the Galvin Fine Arts Center on the St. Ambrose University campus. It was my home-away-from home before, during, and after my four years of theatre study there.
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A hilarious, cheeky, and thoughtful one-woman show making its Quad Cities debut, Iowa City playwright/actor Janet Story Schlapkohl's Invisible but Dangerous enjoys a special limited run at Davenport's QC Theatre Workshop December 6 and 7, treating audience to fraught, funny tales of everything from Midwestern politeness to mansplaining to those containers of spices that stay in your kitchen, unused, for decades.
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A celebrated seasonal event described by DC Metro Theater Arts as “an exhilarating must-see” and “a pulse-pounding pageant full of talent and praise,” Langston Hughes' iconic Black Nativity enjoys a December 6 through 8 run at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, its presentation by Breath of Encouragement Productions sure to prove why the Maryland Theatre Guide deemed it “a celebration of life and spirit that is at once essential and timely.”
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If you’re looking for an easy way to get revved up about the holiday season, I suggest director Kevin Pieper’s area premiere of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical at Quad City Music Guild. This upbeat musical comedy will certainly warm your heart and sweetly remind you of what’s truly important this time of year: kindness.
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You don’t want to be late for the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's latest presentation Mr. Scrooge! A Musical Christmas Carol. About 15 minutes before the November 30 performance, actor Brad Hauskins appeared, clanging a bell and wandering about the house announcing that the show would begin shortly. With his proclamation, the production's merry band of actors appeared in a flurry of revelry – some delegated to bring props and costume pieces on stage, others to interact with young audience members through amusing games and activities – and immediately lifted the audience energy from unremarkable to “Wow!”
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Performing under the direction of Curtis Fischer-Oelschlaeger and accompanied by pianist Marcia Renaud, two dozen of the area's premier vocalists will blend their skills in December 6 and 7 Christmas with the Quad City Singers concerts at Colona's Lavender Crest Winery, with the seasonal repertoire boasting classic and contemporary arrangements for soloists, specific vocal groupings, and the ensemble as a whole.
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With the third concert events in the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's 2019-20 Masterworks season, audiences at the respective December 7 and 8 presentations at the Adler Theatre and Augustana College will be among the first Americans to view director Peter Mumford's celebrated multimedia production of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre, the first act of which will serve as the full program for Masterworks III: Passion.
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Performing in support of their most recent album Odd Boat, a release that Sound Renaissance called “a gem of our time” for its “infusion of melodic punk and anthemic rock n’ roll,” the Chicago-based musicians of Flatfoot 56 return to the Redstone Room on December 7, their last engagement sure to fill the Davenport venue with what IndieVisionMusic.com called “their rambunctious style that their fans have come to love.”
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Lauded by Blues Revue as a “world-champion piano player” and “a world-class entertainer and vocalist,” the multiple Blues Music Award winner Victor Wainwright brings his significant skills and gifted ensemble to Davenport's Redstone Room on December 11, demonstrating why American Blues Scene said of the artist, “Wainwright's playing is simply beautiful madness.”
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A bill of psychedelic, folk-adjacent music in various permutations takes over Rozz-Tox on December 11 with a headliner set by local project Sunshrine.
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Knives Out, the star-studded comic whodunit by writer/director Rian Johnson, debuted the day before Thanksgiving, and for just over two hours, the film is what every Thanksgiving spread strives to be: loaded with familiar elements (some presented in delectable new ways), utterly delicious, and enormously satisfying.
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Considering that I was able to watch Martin Scorsese's new gangster epic from the comfort of my couch – and after a full plate of Thanksgiving leftovers, no less – the personal astonishment of Netflix's The Irishman wasn't that I made it through all three-and-a-half hours in one sitting. It was that, with only a couple hours' break, I then proceeded to watch all three-and-a-half hours again.
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Thanks to the Roman numeral helpfully attached to its title, audiences should have a fair idea of what to expect from Disney's latest animated musical: It's Frozen, but ya know … twice! Twice the peril! Twice the naïveté from sentient snowman Olaf! Twice the number of screamy power ballads for Idina Menzel to perform at the Oscars! But for all of its considerable pleasures, Frozen II is also more often Frozen Too – as in too formulaic, too unnecessary, and, for its target kiddie crowd and at least one grown-up, perhaps too confusing.
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Director James Mangold's new professional-racing drama Ford v Ferrari, however, feels like Ron Howard's 2013 Rush done right: similarly enthralling on the racetrack, but with the added benefits of a more involving narrative, first-rate star turns by Matt Damon and Christian Bale, and – something Rush really lacked – a bunch of topnotch supporting portrayals.
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In my apparently endless need to publicly prove I have no life, I caught eight films at four different venues between Thursday and Saturday. Some titles are worth more words than I've given them; a couple are undoubtedly worth less. Regardless, the following are listed in order of preference. If you're among those readers who enjoy my pans more than my praise, by all means work your way backward.
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Photographs, watercolors, and giant glass goblets will all be on display in the next collective exhibition at the Quad City Arts Center, with the Rock Island venue, from December 13 through January 24, showcasing evocative and beautiful works by Chris Rayborn of Davenport, Tim Schiffer of Iowa City, and John Miller of Champaign.
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Drawings and photographs by a pair of gifted Midwestern artists will fill the Quad City Arts Center Gallery from October 18 through December 6, with the Rock Island venue housing the exhibits Sky Weave, featuring new works by Des Moines' Emily Newman, and The Set Table: Forks on the Left, Metaphors on the Right, boasting the talents of Muscatine-based photographer Randy Richmond.
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From September 21 through December 8, a traditional Mexican holiday will be celebrated in high style at Davenport's Figge Art Museum through the exhibition Day of the Dead: The Art of Remembrance, an installation that will explore how we celebrate and remember the lives of our lost loved ones through the collective traditions, art-making, and storytelling that are among its integral elements.
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A fascinating exhibition boasting installation work and even a synthetic indoor ice rink will be on display at the Figge Art Museum from September 21 through December 29 when the Davenport venue houses Mia Feuer: Totems of the Anthropocene, its widely acclaimed creator having enjoyed solo exhibitions worldwide from Washington D.C. to London to Calgary.
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Works by a trio of gifted Midwestern artists will be on display in the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through January 1, with the venue boasting paintings by Juliet Stock and Julia Kulish and functional ceramic art by Natalya Sots.
