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.”

A staged reading and recital of a debuting Irish-American musical will enjoy its first public performance on October 6, with Moline's Black Box Theatre hosting the world premiere of Aaron Power!, a tune-filled celebration of cultural heritage directed, written, and composed by familiar area-theatre talents Dan Haughey and Michael Callahan.

Quick-witted improvisation, audience participation, and loads of laughs will be on hand when Davenport's Adler Theatre, on October 9, hosts an evening with the nationally touring comedians of Whose Live Anyway? – the hilarious stage show inspired by TV's Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and boasting famed stand-up and improv comedians Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Joel Murray, and Jeff B. Davis.

A quintet that, according to WSUM.org, “incorporates rock, bluegrass, jazz, and a little folk, creating nothing but an upbeat atmosphere,” the Chicago-based Old Shoe plays Davenport's Redstone Room on October 4 in a co-headlining bill with the Windy City's Ernie Hendrickson & the Citizens of Love, the ensemble that Glide magazine says “delivers elements of jazz, fusion, rock, soul, and reggae, and handles these styles with enough grace and confidence to make even first-time listeners believers.”

Delivering what The Big Takeover describes as “muscular, meat-and-potatoes-style blues rock” and what The Dead Hub calls “old souls making incredible new music,” the Minneapolis-based rockers of The 4onthefloor enjoy an October 5 headlining engagement at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, treating audiences to what Music in Minnesota deemed “an exciting, drums-driven show with much-promised dancing, howling, and fun.”

Whatever else you may believe, you have to commend Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for trying to live up to her campaign promise of making sure that new economic development isn't concentrated in her city's downtown business district.

Obsessives who passionately devoured every minute with the upstairs Crawleys and the downstairs help might very well be annoyed by how little everyone is given to do, and how little any of it matters. Those who never watched a second of the show might be utterly lost and left wondering what the big deal is. For my part, though, I found this feature-film exercise in unmitigated fan service a touching, entertaining reunion with half-forgotten friends, even though it doesn't resemble a movie so much as a highbrow Comic-Con panel in which those on the dais receive thunderous ovations merely for showing up.

Stunning examples of mixed-media artwork will be on display at Black Hawk College's ArtSpace Gallery from September 30 through November 1 as the venue houses Sarah Rehmer's A Tenuous Space, the latest exhibition by the lauded Illinois artist whose works have been showcased in such esteemed art magazines as Studio Visit, Encaustic Arts, and Shadow & Light.