School of Rock: The Musical was directed by the theatre's co-owner (and set, lighting, and sound designer) Brent Tubbs, aided here by musical director Laura Hammes and choreographer Becca Johnson. Onstage, we have 30 actor/singer/musicians, plus seven musicians in the pit, and they and the crew have staged an ambitious, complex production that runs smoothly, sounds great, and will leave you grinning.

A 2022 Tony Award winner that Variety magazine praised as "filled with depth and relatable characters," author Dominique Morisseau's drama Skeleton Crew enjoys its Quad Cities premiere at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre from October 6 through 15, the lauded work also praised by the New Yor Times as "a swift, well-crafted look at factory workers trapped in an economic 'dumpster fire," and by the New Yorker as a work "bristling and jumping and speeding forward with skillful talk."

Lauded by DC Theater Arts as "a thrilling experience in theatergoing" and by the Wall Street Journal as a "fresh, theatrically potent spin on the novel," playwright Kate Hamill's witty, creepy, and macabre Dracula, a feminist revenge fantasy opens Augustana College's 2023-24 season in Rock Island, the production certain to demonstrate why New York Theatre Guide proclaimed the genre-bending stage work "biting in every sense of the word."

A Tony and Olivier Award-winning drama lauded by The Guardian as "sparkling and suspenseful," acclaimed author Conor McPherson's The Seafarer makes its area debut at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre during the play's October 5 through 15 run, this genre-melding 2006 work inspiring the New York Times to rave that "as unlikely as it sounds, The Seafarer may just be the pick-me-up play of the season."

It’s always interesting when a season is rounded out with a previously unfamiliar title, and in the case of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's season-ender, it’s Paul Slade Smith’s politically themed The Outsider.

Delivering what The Hollywood Reporter described as “a joyous blast of defiant analog vitality in a manufactured digital world,” Moline's Spotlight Theatre and the QC Rock Academy team up from September 29 through October 8 for the area premiere of School of Rock: The Musical, the Tony-nominated stage sensation based on the beloved film comedy starring Jack Black, and a work lauded by Broadway World as “a big, beautiful blast of musical comedy from start to finish.”

One of the most beloved stage musicals in American history, as well as a Tony Award nominee whose iconic show tune "Day by Day" reached number 13 on the Billboard pop singles chart, composer Stephen Schwartz's timeless Godspell serves as this year's fundraising performance by Muscatine's New Era Dinner Theatre, its September 29 through October 1 run finding its proceeds benefiting Lutheran World Relief, the Muscatine Chapter of the Salvation Army, and New Era Lutheran Church.

Reviews by Rochelle Arnold, Jeff Ashcraft, Patricia Baugh-Riechers, Audra Beals, Pamela Briggs, Dee Canfield, Madeline Dudziak, Kim Eastland, Emily Heninger, Heather Herkelman, Paula Jolly, Victoria Navarro, Roger Pavey Jr., Alexander Richardson, Mark Ruebling, Mike Schulz, Joy Thompson, Oz Torres, Brent Tubbs, Jill Pearson Walsh, and Thom White.

Local Theatre Auditions/Calls for Entry

Updated: Thursday, September 14

After an annually busy summer, September is a traditionally light month for area theatre. But Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre will be making up for the paucity of new titles by debuting no fewer than 10 plays – if 10 very short plays – in the venue's inaugural Write All Night 24-Hour Play Festival, a September 16 fundraising event that will find audiences treated to works by local authors, directors, and actors written, directed, rehearsed, and performed over the course of a single day.

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