Jerry Seinfeld - September 22
Events
Adler Theatre
September through November
What ... is the deal ... with fall?! Is it a season? Is it a command? “You’ve been on your feet all summer, people – time to fall!” And why does it get two names – fall and autumn? Is it for when the season is feeling extra-fancy? “‘Fall’ just doesn’t go with these golden leaves of mine. Call me ‘Autumn!’”
Granted, my outstanding Seinfeld impression is a lot more impressive in person than in writing.
But you’ll be able to hone your own this fall – or, if you prefer, this autumn – after the legendary, Emmy-winning comedian comes to Davenport in September 22’s evening with Jerry Seinfeld, the first of numerous exciting events kicking off the Adler Theatre’s 2016-17 season.
As always, the venue will be home to a series of musical treats, three of them courtesy of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. On November 19, the Adler hosts afternoon and evening performances of the annual Holiday Pops in collaborative entertainments subtitled Communities in Concert, with the QCSO playing seasonal favorites alongside the talents of Ballet Quad Cities, RiverBend Bronze, the First Presbyterian Church of Davenport Sanctuary Choir, the QCSO Youth Choir, Quad City Choral Arts, and the Westbrook Singers.
And with the rivers of the world being celebrated in the QCSO’s 2016-17 Masterworks series, the first two of those concerts make their Adler debuts this fall. October 1 brings with it Heroic Mississippi, which boasts a repertoire featuring Strauss’ Don Juan Op. 20, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica), and Iowa native Michael Daugherty’s tuba concerto Reflections on the Mississipi. November 5’s River Romance, meanwhile, features noted pianist Garrick Ohlsson in an eclectic program showcasing works ranging from Tobias Picker’s Old & Lost Rivers to Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (These Masterworks events will also be performed at Augustana College’s Centennial Hall on October 2 and November 6.)
There’s more music, plus a whole lot of electrifying Celtic dance, to be found in Davenport on October 7, which marks the arrival of the artists of Rockin’ Road to Dublin. Appearing in their first national tour, these gifted performers deliver a fusion of rock, Irish tunes, and jaw-dropping choreography, and inspired Irish Dance Magazine to rave about the show’s “one-two punch of style and mastery” and its “fabulous mix of charisma and personality.”
A two-time Grammy Award winner takes the Adler stage on November 11 with the Quad Cities return of John Prine, the legendary singer/songwriter whose iconic country/folk compositions have been recorded by such stars as Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, John Denver, and Carly Simon. And October 22 will be a veritable night of white satin for classic-rock fans, as that’s the night The Moody Blues lands in Davenport with a concert suggesting why the band boasts worldwide album sales of more than 70 million, and why they’ve been such an enduring touring hit for the better part of a half-century.
If you’re looking for Blues a little less Moody, it’ll likely be nonstop laughs for fans when Blue Collar comedians Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy hit the Adler for two October 8 shows, each performing all-new standup before joining one another for a shared, Southern-comedy encore. Sports fans, meanwhile, won’t want to miss October 27’s special event with David Feherty, the former professional golfer and current broadcaster with NBC Sports and the Golf Channel who’ll be telling incredible behind-the-scenes tales of his career and participation in the European and PGA tours.
Yet with all of these great happenings this fall, the Adler hasn’t forgotten about the kids, either, as evidenced by the booking of October 20’s Peppa Pig Live! A new stage show starring beloved characters from the eOne television series, the production is described on the Adler’s Web site as “an interactive experience full of singing, dancing, games, and muddy puddles.” So it’s like a party at my place. But with games.
For more on the Adler’s fall(/autumn) season, visit AdlerTheatre.com.
Events
iWireless Center
September through November
This fall, a particular venue in downtown Moline will be the home to Mallards, Chicks, a Duck ... . I ask you: Are we talking about the iWireless Center, or the world’s grandest, 12,000-seat aviary?
