A unique collaboration between stage artists and spouses Ryan Scott Oliver and Matthew Murphy serves as the first student-produced presentation in Augustana College's 2019-20 theatre season, with the October 10 through 13 run of 35mm: A Musical Exhibition blending songs and photographs to create an experience DC Metro Theatre Arts called “a thought-provoking, soul-searching exploration of two mediums fused together as one.”

Lauded by Time magazine as a “family drama that really sticks with you” and “easily the best play of the season,” 4000 Miles enjoys an October 11 through 13 run as the final production in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's 2019 Barn Owl Series – a work whose off-Broadway run inspired the New York Times to rave, “Plays as truthful and touching and fine as Amy Herzog's 4000 Miles come along once or maybe twice a season, if we're lucky.”

Described by Variety magazine as “a fast-moving story with action and staccato dialogue that literally bring Bogart to life,” author Andrew J. Fenady's The Man with Bogart's Face will be staged in radio-play format at Moline's Black Box Theatre October 11 through 19, the mystery-comedy praised by The Hollywood Reporter as “a loving tribute to the genre of hard-boiled detectives of the 1940s and the Hollywood movies that glorified their derring-do.”

One of the most iconic images of the 20th Century – the fall of the Berlin Wall – will be contextualized in a fascinating October 12 presentation at Davenport's German American Heritage Center, with historian Russell Baldner's presentation Berlin: Before & After the Wall Fell exploring the causes and ramifications of those unforgettable actions of November 9, 1989.

Colorful and expressive work by one of Iowa City's premier artistic talents will be on display at St. Ambrose University October 14 through November 23, as the Catich Gallery showcases evocative photographs by Sandra Louise Dyas in her new exhibition Truth & Beauty.

With the Washington Post deeming him “an incredibly modern and original next-generations bluesman” whose “tough vocals, guitar, and lap-steel touch on classic Chicago blues, Southern soul, and boogie,” blues artist Selwyn Birchwood performs an October 10 concert at Rock Island's Kavanaugh's Hilltop Bar & Grill, showcasing the talents that inspired Blues Matters to call the artist “a genius revelation and a pleasure.”

Currently touring in support of their 2019 release illusions, the folk and Americana musicians of The Way Down Wanderers return to Davenport's Redstone Room on October 10, their soulful set sure to demonstrate why Rolling Stone Country raved about their “intricate, hypnotic rhythms,” and why BestNewBands.com wrote, “Their live show is full of energy and just a damn good time.”

For the group's first concerts in its 2019-20 season, professional vocal ensemble the Nova Singers will be joined by saxophone master Kenneth Tse and students from Galesburg and Rock Island high schools in The Spirit Sings – October 12 and 13 engagements filled with glorious choral arrangements brought to life via the directorial talents of Dr. Laura Lane and the Nova Singers' 19 supremely gifted vocalists.

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.

Based on novelist Ken Kesey's counterculture classic that inspired the legendary, Oscar-winning film starring Jack Nicholson, the exhilarating drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest enjoys an October 3 through 13 run at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, a stage work described by the New York Daily News as “funny, touching, and exciting,” and one that WNYC Radio said “transforms the audience into one wild cheering section.”

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