With the New York Times stating that "the shining achievement of the musical is its winsome country and bluegrass score," and USA Today lauding the book "that's as forthright as it is smart, funny and charming," collaborators Steve Martin's and Edie Brickell's Tony-nominated Bright Star makes its area debut at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, its August 3 through 13 run treating patrons to a musical treat that Stage & Cinema called "full of unforced goodness and rewarded risk-taking."

Lauded by the New York Observer as “a hilarious musical whodunit” and by the New York Times as “ingenious” and “a snazzy double-act,” the tune-filled comedy Murder for Two closes the Clinton Area Showboat's 2023 summer season in high style, its August 3 through 13 run sure to demonstrate why NY1 called this clever, corpse-themed treat “a must-see 90-minute jolt of caffeinated creativity.”

Lauded by the New York Times' A.O. Scott as "big-screen perfection ... exceptionally well-written, full of wordplay and lively argument." current Barbie visionary Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age masterpiece Lady Bird enjoys a Bettendorf Public Library screening on July 28 in conjunction with the summertime "Find Your Voice" series, a program focused on works about people from marginalized communities that have been historically underrepresented in film.

On display in the Davenport venue's Lewis Gallery through November 5, a selection of images demonstrating the artistry and technological feats of "action" photography can be admired and enjoyed in the Figge Art Museum's Body Movin: Photography of the Body in Motion, an exhibition that encourages viewers to contemplate the grace of the human form.

A gifted comedian, actor, writer, and podcaster whose appearance in the Oscar-nominated Babylon led to a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Rory Scovel brings his standup tour to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on July 23, the prolific performer also boasting dozens of film and TV credits along with five comedy specials, including Netflix's Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up for the First Time.

Reading from and discussing her acclaimed 2022 memoir as part of a multi-state tour to support libraries and minorities being targeted by book bans, poet and essaying Diana Goetsch delivers an artist talk at the Davenport Public Library's Eastern Avenue Branch on July 26, her lauded The Body I Wore described by the New York Times Book Review as an "achingly beautiful" work written "with such clarity it bowls one over."

Following in the footsteps of the venue's springtime hit Sense & Sensibility, a theatre piece adapted from Jane Austen's classic novel, Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre will present a delightful stage production of Little Women July 21 through 30, reacquainting audiences with all of the beloved characters, comedy, drama, and romance adored by generations of Louisa May Alcott fans.

A modern adaptation of the 15th-century morality play Everyman, one of the first recorded stage works in the English language, author Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Everybody enjoys a July 21 through August 6 debut at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, this beautiful, fluid, and hilarious modern riff lauded by Time Out New York as "a very meta and saucy adaptation," and by The New Yorker as a work that "fills the heart in a new and unexpected way."

Winner of the Best Feature Film prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman enjoys a Bettendorf Public Library screening on July 21 in conjunction with the summertime "Find Your Voice" series, a program focused on works about people from marginalized communities that have been historically underrepresented in film.

Offered in conjunction with the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership, an innovative art lending model of displaying outstanding works of American art from the Joslyn Art Museum, the Figge Art Museum's lecture Manierre Dawson: Cubist or Civil Engineer? will be presented on July 27, with Dr. Randy J. Ploog exploring the art, life, and civil-engineering curriculum of the noted abstract painter and sculptor.

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