Obviously the former. But if it’s autumn, it must also be time for the iWireless’ annual hosting of the Quad City Mallards, our area’s own minor-league professional ice-hockey team that will face off against a half-dozen visiting competitors: the Fort Wayne Komets (October 14), the Missouri Mavericks (October 26), the Tulsa Oilers (October 29), the Cincinnati Cyclones (November 6), the Toledo Walleye (November 11), and the Wheeling Nailers (November 19 and 20).
The aforementioned, capitalized Chicks headed to the iWireless are Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, and Emily Robison, best known collectively as the chart-topping Dixie Chicks. The all-time biggest-selling all-female band and country band, these sizzling performers will demonstrate, on September 15, just why their musical output has resulted in a staggering 13 Grammy Awards – five of them for 2007’s Album of the Year Taking the Long Way – and why they can claim album sales of more than 27.5 million in the U.S. alone.
As for the Duck, his friends tend to call him “Donald,” and he’ll be joined by at least two-dozen friends when the iWireless presents two November 4 performances of the touring sensation Disney Live! Mickey & Minnie’s Doorway to Magic. An all-new multimedia stage production boasting favorite Disney characters, the show promises live renditions of some of the most beguiling magical feats in the company’s animated canon, with the Fairy Godmother transforming Cinderella’s rags into a beautiful ball gown, the Toy Story gang popping out of Andy’s toy box, and Rapunzel and Flynn Rider soaring overhead amidst a sea of floating paper lanterns. As that latter segment will no doubt be accompanied by Tangled’s Oscar-nominated song “I See the Light,” I unfortunately can’t bring my niece and nephew to this one. I swore I’d never let them see me cry.
But enough sensitivity – bring on the wrestlers and sledgehammers! On September 23, the iWireless hosts the year’s final touring event with the stars of WWE Live, and among a lineup featuring such crowd favorites as Cesaro, Sasha Banks, and Enzo & Cash, the night boasts three extra-special bouts: the Universal Championship match between Finn Balor and Seth Rollins; the United States Championship match between Roman Reigns and Rusev; and the WWE Tag Team Championship match between The New Day and Gallows & Anderson. October 22, meanwhile, brings with it a special night with comedian and legendary watermelon-smasher Gallagher, appearing with fellow comic Artie Fletcher and local band The Fry Daddies.
Within a week of one another, two exceptional recording artists will make eagerly awaited stops on the iWireless stage. On October 23, the Moline venue will be filled with the inspirational ballads, pop hits, and Celtic standards of Irish legend Daniel O’Donnell, who led 18 of his albums to the top 20 of Billboard’s World Music Albums chart. And on October 27, the iWireless presents a night with the Grammy-winning superstar Keith Urban, whose own Billboard accomplishments have found a whopping 19 of his singles topping the country-music charts.
If it’s thrash metal you’re looking for, look no further than the iWireless on October 7, as the multi-platinum-selling hard rockers of Megadeth bring their tour to the Quad Cities in a head-banging evening featuring additional sets by Armon Amarth, Suicidal Tendencies, and Metal Church. And ending the iWireless Center’s fall schedule at its actual beginning, September 10 boasts even more rockers in a hard-driving, guitar-and-percussion-heavy evening boasting the collective of Drowning Pool, Trapt, Saliva, Saving Abel, Alien Ant Farm, Crazytown, 12 Stones, and Tantric, with an opening set by the Quad Cities’ very own The Zealots. The concert’s official title? Make America Rock Again. Why the hell isn’t that on a hat?!
For more on the iWireless Center’s fall-entertainment roster, visit iWirelessCenter.com.
Exhibits
Figge Art Museum
September through November
There are four current exhibitions at Davenport’s Figge Art Museum scheduled to end their runs this fall, and ... .
Wait a minute. What are you doing reading this? Haven’t you heard?! Four Figge exhibits are ending their runs this fall! Get over there pronto!
If, however, you’re too glued to this article to leave it (and Lord knows I’d understand), let me at least tell you what to be on the lookout for after you do enter the Figge doors. On display through September 4, and co-sponsored by Tallgrass QC, Picturing the Prairie celebrates the biodiversity and beauty of the endangered tallgrass prairie, and features photographs, sculptures, watercolors, and more by regional artists Terry Evans, Jin Lee, Mary Merkel Hess, George Olson, Randy Richmond, and Radim Schrieber. David Plowden: An American Master, running through September 11, boasts more than 70 images from the noted photographer’s 60-year career, exploring the rural landscape through images ranging from oceans of grain to intricate bridge spans to motel parking lots.
