Knowing the Peanuts characters' backgrounds, and aspects of the comics and the animated specials, will boost your enjoyment, but it's an amazing, worthwhile experience either way.

Director Shelley Cooper, vocal-music director Maureen Holmes, and instrumental-music director Michelle Crouch led the performers, crew, and staff in Augustana's The Threepenny Opera, and I was confident that the theatre and music departments here could pull the show off beautifully. They did, with energy, enthusiasm, and so much talent. The expressive actors here are skilled beyond their years.

The Spotlight Theatre's Peter & the Starcatcher, directed by Whitney Fahner with music direction by Katie Griswold, is yet another of the venue's slick and stylish productions of a lively libretto, this one loaded with big on- and off-stage talent and clever staging.

Each time I've attended a show at Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center, I'm astonished by both the acting and technical brilliance. We had some great performers and techies during my St. Ambrose days, to be sure – but our theatre certainly wasn't equipped like this one. However, my justifiable envy doesn't lessen my enjoyment while at Augustana, including at Tuesday's dress rehearsal for The 39 Steps, directed by theatre professor Jeff Coussens.