I’ve given Governor JB Pritzker some grief for his failures during the past few months. His graduated income-tax proposal went down in flames in November. He failed to pass his top priorities during January’s lame-duck legislative session. And his candidate for Democratic Party of Illinois chair lost to US Representative Robin Kelly earlier this month.

Lauded by the Hollywood Reporter as “a smart, hilarious, and provocative drama” and by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as “shockingly insightful and outrageously hilarious,” playwright Joshua Harmon's Admissions will enjoy live performances in St. Ambrose University's Studio Theatre March 24 through 28, this timely and enthralling tale described by the Miami Herald as “an absorbing drama and a prod to self-examination.”

An opera legend will celebrated on-stage when Shelley Cooper, Augustana College's Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, performs her one-woman show La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas at Moline's Black Box Theatre March 28 through 28, the production a loving tribute to an iconic figure that legendary composer Leonard Bernstein called “the Bible of opera.”

Enjoying a local presentation as the third cinematic presentation in Fathom Events' seventh-annual TCM Big Screen Classics series, the legendary biblical epic The Ten Commandments celebrates its 65th anniversary with March 28 and March 31 screenings at Rave Cinemas Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, this 1956 masterwork famed for its scale, cope, and unforgettable sights including Moses' iconic parting of the Red Sea.

Presented on March 25 in conjunction with the Figge Art Museum's current exhibition For America: 200 Years of Painting from the National Academy of Design, the virtual program The Enterprising Eliza Greatorex finds professor and author Katherine Manthorne speaking on the Ferdinand Thomas Lee Boyle portrait Eliza Greatorex, a famed work painted upon the subject's election to the Academy in 1869.

Praised by NPR for their music that “all sounds impeccable without losing its sense of lightness and joy,” the string quartet Invoke serves as the latest virtual performance in the Quad City Arts Center's annual PASS (Performing Arts Signature Series) program, with the group's March 25 concert event sure to demonstrate why the Austin Chronicle calls the group “purveyors of chamber music that busts through genres in the quartet's spicy performances.”

On March 26, Figge Art Museum members are invited to hop on a computer and travel to the Big Apple in the virtual tour Across America: The Met – an online visit to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art in which Met docent Laura Conley will guide participants through highlights of the venue's American Art Collection.

It was a light morning for shockers but a great morning for representation when nominations for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards were announced earlier today – and such a great morning that it's easy to applaud the Oscars' historic showing of diversity without being hugely embarrassed by the Best Picture omissions of the widely predicted One Night in Miami … and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Once again, and hopefully for good, theatre is back in the Quad Cities, and the Black Box Theatre is dipping its toe into the world of live performances with Dick Tracy: A Live Radio Play. Director Lora Adams started Saturday's performance by describing it as a helping of Chinese Food Theatre: We would be full when we left, but hungry for more theatre soon. While this metaphor made me chuckle, I soon realized just how true it was. This charming foray back into theatre definitely left me eager for more.