You still have until September 25 to view the Figge’s expansive memorabilia collection that composes The Wonderful World of Oz: Selections from the Willard Carroll/Tom Wilhite Collection – 110 Oz-related objects including first editions of L. Frank Baum’s books, original sketches, toys, games, and the Wicked Witch’s actual hourglass from the 1939 movie. And on October 30, after nearly a year-long run, the Figge will officially close the curtain on Clay: Traditions in Shards, an exhibition of exquisite craftsmanship and color curated by Dale Fisher of the University of Iowa Museum of Art.
But while the Figge taketh away, the Figge also giveth, with a full seven new exhibitions taking the place of those departing four this autumn. Three of the season’s new arrivals, in fact, will be landing on the same Saturday in September 10’s combined debut of American Scene on Paper, Living Proof Exhibit: Cancer Survivor Art ,and Material Translations. Ranging in subject from nostalgic country life to satiric city scenes, the works in American Scene on Paper (on display through January 1) deliver a vision of the American experience in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s through the talents of such timeless artists as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Martin Lewis, and Edward Hopper. Living Proof (through October 16) showcases some five dozen works by area cancer survivors in an inspiring testament to the creative spirit. Meanwhile, Material Translations (through November 27) is the latest University of Iowa Museum of Art exhibit to find a temporary home at the Figge, and presents sculptures and installations in combination with two-dimensional examples of how artists develop ideas through a variety of materials and media.
Beginning on October 1 and running through February 12, Rose Frantzen’s multi-layered installation Portrait of Maquoketa is a celebratory collection of 180 portraits of citizens ranging in age from a few weeks to well over 90, combined with 34 vertical panels offering panoramic views of the artist’s Iowa hometown. On display from October 8 through January 15, Rembrandt & the Jews: The Berger Print Collection boasts a collection of 22 etchings by the Dutch master that explore the relationship between the legendary artist and the Jewish residents of his Amsterdam neighborhood, and is presented alongside works of other notable Dutch artisans of the period. You'll have from September 3 to November 6 to view the multi-media installation of video and photographic works in the Southwestern-flavored Lily McElroy Controls the Sun & Other Selfless Acts.
Visual art, meanwhile, gets a bit of a musical spin in the Figge’s forthcoming Giving the Devil His Due: The Art of Gary Kelley. A collection of drawings and monotypes on display from September 17 through December 31, this exhibition showcases Kelley’s visualized takes on two musicians – the 19th Century violinist and guitarist Nicole Paganini and the 20th Century blues guitarist Robert Johnson – who, according to legend, achieved perfection by selling their souls to the devil. For the record, I would never do that, as it’s far more satisfying to strive for perfection via endless hours of hard work and sleepless nights. Also, the devil never returns my calls.
For more on the Figge Art Museum’s fall exhibits and events, call (563)326-7804 or visit FiggeArtMuseum.org.
Events
Hancher Auditorium and Englert Theatre
September through November
Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy. John Waters wrote a bunch of Divine comedies. Which author would you rather hang with for an evening?
Me, too. That’s why it’s so cool that we can spend a couple hours in the company of the writer/director of Pink Flamingos, Lust in the Dust, Polyester, and, let’s not forget, the original Hairspray when John Waters arrives at the Englert Theatre on October 1. Performing in his Filthier & Dirtier Tour, the man whom no less than William Burroughs once called “The Pope of Trash” will share tales of his singular filmmaking career and recent hitchhiking trek across America (detailed in the memoir Carsick), and Waters’ visit is but one of many fantastic autumnal events taking place at the Englert and Iowa City’s neighboring Hancher Auditorium.
