The beloved tale of a pig, a spider, and a timeless storybook friendship kicks off Davenport Junior Theatre's 67th season with the October 13 through 21 presentation of Charlotte's Web, the 1952 children's book by E.B. White now being brought to stage life in a colorful, fun-filled production involving more than 40 students from 11 different area cities.

Two disparate forms of artistic media will, from October 13 through December 1, combine in one fascinating exhibit at Davenport's Bucktown Center for the Arts, when area artists Emma Farber Cunningham and Barbara Toner showcase their immense talents – and their specific mediums of interest – in the new MidCoast at Bucktown Gallery exhibition Paintings & Glass.

Making an eagerly awaited stop at the Adler Theatre in support of his most recent album Here Comes the Truth – the inspiration for the performer's 2017 Netflix special – comedian and singer/songwriter Rodney Carrington brings his standup and vocal talents to Davenport on October 12, sharing the country-themed gifts that have made him an internationally touring crowd favorite and platinum-selling recording artist.

Rock and blues guitarist/vocalist Eric Gales has already earned wild praise from his peers, with Carlos Santana calling him “absolutely incredible” and Joe Bonamassa labeling him “one of the best, if not the best guitar player in the world.” On October 11, Gales will no doubt equally thrill fans at Davenport's Redstone Room, sharing the venerable talents that led Dave Navarro to state, “How Eric Gales isn't the hugest name in rock guitar is a total mystery.”

Performing a Moeller Nights concert on October 11, the Heligoats – what NPR called “a strange name for a guy strumming a guitar, but oddly befitting someone who stuffs his songs with so many sideways ideas and observations” – delivers acoustic indie rock courtesy of singer/songwriter Chris Otepka, whom NPR declared “writes songs that are brainy in the best way: clever without straining for cuteness, wry but never smug.”

One of the most popular and influential country and Southern-rock bands in history makes a long-awaited appearance at Moline's TaxSlayer Center on October 13, with the chart-topping talents of Alabama performing in their 2018 “The Hits Tour,” and demonstrating why AllMusic.com wrote, “It's unlikely that any other country group will be able to surpass the success of Alabama.”

For the group's first concerts of the 2018-19 season, the professional vocal ensemble the Nova Singers will travel Out of Darkness, Into Light on October 13 and 14, delivering Illinois and Iowa presentations that find noted composers wrestling with life’s darkest moments and exploring the uplifting powers of hope, light, and love.

With San Francisco's SFGate.com calling it “two hours of high-class hilarity” and “a generous gag-fest packed with rib-tickling delights,” Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre continues its 50th-aAnniversary season of audience favorites with the commedie del'arte slapstick Scapin, a work that the Washington Post labeled “buoyantly self-aware” and “a delightful contemporary farce.”

An unforgettable tale of a ruthless race to power and the love affair that threatened to upend it, the historical drama Henry VIII: All Is True will be staged by verse-theatre troupe the Prenzie Players at Davenport's QC Theatre Workshop October 5 through 13 – the first area staging of ths 17th Century play in decades, and a work believed to be either the final or penultimate play written by William Shakespeare.

For its first musical presentation in the venue's first year of operation, the operators of Moline's Spotlight Theatre will take advantage of their venue's locale – the former site of the Scottish Rite Cathedral – with an ideal production for the architecturally grand space: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the lauded stage adaptation of Disney's Oscar-nominated hit running October 5 through 14.

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