02 May 2006

Absolutely Fabulist: "Aesop's Dynamic Duo" at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse

By Mike Schulz
Aesop's Dynamic Duo - the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's new family musical - focuses on several of the renowned storyteller's famous characters, and one of its first songs is entitled "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Bret Churchill plays The Boy, and the actor, with his usual exuberance and vigor, begins the number with: "I'm the Boy Who Cried Wolf / I'm the one who frightened the town / I told them the story / And, boy, it was gory / I told them the wolf ate / the Smith's Bassett hound."
02 May 2006

A Double-Play ... and a Hit: "The Real Inspector Hound" and "Black Comedy" at Augustana College

By Mike Schulz
Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound concerns theatre critics who wind up personally involved in the thriller they're reviewing, which puts me in the position of being a theatre critic critiquing a play about theatre critics critiquing a play. Stoppard must love this.
11 Apr 2006

Litter Kitties: "Cats" at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse

By Mike Schulz

The Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's latest production is, nearly element for element, an awesome technical achievement. The set, conceived by Dawn Robyn Petrlik, is a glorious mess of artful decay, Ron Breedlove's lighting effects are mostly extraordinary, and the sound quality is superb. (Dave Vanderkamp's continually outstanding sound design is overdue for mention.)

04 Apr 2006

Comedies Tonight: The Prenzie Players' "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's "Cliffhanger"

By Mike Schulz

A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Rock Island Masonic Temple

Theatre audiences are often witness to romance and, with the right director and performers, occasionally even to true love on stage. Yet it's rare to find passion and even rarer to witness carnality, two qualities that the Prenzie Players present in abundance in their juicy new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Rock Island Masonic Temple.

29 Mar 2006

After the Rehearsal: Notes on "Charlie Brown"'s First Dress: "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" at Quad City Music Guild

By Mike Schulz

J. Adam Lounsberry and Nathan Bates in You're a Good Man, Charlie BrownAnyone who has spent a significant amount of time in theatre knows that if your first dress rehearsal goes even the least bit well, there's cause for celebration. Having seen the first dress of the Quad City Music Guild's You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown this past Sunday, I can assure the production's participants: There's cause for celebration, because things appeared to go considerably better than "the least bit well."

14 Mar 2006

Playcrafters Knocks "Rounding Third" Out of the Park

By Mike Schulz

At roughly the halfway point of Richard Dresser's two-man comedy Rounding Third - currently playing at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre - Michael (Jim Driscoll), a sweet-tempered assistant Little League coach, asks the team's boisterous head coach, Don (Fred Harris Jr.), if they might enjoy a moment of silence; Michael and Don have shared a continual, often exasperated dialogue over several weeks of team play, and Michael wonders if perhaps quiet would be preferable to jabber. "Oh no," says Don. "We don't know each other well enough to not talk."

28 Feb 2006

Stalking Points: New Ground Theatre's "Boy Gets Girl"

By Mike Schulz
New Ground Theatre's presentation of Rebecca Gilman's stalker drama Boy Gets Girl is sensationally entertaining stuff - the most consistently smartly acted and directed work I've yet seen from this organization - and the production becomes all the more impressive when you realize just how easily it could have proven unbearable.
21 Feb 2006

Gag Reflex: "The Sunshine Boys" at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre

By Mike Schulz
Let me preface my review of the Richmond Hill Players' The Sunshine Boys by saying that if the material itself makes you laugh, you may well be a fan of this production, and at Thursday's opening-night performance, there were quite a few laughers among us.
07 Feb 2006

Iowa City's Riverside Theatre Delivers a Strong "Salesman"

By Audra Beals
Chances are you've at least heard of Death of a Salesman; Arthur Miller's play, it seems, is always around. So when Iowa City's Riverside Theatre stages a production of this classic script, they're facing some high expectations. After all, this isn't just any play.
07 Feb 2006

Funny Makes the World Go Around: "The Miser" at Augustana College

By Mike Schulz
If you're a Simpsons fan and have always wondered what the hateful C. Montgomery Burns would look like in the flesh, you are advised to immediately secure tickets to Augustana College's production of The Miser, in which Brian Bengtson is giving a flawless approximation of Homer's hysterically hateful nemesis.

Pages

Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts

On Stands Now

 

Tagged Content

    

Two Ways to Subscribe

1. Subscribe to free weekly e-mail content updates.

You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?) 

Subscribe!

* indicates required

2. Get 12 monthly issues mailed first class for $48

Get 12 issues mailed monthly for $48 per year.

Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!

Click this link to Subscribe now.

 
 

Theatre Calendars

Submit your event listings to calendar@rcreader.com