In addition to those resulting from Waters’ October visit, laughs will help open the Englert’s fall season in the venue’s night with Hasan Minhaj (September 9), whose Homecoming King Tour allows patrons an up-close-and-personal audience with the noted comedian, author, and Daily Show with Trevor Noah correspondent. More cackles will be had when the creator of Adult Swim’s off-the-wall series The Eric Andre Show – Eric Andre himself – lands at the Englert on October 8, demonstrating why Spin magazine labeled him “an Andy Kaufman for the Four Loko generation.” And no election year would be complete without a visit from the political satirists of Capitol Steps (September 30), whose equal-opportunity offenses in their What to Expect When You’re Electing production will feature Hillary Clinton performing “Deleter of the Facts,” Bernie Sanders crooning “If There Were No Rich Men,” and Donald Trump speak-singing (more likely shout-singing) “Shut Up & Vote for Me.”
But music without accompanying spoofery is also on the Englert’s autumnal docket. The indie-folk artists of The Mountain Goats perform at the venue on September 26, with the Grateful Dead tribute band Dark Star Orchestra hitting the stage the following evening. October brings chamber music with Red Cedar Express (October 2); folk rock with Shovels & Rope (October 3); a silent-film classic scored live in Alloy Orchestra Presents: Man with a Movie Camera (October 6); blues and country with John Hiatt (October 12); pop and rock with Nick Lowe (October 14); Grammy-lauded jazz with Esperanza Spalding (October 25); and an eerie likeness of Steely Dan with The Fez (October 28).
Plus, with Iowa’s own folk singer/songwriter Greg Brown performing on November 19, the Englert’s fall is rounded out with a visit from bestselling Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan on October 7 and special HD screenings of two Shakespeare classics direct from London stages: the Armedia Theatre’s Richard III (September 7) starring Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave, and the Branagh Theatre’s Romeo & Juliet (October 12), which reunites Branagh’s 2015 Cinderella stars Richard Madden and Lily James for the title roles.
That’s a bunch of exciting events. And it’s safe to say that, over at Hancher Auditorium, perhaps the most exciting event lined up for the fall is Hancher Auditorium just being there. For the first time since the devastating Iowa City flooding closed the venue in 2008, Hancher is again officially open for business in a brand-new facility that will be celebrated in September 9’s Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony & Open House, which will come complete with tours, refreshments, and a preview of the 2016-17 performing-arts season. If you can’t quite wait for September 9, though, allow me to spill at least a few of Hancher’s figurative beans.
There will be music courtesy of New Orleans greats Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (September 16), the saxophone-led David Sanborn Electric Band (September 29), operatic soprano Renée Fleming (October 8), cellist Maya Beiser (October 27), and folk and Americana ensemble Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands (October 28). Musical comedy hits Hancher in the forms of nine-time Tony winner The Book of Mormon (October 11 through 16) and the shenanigans of Pomp, Brass, & Lunacy! (November 5), vocal and instrumental vaudeville with Tomáš Kubínek, Orchestra Iowa, University of Iowa choirs, and special guest Wycliffe Gordon.
As should be apparent, the Hancher’s fall season is nothing if not varied, and that’s not even mentioning the arrival of the Puppet State Theatre Company of Scotland (October 2 through 6) with its production The Man Who Planted Trees. Or the high-energy dancers of Step Afrika! (October 20) with their new touring presentation The Migration: Reflections of Jacob Lawrence. Or the U of I’s culinary-arts event for foodies – Pullman Bar & Dinner (October 26). Or, Heaven knows, the unbelievably awesome booking of the legendary Steve Martin and Martin Short, who, along with jazz keyboardist Jeff Babko and Martin’s bluegrass band the Steep Canyon Rangers, present an evening of comedy and music titled An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of the Life. I’d tell you the date, but I can’t remember what it is.
Kidding. It’s September 24.
What?! Only Martin and Short are allowed to be funny?!
For more information on the Englert Theatre’s fall season, call (319)688-2653 or visit Englert.org, and for more on Hancher Auditorium’s autumn, call (319)335-1160 or visit Hancher.UIowa.edu.
