Recently making the top five of the New York Times' list of “25 Best American Plays Since Angels in America,” author Bruce Norris' acclaimed comedic drama Clybourne Park will be staged at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre July 13 through 22, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner described by the Hollywood Reporter as “provactive entertainment that generates as much uneasiness as laughter.”

Reviewing Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie in the New York Times, Ben Brantley asked,“How can something be this delicate and this strong, so elusive and yet so tenacious?” Those qualities will all be in force when the Mississippi Bend Players stage this enduring, Tony Award-winning classic at Augustana College, its July 13 through 22 run demonstrating why the Times called it “a perfect play.”

Continuing its 50th-anniversary season of audience-favorite revivals, Geneseo's Richmond Barn Theatre will present, from July 12 through 22, author Jack Popplewell's mystery-comedy Busybody with Jackie Skiles returning to her beloved 2009 role as Cockney housekeeper Lily, a turn that inspired the River Cities' Reader to rave, “Beyond the beauty of her timing, everything about the actress' portrayal is right on the money.”

Exhibits, displays, games, cookouts, fireworks, local and national country musicians, and even a beauty contest for trucks will be on hand in the 39th Annual Walcott Truckers Jamboree, the July 12 through 14 event held at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop in celebration of America's big rigs and those who drive them.

To download a PDF of the puzzle, click here.

Let’s assume you love cats and/or dogs. And you see an ad for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), on television or on the Internet (RCReader.com/y/hsus1). Do you get emotional over the sight of stray cats or dogs living in Dickensian squalor before being euthanized? And do you consider writing out a check to the national organization based on the work it does on behalf of those animals, consistently depicted in rescue shelters?

It’s an impulse you may want to reconsider.

Heat-advisory warning notwithstanding, Genesius Guild's staging of Prometheus Bound in Rock Island’s Lincoln Park was an experience not to be missed. As with most Greek tragedies, there is a moral dilemma that can give audiences insight into their lives, and director Michael Callahan staged a meaningful production that remains relevant 2,500 years after it was was written. (Who would have guessed we’d still be battling tyrants?)

A political-action committee run by top officials of Operating Engineers Local 150 reported a $255,000 contribution last week from a “dark money” organization controlled by the same Local 150 honchos.

The formidable talents of Walter Trout, Jonny Lang, Shaun Murphy, and many others will be showcased when the Mississippi Valley Blues Society hosts the 2018 Mississippi Valley Blues Festival in Davenport's LeClaire Park, the July 6 and 7 outdoor event boasting exhilarating sets with national, regional, and local blues artists and interactive presentations for kids in the society's popular BlueSKool program.