I never imagined that the sensational Asteroid City would merely rank as Wes Anderson's fifth-finest achievement of 2023.

In past Octobers over the years, the professional dancers of Ballet Quad Cities have treated audiences to different takes on Dracula, a disco-themed Halloween party, and even, in 2015, an original murder mystery. But the company's fans will be getting an entire smorgasbord of hauntingly beautiful vignettes in this year's Ghost Stories, with the menu for the October 13 and 14 performances at Moline's Spotlight Theatre including werewolves, spirits, a famous horseman without a head, and bewitching women whose own menu consists of human flesh. Yes, it's suitable for kids.

Because the competition is so fierce, it's hard to say which scene in director Scott Waugh's action sequel Expend4bles is the most repellent. And for the sake of time and our collective sanity, I'm going to ignore every multitudinous instance of brains being splattered via gunfire, the effects for which look like they were added post-production with a red magic marker.

After an annually busy summer, September is a traditionally light month for area theatre. But Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre will be making up for the paucity of new titles by debuting no fewer than 10 plays – if 10 very short plays – in the venue's inaugural Write All Night 24-Hour Play Festival, a September 16 fundraising event that will find audiences treated to works by local authors, directors, and actors written, directed, rehearsed, and performed over the course of a single day.