Performing Arts
Quad City Arts Visiting Artists
September through November
Every year, Quad City Arts assembles a sensational variety of performers and educators for its Visiting Artist residency series, with the recruited professionals collectively famed for their work in all manner of artistic disciplines. The organization’s 2016-17 Visiting Artist season is no exception, because check out whom Quad City Arts has scheduled for classroom presentations and public performances this fall: An actor. A singer. A dancer. An acrobat. A choreographer. A playwright. A poet. A producer. Even a graphic designer. And that’s just Paige Hernandez.
Known and admired primarily for her fusions of theatre, hip-hop, dance, and education, the New York-based Hernandez is exactly whom you’d point to in order to prove that the axiom “Those who can’t do, teach” is a big, fat lie. A performer with theatrical credits ranging from The Wizard of Oz to The Crucible to the recent Chekhov satire Stupid F---ing Bird, Hernandez has appeared at such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, Michigan’s Wharton Center, and Texas’ Paramount Theatre; she’s a member of the Actors Equity Association and a commissioned playwright for the Kennedy Center; and she recently received two Helen Hayes Award nominations for choreography and performance. But while audiences can get a sense of her protean talents during Hernandez’s October 1 public performance at Davenport’s Nighswander Theatre, area students will no doubt be treated to a first-rate education on the art of performance during her area stay. Not for nothing, I’m guessing, was Hernandez named a “classroom hero” by the Huffington Post.
But Hernandez is just the start of Quad City Arts’ outstanding – and incredibly musical – fall lineup. Performing publicly at Augustana College’s Wallenberg Hall on October 16, Imani Winds is the Grammy-nominated quintet that provides master classes for thousands of students per year, and still somehow finds time for concerts and recitals at venues that include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Disney Hall. Composed of Valerie Coleman on flute, Mark Dover on clarinet, Monica Ellis on bassoon, Jeff Scott on French horn, and Toyin Spellman-Diaz an oboe, the New York-based ensemble is revered for its renditions of everything from classical and chamber music to jazz and Latin-American compositions, and the Washington Post praised Imani Winds for the group’s “sultry sophistication.”
Less than one week after that ensemble’s public performance, the busy folks at Quad City Arts will host another when the chamber musicians of the Phildelphia-based Dalí Quartet bring their talents to St. Ambrose University’s Galvin Fine Arts Center on October 22. I could tell you how gifted this foursome is in regard to their repertoire of Latin-American, classical, and Romantic pieces, but I actually don’t have to – not when there are so many others able to do it for me. Here’s but a sampling of the reviews the musicians have received for their live performances. The Philadelphia Inquirer: “The Dalí Quartet’s Latin-American program alternately glimmered and blazed.” The Pendulum: “They rose and fell at all the right moments, and every dynamic or emotional charge was effortlessly synchronized.” The Chestnut Hill Local: “The music pulsed with excitement.” Salt Lake Magazine: “The Dalí Quartet is a remarkable ensemble; it’s a true crossover group in the best sense of the word.”
And wrapping up the fall lineup for Quad City Arts, the New York City jazz singer/composer Kavita Shah delivers her public performance at Davenport’s First Presbyterian Church on November 12. A Manhattan native who, as a member of the award-winning Young People’s Chorus of NYC, began performing regularly at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center at the ripe old age of 10, Shah was named Downbeat magazine’s “Best Graduate Jazz Vocalist” in 2012, won the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award the following year, and released her album debut Visions in 2014. According to Downbeat, it’s a “breathtakingly beautiful” release in which “Shah soars with understated majesty while alternately singing in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.” So: Parábens senhorita Shah para su maravilloso talento and accomplishments!” That’s me singing her praises in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. I’d imagine it’s harder to sing that way than it is to use an Internet translator to write that way.
For more on Quad City Arts’ Visiting Artists series, call (309)793-1213 or visit QuadCityArts.com.
Theatre
Musicals and Dance
September through November
Hello! My name is Michael Schulz. And I would like to share with you the most amazing news!
