An area great that Jazz News calls “exceptionally illuminating,” trumpet and flugelhorn master Manny Lopez performs with his Manny Lopez Septet in the latest event in Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Workshop & Matinée Series, the musicians' February 17 Redstone Room concert treating fans to the singular jazz stylings that have thrilled local audiences for more than four decades.

Lauded by L.A. Weekly as “the best Chekhov adaptation in two decades,” author Aaron Posner transforms the Russian playwright's classic The Seagull into a modern comedy/drama masterpiece in Stupid F---ing Bird, whose February 8 through 10 run at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre will demonstrate why the New York Times deemed it a “bitingly funny, bruisingly sad” work “that shows in crisp detail what is new about unhappiness today, and what is timeless.”

With Variety magazine calling it a work in which “conflicts explode in consistently intriguing ways,” the comedic drama Speech & Debate will be presented as the latest student-directed production in St. Ambrose University's Studio Theatre, its February 14 through 16 run demonstrating why the Washington Post deemed it a “suspenseful tale that fuses keen-eyed civic critique with riotous and even campy humor.”

Works by one of the Quad Cities' most revered artistic talents and an emeritus professor at St. Ambrose University will be on display at MidCoast Gallery West / The ARTery February 8 through March 31, with the Rock Island venue celebrating its 10th birthday with the debut of the new exhibition Leslie Bell: Paintings & Drawings Waiting to Go On.