Bluegrass, funk, roots, reggae, and plenty of rock will be on tap, and in the great outdoors, when the area rockers of The Dawn host the fifth-annual Dawn & On Music Festival, the eagerly awaited July 6 event boasting food and beverage vendors, arts & crafts, and nine exhilarating concert sets by local and regional acts, all taking place – for the first time – in Rock Island's Schwiebert Riverfront Park.

Jay Farrar’s longstanding alternative rock/country flagship Son Volt plays The Rust Belt on July 12.

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Is this latest franchise entry enjoyable? Absolutely. Is it frequently clever and touching and sweet? For sure. Is it well-animated? Duh. But does it feel the slightest bit necessary? Nope. Does it enrich the inner lives of beloved characters we've known for decades? Not really. And is it in any way a more satisfying end – or “end” – to the Toy Story series than 2010's seemingly conclusive third chapter? No way.

There are two sides to every story. And no matter what you think you know, the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse’s delightful children’s show The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is here to lay the facts all out for you so you can decide for yourself.

Noises Off, by English playwright Michael Frayn, is a 1982 comedic farce of epic proportions, and you will likely either love this show or hate it. The guy sitting next to me, for instance, did not come back after intermission. The lady in front of me laughed hysterically. And an older fellow in the front row seemed to be dozing off. So there was definitely a wide range of audience reactions to this gag-filled production.

"We are so proud of what we've been able to accomplish this first legislative session of ours," Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton told a TV interviewer earlier this month. "We said that we wanted to think big for the people of Illinois. We said that we wanted to get Springfield back on the track of working families. And that's what we did."

Noël Coward's 1941 comedy Blithe Spirit was adapted for film in 1945, as well as for television and radio and as a musical. It's been offered by multitudes of theatres, now including the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre – which proved, on Friday, that their production can stand with the best of them.

The opening-night, sell-out crowd filling the Black Box Theatre appeared engaged by, and mostly appreciative of, Little Women: The Musical. The talented cast performed with gusto, intelligence, and tenderness, as required. Unfortunately, however, the adaptation itself of the late-19th-century Louisa May Alcott classic left me disappointed overall.

As U.S. Constitutional scholar and George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley wrote in May, the U.S. Attorney General is completely wrong in his efforts to prosecute Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange under the Espionage Act. "The use of the Espionage Act strikes at the heart of the First Amendment," wrote Turley, who noted with approval that several prosecutors in the Attorney General's office shared his view that the indictment of Assange on espionage charges is a terrible idea.

A classic Greek tragedy making its first return to the Quad Cities in more than 15 years, Euripides' arresting tale of The Bacchae will be staged by Genesius Guild June 28 through July 7, the outdoor Lincoln Park presentations boasting a cast of 17 and its central characters performing in period-appropriate Greek masks.

Presented by QC Pride and numerous other area organizations, businesses, and venues, more than a half-dozen inclusive events are scheduled in celebration of 2019 Quad Cities Unity Pride Week, which, from June 22 through 29, will boast nine days of activities and entertainment including a parade, a film screening, a pageant, a pub crawl, and, on June 28 and 29, a festival in downtown Davenport.

Authors of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more will share their talents and help strengthen the talents of others during the Midwest Writing Center's annual David R. Collins Writers Conference at Davenport's St. Ambrose University, a June 27 through 29 celebration of the written word boasting workshops, readings, book pitches, and more.

Following a two-year hiatus for the popular summertime event, the Quad City Air Show roars back above and throughout the Davenport Municipal Airport on June 29 and 30, the exhilarating aerial celebration featuring airborne performances, aerobatic teams, helicopters, squadrons, information booths, vendors, and more.

Annual explosions of fun will be taking place at both Davenport's Modern Woodmen Park and Rock Island's Schwiebert Riverfront Park when the Quad Cities hosts its Fourth of July celebration Red, White, & Boom!, the July 3 event delivering a spectacular fireworks display over the Mississippi River as well as live music, food and beverage vendors, special presentations, family programming, and more.

From June 28 through August 16, works by a pair of familiar faces from St. Ambrose University's art department will be on display at the Quad City Arts Center, with the Rock Island venue showcasing paintings by the school's gallery director and university curator Christopher Reno, and digital collages by Associate Professor of Art Renee Meyer Ernst.

The glories of Midwestern landscapes and idyllic farm scenes will be on display at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy June 29 through July 25, with the Bettendorf venue celebrating the works of a gifted artist and Fairfield, Iowa, resident in the multi-hued, evocative painting exhibition Hans Olson: Big Sky.

Described by the San Diego Reader as “a true Motown-glam show-stopper” and with Consequence of Sound stating that “his vocals and personality go well with just about everything,” Diane Coffee – the stage moniker of California-based musician and actor Shaun Fleming – headlines a Moeller Nights concert on June 28, bringing his teasing pop sensibility and singular style to local audiences in support of the artist's new album Internet Arms.

Lauded by NPR Music for his “pop-kissed soul of old-time rock and roll” and by the Smoky Mountain News for lyrics “soaked in spilled whiskey, misunderstood tears, and dusty memories,” folk-rock and power-pop musician Aaron Lee Tasjan plays a Moeller Nights headliner concert on June 29, his set certain to prove why American Songwriter insisted, “Few contemporary acts have taken stylistic leaps as radical as singer/songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan.”

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