That perfectly scanned opener is designed specifically for fans of The Book of Mormon. And if you’re not a fan of The Book of Mormon ... . Well, I’m guessing that you probably haven’t yet seen or heard The Book of Mormon. But you can amend that cultural deficiency between October 11 and 16, because that’s when Iowa City’s Hancher Auditorium will present the touring production of Trey Parker’s, Matt Stone’s, and Robert Lopez’s iconic, hysterical Broadway smash – a nine-time Tony winner that’s just one of more than a dozen exhilarating musical and dance productions heading our way over the next three months.
We can always count on the professional talents of Ballet Quad Cities to put some spring in our autumnal steps, and this year finds the mad-gifted dance ensemble collaborating with principal dancer Domingo Rubio in the return of Dracula, a spooky, Halloween-themed treat being performed at Moline’s Scottish Rite Cathedral October 21 and 22. Yet in something of a seasonal rarity, there are even more chances to catch exhilarating choreographed moves on area stages this fall: Davenport’s Adler Theatre hosts the inspiring Celtic hoofers of Rockin’ Road to Dublin (October 7); Hancher presents the world-touring artists of Step Afrika! (October 20) in their new presentation The Migration: Reflections of Jacob Lawrence; and on September 17, St. Ambrose University’s Galvin Fine Arts Center delivers a night with a Minneapolis dance troupe and its trunk of tap shoes and outrageous costumes in the funk spectacular Feet Don’t Fail Me Now! (Sadly, on the dance floor, mine fail me all the time.)
I doubt they’ll tap, or do anything in the way of a kick line, but there will certainly be classic tunes on hand with the stars of the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse’s Tony-winning Million Dollar Quartet (September 1 through November 5), considering that the stars of director Curt Wollan’s musical portray Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. Another music legend is given a stage tribute when Mt. Carroll’s Timber Lake Playhouse presents beloved country and gospel tunes in Always ... Patsy Cline (September 9 through 18). And if it’s fall, it must be time to do the “Time Warp” again, which the show’s many fans can – and no doubt will – in the Circa ’21 Speakeasy’s new production of The Rocky Horror Show (October 8 through 29) co-directed by those marvelously talented marrieds Bret and Erin Churchill.
Although school is back in session, kids can make the most of their free time with a pair of stage musicals designed specifically for them: the children’s book adaptation Miss Nelson Has a Field Day (September 17 through October 1) at Amana’s Old Creamery Theatre, and the student-performed Pegora the Witch (October 22 through 30), which – “witch”? – has the distinction of being the 300th mainstage show to be produced at Davenport Junior Theatre. The holidays land in our area early via Circa ’21’s and director Ann Nieman’s yuletide revue Holly Jolly Christmas (November 9 through December 29) and the Old Creamery’s dop-wop sequel Winter Wonderettes (November 17 through December 18), the latter of which follows the theatre’s early-autumn staging of the Broadway smash Grease (September 8 through October 2).
Meanwhile, fans of this year’s Tony-dominating Hamilton – and again, if you’re not a fan ... – will surely want to check out the season-opening production at the University of Iowa’s David Thayer Theatre, which finds Chicago’s Q Brothers collective collaborating with students on a world-premiere musical inspired by Shakespeare: Hip-Hop Julius Caesar (September 29 through October 15). Hey, if our Founding Fathers could handle the update, I’m thinking that bastard Brutus can suck it up, too.
For more on the area’s fall-theatre and -dance lineup, visit the Reader’s online events calendar.
Theatre
Comedies and Dramas
September through November
Well, there’s good news and grim news regarding our area’s schedule of fall stage comedies and dramas. The good news is that it includes two Shakespeares, two world premieres, four Tony Award winners, two Tony nominees, and not one, not two, but three recipients of the Pulitzer Prize. The grim news is that this particular collection of plays addresses murder, infidelity, racism, sexism, post-traumatic stress disorder, police brutality, and cyber-sex; features a pair of protagonists who murder their wives; and boasts not one, not two, but three narratives centered on dead children.
So, you know ... . Happy autumn, everybody!
