Among other things, sitting Illinois judges are prohibited by Illinois Supreme Court Rule 4.1 from making “speeches on behalf of a political organization,” or “solicit funds” for a political organization or candidate, except when they’re up for election or retention. So, you might ask, what the heck was Illinois Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Rochford thinking when she decided to accept an invitation to be the keynote speaker at the Lake County Democratic Women annual fundraising gala on September 9?

After an annually busy summer, September is a traditionally light month for area theatre. But Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre will be making up for the paucity of new titles by debuting no fewer than 10 plays – if 10 very short plays – in the venue's inaugural Write All Night 24-Hour Play Festival, a September 16 fundraising event that will find audiences treated to works by local authors, directors, and actors written, directed, rehearsed, and performed over the course of a single day.

Touring in support of their 2023 release Lighting Up the Sky that hit number one on Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums chart, one of the millennium's most successful and acclaimed alternative-metal acts lands in Moline with the arrival of Godsmack, the Grammy Award winners – and inspirations for Boston, Massachusetts' annual "Godsmack Day" – who headline a Vibrant Arena at the MARK concert event on September 28.

Arriving in Davenport for a live September 22 performance one year after Baz Luhrmann's movie smash Elvis and weeks before Sofia Coppola debuts her bride-of-Elvis film Priscilla, international tribute artist Shawn Klush will command the Adler Theatre stage with his Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Experience, a thrilling celebration of Presley's music and magic that has spent numerous years captivating audiences around the globe.

Touring in support of his 2022 release Neon Blue, which Holler Country praised as "a crash course in pure country from one of the music university’s finest and most knowledgeable professors," singer/songwriter Joshua Hedley headlines a September 28 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist's latest also inspiring Pitchfork to rave that "the pleasure of Neon Blue is how Hedley subtly twists country conventions, making retro-minded songs and sounds seem both familiar and fresh."

With the concert event boasting six dazzling costume changes, exquisite musicianship, powerful vocals, and a spectacular and immersive multimedia backdrop, the touring artists of BritBeat: A Multimedia Concert Journey Through Beatles Music History take the stage at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center on September 23, allowing patrons to step into a time machine and experience a remarkable recreation of the Fab Four in concert during the fabulous 1960s.

Boasting unforgettable show tunes rom the musicals Kiss Me, Kate and Anything Goes, as well as numerous other songs recognizes as 20th-century classics, the concert event American Songbook: An Evening of Cole Porter will be held at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts on September 23, the event's beloved numbers including 'I Got You Under My Skin," "De-Lovely," "Begin the Beguine," and "I Get A Kick Out Of You."

This fall and upcoming winter, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will host an enthralling new, space-specific installation by a famed Swiss artist during the housing (through February 4) of Zimoun, with the large-scale artwork filling the museum's third-floor gallery and boasting more than 80 16-foot-high cardboard stacks each set in motion mechanically.

Stunning works by an Argentine-American artist and educator revered for his advanced techniques in intaglio printmaking will be celebrated at the Muscatine Art Center through January 28, with Mauricio Lasansky: Portrait from the Permanent Collection honoring the man who established the school of printmaking at the University of Iowa, which offered the first Master of Fine Arts program in the field in the United States.