The beginning of spring will also be a season of love at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium when Quad City Music Guild opens its 2023 lineup with the modern classic Rent, creator Jonathan Larson's unforgettable rock opera that earned four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and the hearts of countless millions of stage fans the world over.

Just like Davenport, New Ulm, Minnesota was a hub for German immigrants in the 19th and 20th century, and through July 30, the German American Heritage Center exhibition Neighbors to the North: German Influence in New Ulm, MN will highlight how New Ulm preserves their German heritage in their events, monuments, museums, and festivals.

The winner of 50 awards on both national and regional levels, Midwestern artist Cathie Crawford is, though April 6, displaying her latest collection of beautiful and arresting works at Black Hawk College's ArtSpace Gallery, with her Luminous Layers, Woodcuts a showcase for the talent who has exhibited in 29 states as well as Bulgaria, France, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.

With the Chicago Tribune calling their performances “politically incorrect and funny” and the Charleston City Paper adding that the cast “has funny going on before they even open their mouths,” the Chicago-based comedians of Pimprov bring their sketch-comedy skills, acting talent, and significant bling to the Circa '21 Speakeasy on March 11, their 10 p.m. set preceded by 7 p.m. standup comedy with ensemble co-founder Marz Timms.

With the New York Times calling it "an enchanting play" that is also "a model of ingenuity," playwright Bess Wohl's dramatic comedy Small Mouth Sounds enjoys a March 16 through 19 area debut at Augustana College, the show lauded by Variety as a "minimalist piece of experimental theatre that casts the audience as voyeurs in an entertaining adventure that gradually darkens into tragedy."

The latest gifted guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists series will deliver a special, one-night-only public performance when March 22 brings with it a Figge Art Museum evening with Eisenhower Dance Detroit, the professional repertory company that, through its outstanding performances and educational services, strives to deepen the understanding and appreciation of contemporary dance regionally, nationally, and internationally, and to reflect on and explore issues of social significance.

Offering a presentation in the Archway Reading and Lecture Series, award-winning poet and educator Rachel Jemison Webster will speak at the University of Dubuque on March 16, her most recent book Benjamin Banneker & Us lauded by Booklist as "an engrossing, multifaceted, profoundly thoughtful, and beautifully rendered inquiry that forms a clarifying lens on America’s ongoing struggles against racism and endemic injustice.”

Held in conjunction with the Davenport venue's current exhibition Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960, the Figge Art Museum will present a special March 23 program that explores the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's March 25 concert Up Close with the Figge: Women in Music, with the QCSO's principal cellist Hannah Holman, in Women in Music, celebrating extraordinary female instrumentalists and composers throughout musical history.

A oountry-music superstar boasting sales of more than 90 million records worldwide, Reba McEntire brings her eagerly awaited national tour to Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK on March 18, the beloved entertainer's many accomplishments including more than 100 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, a well-reviewed lead in a Broadway musical, and a six-season run on her eponymous sitcom that earned the star a Golden Globe nomination.

Performing in their wildly anticipated 50th Anniversary Celebration Freedom Tour alongside the Grammy-winning chart-toppers of Toto, the iconic arena-rockers of Journey play Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK on March 21, the band currently composed of guitarist/vocalist Neal Schon (the longest-serving original member), keyboardists/vocalists Jonathan Cain and Jason Derlatka, drummer/vocalist Deen Castronovo, bassist Todd Jensen, and lead vocalist Arnel Pineda.

Pages