Let’s deal with that last subset of grimness first, if only because – surprise! – it lets me shamelessly promote a show I myself am acting in. The QC Theatre Workshop’s next presentation is Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, black-comic, dysfunctional-family saga Buried Child (October 14 through 30), with director James Fairchild leading a cast that finds real-life spouses Pat and Patti Flaherty portraying vocally combative stage spouses. St. Ambrose University will present director Max Moline’s studio-theatre take on Agnes of God (September 8 through 10), author John Pielmeier’s Tony-winning drama about a deceased baby and the infant’s convent-novice birth mother. And another Pulitzer winner arrives in the form of author David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole (September 1 through 4), director Joe Oliger’s studio-theatre exploration of a fatal car accident’s aftermath, and the first production housed in Augustana College’s new Kim & Donna Brunner Theatre Center facility.
While we’re on the subject of St. Ambrose and Augustana, both schools will pay tribute to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s passing with eagerly anticipated mainstage productions: SAU Professor Corinne Johnson directs Jordan McGinnis’ Prospero and many others through the enchanted land of the Bard’s The Tempest (October 7 through 9), and Augie’s Jeff Coussens – a memorable Iago for the college in 1993 – leads titular portrayer Debo Balogun and fellow students through the tragic drama of Shakespeare’s Othello (October 14 through 23).
While Theatre of the Oppressed may sound like a blanket title for all companies whose participants work long hours for no money, it’s actually the title of the forthcoming, interactive stage experience at Scott Community College (October 14, 26, and 28) in which director Kevin Babbitt and SCC students address issues of racism, sexism, and heterosexism. Davenport’s New Ground Theatre and director Chris Jansen explore the life of a soldier potentially suffering from PTSD in author Quiara Allegria Hudes’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Water by the Spoonful (September 30 through October 9). And with director Dana Moss-Peterson at the helm, a cure for mental deficiencies may be found, and lost again, in the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre’s Flowers for Algernon (October 6 through 16), a poignant drama that, in its 1968 film version Charly, earned Cliff Robertson a Best Actor Oscar.
Excepting The Tempest, this might seem like an awful lot of downbeat offerings this fall, especially after you add in a couple of Iowa City productions: Riverside Theatre’s and writer/director Sean Lewis’ Black & Blue (September 9 through 25), which explores the repercussions of a possible police-brutality incident, and Dreamwell Theatre’s The Nether (September 16 through 24), director Rachel Lindhart’s take on Jennifer Haley’s controversial sci-fi drama about a world in which logged-in customers are allowed to do anything – anything – with virtual children. But let’s remember that challenging stage material presented well can still be thoroughly entertaining and even transporting. Let’s also remember that no theatre season worth its salt would ever be wall-to-wall grimness.
Even though the title of the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s next theatrical offering is Deathtrap (September 9 through 28), director Patti Flaherty’s take on Ira Levin’s Broadway-smash mystery/comedy is sure to be one of the lightest examinations of death and traps you’ve ever seen, and the Barn concludes its 2016 season with director Jacque Cohoon’s Stocking Stuffers (November 11 through 20), a series of 15 comedic, holiday-themed vignettes. New Ground follows Water by the Spoonful with the romantic comedy of author Jason Odell Williams’ critically acclaimed Handle with Care (November 4 through 13). Augustana presents a socially conscious production for family audiences in director Jackie McCall’s environmentally aware Just a Dream: The Dream Play (October 1 and 2).
And in Iowa City, not only will the University of Iowa’s David Thayer Theatre house Christopher Durang’s fabulously funny comedy of manners Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike (November 10 through 19), but the neighboring Riverside Theatre presents director Angie Toonmsen’s take on Lauren Gunderson’s election-year comedy The Taming (October 28 through November 13). Its plot, according to the theatre’s Web site, can actually be detailed in a question: “What happens when a conservative senatorial aide, a liberal political activist, and a newly crowned Miss Georgia walk into a bar?” I have no earthly idea. But if that happened in real life, no doubt some drunken idiot would walk up to these women and ask, “Hey, why are three pretty ladies like you sitting here all alone?”
For more on the area’s fall-theatre schedule, visit the Reader’s online events calendar.
Also visit "What's Happenin': Thursday, September 1, through Wednesday, September 14."
